Like Father, Like Daughter – Fiat Abarth
We had a rare treat at the last SPOKES autocross of 10/5/2008. There was a vintage 1967 Fiat Abarth Spider, on display (like a museum quality piece) and ready to compete.
This little car was petit, to say the least. The other cool thing about this car is that this has been a father/daughter project. Both of them were there to autocross that little car’s heart out. David (the SPOKES club has nicknamed him “Gramps”) is the owner of this little beast, and Marian is his daughter.
The original engine for the basic Fiat model had an 850cc capacity. David said it was optimistically rated at 42HP, but said it was more like 35HP. This upgraded Abarth model has the “bigger motor” the capacity of which is 980cc. He says on a good day he thinks it will put out about 75HP.
Looking in the engine bay, there actually is an engine in there – David said he recently rebuilt it. It’s so small you have to actually look for it! This whole car seems like it’s at 7/8’s scale.
David and Marian have been working on this Abarth Project for about 2 years. He was able to put it together from a combination of 5 of these cars he has for parts. One of them was found in a field with a tree growing through it! David had to cut it down before being able to take the car home.
David has done the mechanical work, and Marian has done a quite a bit of the metal, fiberglass & painting work. He says that it wouldn’t look this good if it hadn’t been for her sanding and hammering a lot! Nice job Marian – it looks really sharp!
You wouldn’t know it to look at it, but David says the car hardly has any original Fiat body panels and parts. So much of it has been replaced by aluminum & fiberglass.
Both David and Marian consistently improved their times with each run throughout the day. You could see that they both had fun, helping each other to get a better understanding where to improve in different sections of the course layout. I really like the spirit and enthusiasm expressed in this candid shot!
You can see they’re serious about this. So serious, in fact, here’s the window stickers that show this car’s participation in the 2008 SCCA Solo Nationals, the annual national SCCA autocross competition.
It was good to see the two generations of this family get enjoyment of a vehicle they had both seriously invested true sweat equity…
Even in their preparations for traveling with their rolling vintage pleasure, David is seriously prepared with a truck, enclosed trailer & all the trimmings!
Racing Ready is looking forward to be able to offer you, the reader, full equipment availability for purchase – note some of the new advertiser links to the right, just below the website list!
Dan
