here is my donation to this thread.
I'm building a 1000TC with PBS head. Heres a few pic's of the car so far. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
One more! We're building a bespoke 5 speed dogbox to fit inside the original 600 gearcase. Also manufactured pistons,conrods,& crank to get the weight to a minimum. Lots of other parts maufactured from scratch too many to list, should be completed in about 6 weeks. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
WOW, that is hot. I am very jealous. I have a few questions. The rest of you can skip this part, it is only for us sick puppies who are into these cars. what are you using for the front suspension? I see the coilover, did you build a solid lower member like that Abarth piece. Instruments, what are you using, Abarth pieces, replica's? Please tell me more about the 5 speed box. I do the close ratio 4th conversion on the stock box, have not heard of the 5 speed though. Would love to see some under car pics. You have done a fabulous job. It will inspire me to do the same. Check out my profile for pics of the red/gray car after it's first race this past fall. I had bought the car in Oct., went thru it and checked everything. Went to the last race of the year in Nov. , my first with this car, had some teething problems, solved those, to be in the last race on Sun, last lap, rolled it 3 times! All safety equip. worked great, I walked away, but now have a very bruised car that needs to go on a frame machine to hopefully be straightened out. Love your car, stay in touch. Good Luck. David
Thanks for the comments! Front suspension is double wishbone as per original Abarth. Its identical to original, drawings & dimensions taken from an original TCR. Shocks are my own manufacture. There are single adjustable (bump/rebound adjusted in a fixed ratio) with adjustable spring platforms for preload. Rear suspension uses the original large dia' coil, but I've also got a small dia' coil on the shock. The idea is to get some corner weight adjustment while keeping the original look. Instruments are original chrono' tacho' with replica triple gauge & speedo. First attempt was to use 2 Smiths gauges with modified faces, but this was not quite right so now using replica instruments from Italy. Gearbox is designed in a similar fashion to the Colotti converstion that was first made available in the 60's & is still available today. Got a quote from Colotti when I started the project but they wanted almost £10,000 sterling for internals & a diff'. I looked at the box and with the help of a gear company in the UK, we have manufactured a 5 speed conversion that fits into the original gear case. Withs face dog's (no syncro its a racing box) the throw is reduced and 3rd, 4th & 5th are slide on for easy ratio changes. The gears I have produced are for hill climbing (quite short) but we can either change the final drive or produce alternative ratios for circuit use. I'll take some more photo's of the underside & post. Thanks again. Bernard
Bernard, I looked at your profile and by seeing what your occupation is, now I understand why this car is the way it is! Bravo. Any chance of you selling or sharing the secrets of the gear box solution. I would love to get the parts for one. I have not heard good things about the Colloti box, so you made the right decision. Are the gauges, front emblems, etc readily available in Italy? I am going there in October, but would love to be able to get some of those things before then. Any contact information you could pass along would be greatly appreciated. I would prefer being able to email you directly instead of thru the list if that is possible. Don't want to give any Abarth secrets away! Thanks again David
Started out my sports car buying with a 71 850 and then drove an 81 200 Spider for many years until the Pope called it home. They incredibly fun cars to drive. In case anyone is a true fan there is a 72 850 for sale in my neighborhood. I have not given it a thourough inspection but if anyone is interested send me a PM and I will give you the name and telephone number of the owner.
After 283.000km in 5 years without a big problem, my Fiat broke down today... I was happily driving around and enjoying the nice weather here, when the engine just stopped... I guess something was wrong with the fuel-injection? Now my lovely Bravo GT isn't in my garage but at the local Fiat-dealer. Luckily it didn't seem to be a major problem. So I hope to have my car back soon. Untill then I'm driving a brand new... Punto. Greets, Alexander
My first car purchase was a 1981 Fiat Spyder 2000 that I bought my senior year of high school. I paid $2450, spent about $1000 in maintenance, and sold it when I went off to college for $3700. Very fond memories of this car. HS chicks dig Italian convertibles of any kind.
Hi, I know this if the ferrari chat board....BUT, I'm trying to find a fiat spider chat board (there used to be fiatspider.com, but it doesn't seem to be working any more....) Anyways..I've got a 1980 spider that I'm trying to sell and I'm looking for the right venue. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
fiatspider.com may yet come back...but for now almost everyone from fiatspider moved on to http://www.fiatcenter.com/bbv2/ if you were on fiatspider a lot you will recognize most of the regulars on fiatcenter.
well there's turbo 124, it's primarily aussie/kiwi's, but some yanks and brits are about. of course there's Mirafiori, that is the biggest crowd of Fiat nutters around. there's also Fiat Forum, but that seems more full of boi-racers with modern FWD cars with poofy names who like to talk about how shiny their rims are.
I'm partial to Mirafiori.com since I've met probably 200 of the users in person at various events, but another one that seems to carrying on where fiatspider.com left off is fiatcenter.com. I noticed earlier in this thread I posted I was on my 6th Fiat. Well, I'm on number 8 now. Got a 238 campervan I'm about to change the clutch in and put up for sale (would make a great track day paddock vehicle, hint, hint...), and a '69 124 spider that seems to have decided to blow the headgasket yesterday. Looks like I'll have a few fun evenings in the garage this week...
yeah that's a bit of an issue at the moment as the owner apparently took a bunch of donations to keep the site going, then put that up and looks like he's selling the (old) servers and using the forums and people's posts as leverage.
Hmmm, I must be doing something wrong at mirafiori.com because every time I post my for sale ad, it disappears???? Thanks for the web addresses! I'm on my way to check them out as well...gotta get this car SOLD! We're moving!
The default mode at mirafiori.com forum is that you only see threads which have posts that are "unread" by you when you enter a forum topic. That means you won't see your own previous new thread post because they get marked "read" for you as soon as you submit them. Everyone else will see them however since they haven't read them yet. If someone posts a reply to your ad, you will see their post appear below yours in highlighted print (i.e. the purple color of an unvisited link and you'll see yours just above it in the pinkish color of a link you've already visited since you've already seen your own post before). However, if you want to see your past "read" posts, you just have to click "show all" instead of "show unread" in the options on the left side of the screen. Then you'll see all recent posts. Hope that helps.
Until I got my 308 I'd never owned anything apart from FIAT! Still have the Bambino that was my first car but over the years it's morphed into a 695 Abarth (barrels, pistons, head, carby, Alquati sump, exhaust, Cromodora wheels etc). Waiting to go in for a back-to-metal respray and new colour will be identical to the 308 and the cars have consecutive number plates! I may have to part with the 308 when I'm too old to be able to get in and out, but I'll NEVER part with my Bambino... Also had 128, 131, X1-9 (which is great practice for the 308). BTW, I'm editor for the local FIAT club mag so if you've got some great pics you'd like to share, please email me.
I expect to see the Texas Ferrari owners at CarFest again this year. It is a favorite show of mine. I will again drive down from Oklahoma and see you there. My 79 Fiat Spider has been my daily driver for the past 6 years and has been a reliable car for 30,000 miles but it gets good regular maintenance. It does get banged around a bit in parking lots but that is because it is used a lot. I am always pleased that such a fine looking classic roadster can still be purchased and driven on a limited budget. This makes me smile. Cheers Ron
