Just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should. But if you do, you could create something truly incredible, if not exactly functional.
This is the world's lowest car, a Fiat Panda that's more like a rolling optical illusion but that still remains driveable and, depending on your personal definition of the term, functional. It's far from the 5-person plus luggage vehicle that became Italy's best-selling car, but it can still drive around. And it's bound to break your brain just a little bit.
Created by Italian car collective Carmagheddon, this Panda claims to be street legal and officially a record breaker, neither of which is fully verifiable. Not that it matters all that much unless you're stuck on such titles. Carmagheddon has a soft spot for both Pandas and new world records, but they also have a soft spot for strange fabrications that test the limit of what's possible. This one fits that latter category, if not the former.
Unveiled officially earlier this week at a Fiat Panda event, the world's lowest car is actually half a Panda strapped onto a new steel frame that holds a golf kart-like chassis. From the outside, the illusion is that the roof of the car and the hood float over the cement, much like a glitch in a video game or, say, as if the rest of the car were traveling under the ground, with just the top visible. In reality, the entire structure rolls on the cement, with exactly 3 cm (1.2 inches) of ground clearance, as neatly calculated by the guys behind the creation.
Photo: Carmagheddon
If your Italian is up to speed, Carmagheddon detail the build process in the video below. They chose the Fiat Panda for several reasons, including its light weight and the height of the roof. The goal was, from the start, to create the lowest car that you could still drive around.
The donor vehicle was more of a shell, which they picked up from the junkyard with no engine, no lights, and no wheels. As it turns out, they didn't need any of those: they cut the car in half horizontally and then proceeded to build the chassis that would put the whole thing in motion.
First, they built the tubular steel frame offering structural rigidity to the structure. The resulting lowered Panda would not be able to go very fast, but the build still had to withstand the wear and tear of demonstration drives. In the process, the hood was turned into a fixed part of the "vehicle," sitting on a pair of supermarket pushcart wheels. This helps with the impression that the car is floating off the ground and keeps the whole structure level.
Photo: Carmagheddon
The lowered Panda actually rides on three larger wheels, two in the back and one in the front, which turns by means of a handlebar setup. Power comes from a two-stroke lawnmower engine, and the driver sits on a narrow wooden plank, either on their back or on their side, depending on their height. The only way inside is through the rear hatch, by crawling.
The driver has no visibility through the original windshield, whose sole function is now to maintain the illusion that this is still a car. Instead, the driver sees through the GoPro camera on the roof, which sends the feed directly into his phone, so he knows which way to turn.
This part could have been eliminated altogether: the Panda moves very slowly and can only operate on even ground, preferably on the street. At this speed, the driver can just as easily take direction from the team outside, but that would probably ruin the illusion.
Photo: Carmagheddon
The team at Carmagheddon, comprised of Cocchi Rudi, Matteo Marzetti, and Nicola Guadagnin, worked on the lowered Panda for days, calling it the kind of project made mostly of daily challenges due to the size of the vehicle they wanted to build. Without a doubt, the biggest was coming up with a way to have a driver inside it since the interior space is comparable to a coffin, with barely enough headroom to lift the head in a crunch-like position. That became a running joke with the team, and in the end, they decided to have the shortest and most slender guy drive it at the public unveiling.
The lowest Fiat Panda in the world is not practical or some kind of engineering wonder. If we're being honest, it's not even a car anymore: it's junk turned into a little vanity project for clicks and cash. But that's not to say that it's not a standout or that it's not awesome. In motion, this Panda is a real-life glitch in the Matrix, an optical illusion that tries to break your brain before giving away its little secret. It's awesome because of that and because it's fun.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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