fiat spider

Well now. Many good things have happened lately. I finally ordered a bunch of parts ($250 worth) and they arrived this Thursday. Yay. More on those later.

But the big thing is, Friday, my Ebay e-mail auction alerts paid off big time. I saw this auction for a nearly brand new set of 15" Panasports AND tires that fit the Fiat bolt pattern (4x98mm). And the price was right. And the seller was local. And they looked HOT. I got in touch with the seller immediately and closed the deal over the phone. His name is Mark, and he's another Fiat freak like myself. He has a early 70's OTAS Grand Prix, a car that was designed by Francis Lombardi and has the Fiat 850 chassis, Abarth Grand Prix body and an Abarth 1000cc motor. He also has a cherry, early 80's Fiat 124 Spider and a super cherry (although I didn't get to see it) 70's Fiat 850 Spider. I got to take a ride in the OTAS and the 124 Spider. I was *super* suprized at how much power that OTAS had for such a small engine. I'd surmize a guess that it could rival Arne's 2L 69 Porsche in speed, and that thing's fast. 1700 lb, race motor, you can kind of see why.

Taking a ride in the 124 Spider was very nice. It was definatly well sorted and ran VERY smooth. It had a set of hot cams, EFI and a 2L motor (stock for the year). It handled very well, had good power and was fun, a preview of what's to come for me. I can't wait to get my Spider on the road.

So, we chatted for a few hours about Fiats and I loaded the wheels and headed home. He also donated a *brand new* clock to my project (after reading how I screwed mine up and spent all that time on it) and a shift boot for a 124, something I need anyhow. How rad is that. It's nice to have finally met someone that shares my interest. And I can trade parts with.

The wheels look amazing. I did a quick test fit to make sure they work and everything. Initally, I thought I had problems because the things didn't seem to have enough clearance...then I lowered the car back to the ground and they fit fine. Plenty of room. And they're not any bigger around than the stock, just a lot wider. More traction. Yay.

So, this week I bust ass to get the parts on my car. We'll see if I can make it before the 24th. At this point, I'm not hopeful, seeing that I still haven't worked out the custom throttle linkage.

I haven't heard from Geoff Hill yet, but I'm sure we'll be getting together for the first meeting of the SD Fiat/Lancia/Small Italian Car/Whatever Club.

One last interesting thing...apparently IAP shipped me two different bolts when they shipped me the 40mm bolts last year. Hrmm. They fit fine, but they're two different head sizes. Would be a PITA to remember that or figure it out every time I need to remove the wheels. I'm sure they'll rectify.