Fiat's Bigfoot Panda - it's for real!

Published Dec 10, 2012

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Fiat's innovative TV ad campaign for the new Panda, using the slogan “New Panda, extremely Panda” includes ads where a Panda transforms into a scooter for round-towning and a light cargo aircraft for delivering the goods - but the latest 'transformation' is the most impressive - and the most challenging - because it's for real.

There's nothing digital about the Panda 4x4 Monster Truck you see here; it's for real, a one-off, fully functional bigfoot-type 4x4 built for the ad by Fiat, in collaboration with set designer Andrea Faini and the Fabio Gementi Workshop.

It's actually based on Jeep CJ7 platform, running on road tractor wheels with “High Speed” tyres, each 1.50 metres in diameter and half a metre wide, on specially turned solid steel hubs.

WATCH THE BIGFOOT PANDA IN TESTING

Gementi built the Bigfoot Panda - which stands almost four metres tall, 3.8 metres long and 2.5 metres wide - in just two weeks, complete with adapted steering, clutch, accelerator and brake controls, so everything works.

The Fiat Panda Monster Truck will star in a TV commercial created by the Leo Burnett agency, in which four friends set off for a weekend in the mountains in a standard Panda 4x4.

When they hit the snow the Panda transforms into a Monster Truck and climbs easily up to the hostel - but when the driver gets out he ends up falling two metres into a snowbank, to the amusement of his friends.

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