The friendly Panda gets the powertrain from the Fiesta R5
What an old Fiat Panda 4×4 and a Ford Fiesta R5 rally car have in common? Not very much. That’s why it took a lot of work by M-Sport to transplant the Panda’s body onto the chassis of an R5. They call the creation the Pandamonium, which is again a play on words for Pandemonium – meaning again a fuss or clamor. Appropriate, so. The project was the request of an anonymous customer.
“In order not to stretch the original shape too much, we sculpted and fitted aggressively styled wheel arches. An additional effect is that the car has a subtle [haha, red.] Group B appearance,” they say at M-Sport. In total, the Panda grew 360 millimeters in width. In addition, the Panda received the necessary safety equipment, such as a roll cage, bucket seats and good seat belts. The price of the Fiat Panda 4×4 ‘Pandamonium’ is not publicly known.
The Fiat Panda 4×4 gets 295 hp
The Fiesta R5 is M-Sports most successful rally car ever. The 1.6-liter four-cylinder produces 295 hp and 475 Nm. Power goes to all wheels via a sequential five-speed gearbox. ‘I was blown away by what we achieved,’ says the director of M-Sport, ‘I was lucky to have the shakedown of the car and put it to work. Not only is it fantastic to look at, it also drives very well.” The 0-100 time or the top speed is not known, but the description is bloody fast.
