turbo124.com

Okay, so it's not particularly modified, but here is the fruit of my labours over the last 14 months. This car was put together from two CCs; a rusty shell (which this car sports) and a rear-ended but previously fairly stock CC. It's running twin webers, extractors and slightly lowered suspension; otherwise it is fairly standard. the colour is not a Fiat original colour but I think it sets off the car well. After being stuffed around by numerous panelbeaters I did the spraypainting myself. The interior has been retrimmed in red vinyl (taken from the rear-ended car) and it looks good with the silver duco. Wheels in the photos are 15x7Performance TX1s.

The car will be concessionally registered (hopefully this weekend) and used for motorkhanas and the like.

More photos of the restoration are at http://gallery.italiancarclub.com/124og/album194

woah, you've been busy!

very nice

The project ebbed and flowed. It would have been ready in late January if the promised painting had eventuated. After trying to get some other reasonable quotes for painting I elected to try it myself - and I'm pretty happy with the results seeing it was my first attempt at spraypainting! I will be installing a new master cylinder and hoses, and reconditioned calipers next week so she will stop as well as she goes. Between Christmas and early March I hardly touched the car.

I'm jealous!!! I've spent well more than 4 times that amount for not a whole lot more car (see "This is Fiat CC" thread). Very nice work, and good colour choice!
Reuben

To let you in on a secret, the colour is just plain old 'Aluminium Hi-Sparkle' with no tint at all ( so I didn't have to worry about matching up the tint if I stuffed up and needed to get more paint than I bought initially). I think it looks pretty good too...

Very Nice! love the wheels too. Do you know if they still make that wheel style?

They sure do - I just got them a month or so back. I used Mr Mag in Morley but had to wait for a run of the rims to be made. They come in a range of diameters but the great thing about them is that they have a great offset which fills out the guards nicely without the need for spacers.

Hi Giles

have you got a name for those wheels please mate?
I am looking for an alternative for my Spiders' racing wheels as they go all peer-shaped from the potholes here in London.
I am looking for some nice abarth 131 ones or similar looking like yours.

Very nice car. Good luck with it

The wheels are made by Performance Wheels and are designated TX1 because they are actually marketed as a trailer wheel. They come in a range of widths and diameters. You can check out their range at http://www.performancewheels.com.au/trailer.htm .

Drove the 'bunky' in its first competitive outing last Sunday at the AHG Autotest (near perth Intl Airport for those who know where I'm talking about). 6 runs over two different courses - but no handicap so I was up against WRXs, Skylines, Chris Caruso's WYLDCAT Chev-powered Jag, etc etc. Had a small incident on my second last run when the engine died 3/4 of the way around. After coasting into the garage and being pushed off the track with all sorts of horrible thoughts going through my head, I opened the bonnet and found that the dizzy cap had vibrated loose and popped off. (Whew).

biggest problem was understter so I'm now looking for a front sway bar. Probably around 23mm or so. Also fitting improved springs and shocks and urethane bushes on the wishbones.

nice car mate, love the cc-s in silver

Giles, I think you'll find a front bar will worsen the understeer. If you want less understeer, you ought to see about increasing rear roll stiffness.

If you haven't got any bars on the car now, you can do this by adding a rear bar of the correct dia to match the front one you're thinking of fitting, or you stay without them and use stiffer rear springs. Just fitting a front one is a common way for manufacturers to dial in some understeer so their products aren't so twitchy in these days of product liability (ie take all the fun out of it . . .)

There's a strong argument for avoiding anti-roll bars completely and by tuning the suspension with correct spring rates (I think Carroll Smith talks about this in his books?). SteveC over there might be able to give you some pointers, I'm not sure whether his raceX has bars or not. You might also ramp up the -ve camber for a bit more responsiveness in corners.
Cheers.

the problem with a rear bar is it will stiffen up the whole rear, while the front will still want to kneel down. As I understand it, with a stiff rear and soft(ish) front the car will be more prone to lifting an inside rear wheel which, without a LSD, results in lost forward propulsion.

Sway bar is only part of the solution, stiffer springs will also be going in the front as I'm currently replacing the front wishbone bushes with urethane items.

Hi Giles,
It sounds like you might be more concerned with body roll than u'steer - they're two different things although they often happen together.

