Good news!
We installed a new condenser, new HT leads and new contact points into Geoff’s Fiat X1/9 and then this happened…….
(apologies for holding my iPhone the wrong way)
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Now we just have to do the brake master and clutch master and we should finally be somewhat mobile!
Good times!
I’ll get to the Fiat in a moment…..
I drove a few interesting cars on the weekend. Both experiences were unplanned. One car I drove with a view to buy and the other was purely for fun.
The first car was a Peugeot 205GTI. I stumbled across this one when I ran into a co-worker at Salamanca Market on Saturday morning. The Pug belongs to his son and Mal let me know that it was now up for sale.
Mal’s son is a young fella and being a young fella, he’d made a few young fella modifications. There’s a Whiteline strut brace across the top of the engine bay and a big fart-can exhaust. The strut brace made the top edge of the hood sit up a few centimetres. The fart-can was just way too loud.
The 205’s party piece is its handling and yes, this car shone in that department. I only took it for a short drive but it was plenty enough to see why the little Pug hot hatch is so loved.
I’ve got my eye out all the time for an inexpensive fun car and this one definitely fit the bill. I didn’t buy it, though, as there is just a little too much still to be done. I’ve got enough work to do with the Lancia and the X1/9 right now. I don’t need another fixer-upper, even if it’s already running and registered.
If you’re interested, the car is on Gumtree and Hew’s a wonderful young bloke. The interior’s a bit tatty but the mechanicals are all sorted after an engine rebuild done around 4 years ago. The clutch might need a pedal adjustment (at least) but the car goes like a cut cat and feels like it would be big bags of fun.
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My second drive for the weekend was an Alfa Romeo 145.
Of course, as soon as I saw he’d parked the Alfa out front I suggested he might like to take me for a ride 🙂 . He went a step further and handed me the key! Woohaa!
The 145 was never officially sold in Australia so Sunday was a very rare opportunity. The 145 came with a variety of petrol engines over its lifetime and interestingly, they were in two very different configurations. The early cars had Alfa’s wonderful boxer engine, the one I’m quite familiar with from my Alfa 33’s. Later cars had Alfa’s Twin Spark inline 4 cylinder engine.
Norman’s 145 has the 1.6 litre 8-valve boxer. It’s got a little less grunt than my old 16V Alfas but the Fiat chassis that underpins the 145 is a lot more solid than the 33. The end result is the most refined Alfa Boxer experience you’ll ever feel.
When you say “refined”, people often think you mean boring. Far from it. The sound is still fantastic and the little 145 loves a good corner. There’s nothing quite like a small car revving to 6,000 and sticking like a limpet.
Outstanding!
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I’d normally be doing a Lancia Fulvia update around now but I spent the last two weekends gardening! Regardless, there isn’t a whole lot left for me to do with it parked out in the front yard. I’m at the stage where I really need to get the Lancia into the garage so I can clean it up and start stripping the paint. I can’t get the Lancia into garage, though, until we get Geoff’s Fiat X1/9 out of the garage.
Our young bloke, Geoff, bought the little Fiat from the same deceased estate that I bought the Fulvia from. It’s got 45,000 genuine kilometres on it and is in great cosmetic condition.
Sadly, it’s not running yet.
The first job we did on it was to change the timing belt. I say “we”, by which I mean Geoff did it and I handed him the occasional tool. It was actually an easier job than I thought it might be. The hardest part was getting the yellow cover back on.
Then the fuel was freshened, the oil, filters and plugs were changed and a new battery was connected. After that, it was time to try and start the car. Thankfully, the engine isn’t seized like the engine in my Fulvia. Sadly, though, it wouldn’t start.
Fuel, Air, Spark.
We have air, of course. And we have fuel. Spark is the problem.
We did a few tests and found there was no spark making its way to the plugs at all. A call to our local generic parts store got us a new coil, but it still wouldn’t start.
A local mate with considerable Fiat experience (G’day Ant!) came over to lend a hand. On closer examination, it seems we installed the new coil incorrectly (there were some extra, confusing wires in place). We corrected, but it still wouldn’t start.
Ant re-gapped the points. Geoff cleaned out the distributor cap. Still, it wouldn’t start.
I made some enquiries about getting a new distributor cap and was surprised to find that you can’t get one for a 1.3 Fiat X1/9 anymore. They were particular to that car and they fail so infrequently that the manufacturer hasn’t made them in a long, long time.
