Pour les besoins d'une publicité à paraître début 2013, la nouvelle Fiat Panda 4x4 a subi de légers développements pour se transformer en un Monster Truck aussi impressionnant qu'inattendu...
Réalisé par l'agence Leo Burnett, ce spot commercial met en scène un groupe d'amis en week-end à la montagne qui voit arriver à l'hôtel un véhicule surprenant. Avec une agilité qui stupéfie tous les témoins, une Fiat Panda grimpe en effet en toute tranquillité jusque sur les hauteurs où trône la résidence. La chute sera à découvrir sur vos écrans en janvier prochain.
Techniquement, ce Big Foot serait un mix entre une Panda 4x4 et une Jeep CJ7 4200, sur lequel seraient montées des roues de tracteur équipées de pneus « Highspeed » de 150 cm de diamètre, faisant ainsi culminer le toit de cette Panda à 3,9 m du sol.
L'histoire ne dit pas si cet engin est motorisé par les blocs habituels de la Panda 4x4, mais on peut en douter...
We were recently given the opportunity to drive the Panamera Sport Turismo concept car, but the marque was a lot more secretive 25 years ago. This four-door 928 was created in 1987, but has only just been revealed to the public – and shows how long Porsche has been considering a sports car in the ‘shooting brake’ mould.
By 1987, Porsche loyalists had begrudgingly accepted the 928's egg-shaped styling and blasphemic front-engined layout; but Porsche had grasped that it would never gain the cult following of the 911 it was intended to replace. Rather than forging ahead along an ever-narrowing path, the Zuffenhausen marque instead decided to build upon the 928’s GT credentials by experimenting with a four-door version in the style of a shooting brake.
A new-at-the-time Series 4 model served as a basis, with its enlarged, now 5.0-litre V8 (tweaked to 330bhp) remaining front-mounted. The existing chassis was lengthened to give rear passengers more legroom and they were now also aided by the addition of half-sized coach doors. However, after 5,000 miles of developmental testing, the engineers decided that the chassis didn’t meet the required rigidity benchmarks in elongated form, and it was swiftly consigned to storage.
The development mule (which explains the ill-fitting rear screen and poorly finished bodywork) didn’t see the light of day for another 25 years, when it was finally revealed at Pebble Beach 2012. Its flaws might have extinguished any hopes for production, but the H50 928 certainly passed wisdom down to its spiritual successors – Porsche crafted a completely new (and adequately rigid) platform when cultivating the Panamera. So with the latter flying the nest and starting its own family, it seems only fair that the forgotten father gets a moment in the spotlight.
Text: Joe Breeze (Classicdriver)
Photos: Porsche