See how you go once you've stopped the thing trying to tip over, and then you might need to use a rear bar to get it to corner neutrally - along with the usual front camber tricks so that when cornering really hard the tyre contact patch stays maximised to aid turn-in.
Cheers

Photo of the car in action at AHG added to the photo gallery at http://gallery.italiancarclub.com/124og/album194 . After much discussion I won't upgrade the front bar just yet, but will see how the car performs with stiffer front springs only in the first instance. Then I will look at whether bars need to be added.

Proceeding slowly with the front end work. I have pulled off the RHS wishbones. Front springs were original springs cut down. They will be replaced with (I think) K-Macs out of another CC. Bottom ball joints are still original (still riveted) so I will replace the ball joints throughout as a matter of course (and safety). To add some negative camber I will be spacing the bottom wishbone mounting out a little further (although when I removed the wishbone I found it had already been spaced out around 6mm with some washers). It appears that the original sway bar was 19mm but I have a 20mm bar from another coupe (although the difference may just be in the original manufacturing tolerances). Once it's all back together I'll see how it goes.

Hope to have it running in the next AEM event (http://www.classicrally.com.au) in early September.

Well I haven't done many more events - I did a motorkhana at the AHG centre with stiffer springs and found that the front end was much better so I won't be playing with it much more until I try it out on some different surfaces. As it happens my priorities have been recalibrated somewhat with the arrival of my first child Jasmine Georgia on 30 April 07. The pic shows her about to depart the hospital in the very same Fiat 124CC in which I was brought home from the hospital some thirty years earlier. Guess I'm an old sentimentalist...

Getting the baby seat in the back was a bit of a stretch - but I managed (and have since repeated the trick in the back of the silver streak as well).

Congrats perthling!!!!!

Welcome to the club, and great to know a baby seat can fit in the back of the ole FIAT!..

Congrats.
Fiats and Family - love it!!! The pic below is the first day I rego'ed the 125s. Both my kids love going out in the Fiat and my wife enjoys it too.

I followed the link and looked at other pics of that red CC - very nice!!!
Loved the wedding pic - we too had Fiat wedding cars. Dads white 124 sedan, a white 125 and dads blue 132s. But the stupid photographer failed to take any good photo's of the cars despite being asked to do so.

Congratulations on the new arrival!

congratulations mate!

congrats!

i wish i had my dads 125!
2 generations being picked up in the same car! even the missus liked the sentiment in that! thats truly special, congrats and i hope the fiat bug continues in your family!

AD

Well my daughter is now 21 months old and refers to the red Spider in the shed as 'her car'. Loves to sit in it and the silver Coupe at least once a day. Can identify important parts like 'wheel', 'door', 'light' etc too. Looks like the bug has continued through to the next generation...

Just slightlly off topic..I know someone that was actualy born in the back seat of a 125. Just as well they didn't own a 600

Gill

wouldn't happen to be a member of this forum would he?

It wasn't me in case you were wondering. Mum and dad had a white 2300 when i was born.

No the person isn't on the forum... But, the car is in Lithgow, so if Youngy125 or Agents son get offered or have recently been offered a 125 for spare parts......be sure to wipe down the back seat.

Gill

Wouldn't be this one would it?

Right person but different 125 ...I think. I was offered that one but since I didn't have any other 125 to make a good one I turned it down.

That doesn't have any long wheel bolts for the cromadoras that you want to get rid of because they're taking up space...does it?

Gill

ahhhh
Nah the cromadoras are my spare and my spare, spare we put on it to move it and are only held on by standard steel wheel bolts just to get it onto the trailer.

I did buy some longer bolts from Fiatorque recently though to suit my lancia wheels. The lancia wheels have a bit more meat in them so the bolts didn't have the required 8 threads holding them. Ross did have to order them in though.
HTH

Sorry we are way OT now

Good stuff re daughter being into the 124 perthling

is that a choped top red bc ?

no that is THE chopped off top red bc. There's a post about it somewhere on here.
It donated it's seats for my 125 so i like it very much

here you go viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5027&hilit=chop+top+bc

Want to buy it? I think mum would pay you to take it

ahha no worries.
um actually ill pm you youngy 125.

back to the topic of this thread i love the 124s and yours a great !

Just saw your shed in "fiat lancia mania magazine" and how you built it and that. Good story and the cc looks GREAT in it too

Too much crap in the shed now, so I have to build another 3x3 shed next to it for the bikes, gardening tools, kids toys etc which are taking up valuable Fiat space in the garage!

The silver Coupe is now for sale. Details here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7366