WORLD’S LOWEST CAR IS FIAT PANDA SLICED IN HALF
(designboom.com) – Car modifier collective Carmagheddon cuts Fiat Panda in half and turns it into the world’s lowest car that still functions, steers, rides, and drifts like an ordinary, street-legal vehicle. What might have been an ambitious car design project became a reality for Cocchi Rudi, Matteo Marzetti, Nicola Guadagnin – the masterminds behind the renovation and modification work – in a series of videos to show how they tweaked the car into a seemingly robot vacuum slash toy car with the person controlling the vehicle crammed inside the cramped Fiat Panda.
At first glance, the dubbed world’s lowest car appears floating on cemented roads. In reality, someone is driving it from the inside, their body bent and laying sideways – depending on their height and size – and as they control what seems to be a steering wheel straight from arcade machines. The Fiat Panda, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, holds over-four decades of history, part of a testament to its durability and robustness, and Carmagheddon’s modification pays tribute to its glorious days by offering their reinterpretation of the vehicle in a bizarre yet fun flair.
HOW CAN SOMEONE DRIVE THE MODIFIED FIAT PANDA?
Inside the world’s lowest car, the Carmagheddon team planted a go-kart-sized vehicle frame with wheels that aligned the height of the Fiat Panda to elevate it, enough so it does not graze and drag the car’s frame when it is being driven. For the bonnet of the car, they installed wheels like the ones on supermarket pushcarts to lift it off the ground a bit. As they welded the mini-car frame with wheels to the modified Fiat Panda and added more wheels inside the car, the end result enables them to have a functional low-leveled car that still drives.
In the video below, the team tests out the world’s lowest car on gravelly roads and cemented streets. The modified Fiat Panda runs slow – perhaps an expected result given its style, concept, and mechanism – but it still steers and propels forward. If someone wants to drive the modified Fiat Panda that looks like a hooded bump car, they need to crawl inside the modified vehicle and be ready to be locked inside (the windows do not seem to open). It looks imperative that they feel comfortable enough to drive the world’s lowest car in a position similar to them watching movies on their laptop while in bed on their stomachs.