The guy I spoke to did give me some recommendations, however, so we have some new HT leads and a new condenser on the way. We’ll try it again when the new bits arrive.
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The big jobs that remain on the little Fiat are the clutch and brake master cylinders, which are going to be a complete pain in the posterior (for Geoff) to replace.
While the engine’s in the mid position, the master cylinders are located at the front but you have to go under the dashboard to get to them. That means removing the seat and quite likely the steering column as well (we’re still researching that one).
You’d think removing a seat would be a pretty simple affair but not this one. Normally you just undo the bolts at the front and rear of the seat rails. With the earlier Fiat X1/9’s, though, there aren’t any bolts. You have to undo a spring underneath the seat, then you hold the seat adjustment lever and slide it forward until it slides right off the rail. It would’ve been nice and easy but the seat was stuck fast on the rail until a liberal dose of WD-40 finally got it moving.
So that’s where we’re at right now. We’re waiting on parts to try and get the engine started and the cabin is now ready for Geoff to hang upside down and get under the dash to replace the master cylinders.
Hopefully that’s all the little Fiat needs before we clean it up and get it registered. I can’t wait to see Geoff’s face the first time he takes a bend in this little mid-engined Italian.
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Final note……
If Bertone can design the tiny Fiat X1/9 to have a full-size spare – it goes in this hidey-hole behind the front seat – how come modern cars can’t get one so easily?
A few weeks ago, I asked Saab owners what they were driving now. Bernard, a long-term Saab fan and reader/commenter on SU and here at Swadeology, recently bought a Fiat 500 Abarth. I drove a Fiat 500 in non-Abarth form around Mallorca back in 2011. That car was short on power but high on fun. I could definitely see the potential for extreme fun with a more potent engine, which is exactly what’s in the Abarth’s (along with a few other things).
Bernard’s kindly provided a few pictures and thoughts about his new car (thanks!). Maybe it’ll inspire a few Saab owners who might be looking to kick off the next chapter of their automotive adventure.
If you’ve got any questions for Bernard, leave them in comments. If you’ve bought something to replace your Saab and you love it, then let me know. I’d love to share it around.
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Let’s get this out of the way: the Fiat 500 Abarth is a small car. It’s amazing how many people kindly point this out to you. What can I say, that it looks bigger in the brochure? I’m over six feet tall, so the Abarth is effectively a three seater. That’s not a problem for me, but I thought I would mention it.
Also, on the way home from the dealership, my girlfriend asked me “why am I sitting in the middle of the lane?” I had to make a mental adjustment, but it’s all good now.
You also get all the modern conveniences: bluetooth, air con, power windows and doors, USB/aux-in.
What you don’t get is a silencer in the exhaust. It’s a straight pipe front to back, with a flex in the middle, and a Y behind the rear axle.
Which brings us to the sound. The first time we started the car, we both giggled like little kids. It’s loud, it bubbles like a muscle car, it pops on the over-run, it growls when you put the power down, and somehow it’s not obnoxious. It’s uncanny; not only because it’s incongruous to have such 
I haven’t had the car long, so all of my driving has been in winter. We’ve had quite a lot of snow this year. Under dry conditions, the car is much as one would expect. It has a substantial kick on acceleration (100 to 150 km/h is near-instantaneous), great grip, and a firm but not too harsh ride. The Abarth comes with FSD shocks (that’s frequency-selective damping, folks) and they work just as advertised: they are softer over bumps (high frequency), and firm when the car changes direction (low frequency). The steering is tight when the car is in “sport” mode, the clutch is light, and the gearshift is precise.
The first thing you should know about driving an Abarth in fresh snow is that you absolutely must cancel the stability control (ESC). It fights you tooth and nail, tries to spin you if you steer with the throttle, kills the power when you need thrust, and generally makes life miserable. Turn ESC off and the car is transformed. There’s tons of traction (probably because there’s nothing of substance behind the firewall), tilting the car on the throttle is ridiculously easy, the steering is perfect and there’s almost no inertia to dampen inputs. It really feels like you’re going through the Turini Pass on the last night of the Monte Carlo Rally. It’s very intense, in a good way.
I could make a list of pros and cons, but I won’t. The Abarth is an emotional purchase and, as such, there’s no point rationalizing it. It feels special when you sit in it, and it’s an absolute joy to drive.
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