1965 Fiat Abarth (Genuine Abarth A112 race engine)

4

Manual

Offered here is my 1965 Fiat Abarth A112 powered.  This is a wonderful sound dry and rust free car. There is no rot on the car, in or out, and the floors are solid as are the rockers.  Engine bay is tidy, and set up as a club racer (but perfectly street legal and actually currently registered) as the car was apparently raced throughout Italy since the late 60's early '70's.  The engine is neatly and expertly tucked in a longitudinal layout in place of the original (long gone) 500 engine.  This engine was installed back in or about 1973 by the former owner and racer as was a not too uncommon practice when moving these little go kart handling racers up to the 1.5 and 2 litre classes.  And the Abarth A112 was a solid, race bread light and powerful power plant - this car having at least 70 if not more like 75 horsepower!!! (hold onto your hat). The engine swap necessarily involved a reverse gear starter (works perfectly and is strong) and mating a Fiat 600 rear transaxle and transmission to the A112.  It also involved building the rear subframe to hold the rear most engine mount and plumbing a front nose mounted radiator. The nose was accordingly, cut to expose and duct air through the radiator.  I took great effort with this car, completely restoring the interior to a clean, period correct and frankly, luxurious feel with black racing seats, a period correct vintage steering wheel, shift gate, Abarth shift knob, refinished gauge "cruscotto" (cluster) and reproduction abarth "jaeger" speedo and tach together with matching Jaeger gauges. I also have a genuine Abarth accessory gauge pod for oil and water pressure or temp gauges which comes with the car.  The wiring has been attended to and replaced or repaired where needed and generally cleaned up and simplified. The car is equipped with an electric fan.  Proper switch gear was purchased from ReOriginals at great expense for fan, lights and wipers.  Wipers have a genuine Abarth bracketry.  Racing heavy duty electronics kill switch mounted to hood.  Abarth rubber hood locking straps.  Wheels are not correct abarth but period fiat mags.  In addition however the car will be sold together with a beautiful set of proper cromodora mold wheels (actually the Toyo Kogyo wheels that were made from the original Cromodora molds) and proper wheel spacer/offset adaptors (billet ones, NOT chinese knock offs).   Engine has been improved during my ownership including new old stock Magnetti Marrelli electronic ignition, coil and block (although original one was functioning and is now in the spares box that comes with the car), new head gasket (copper racing head gasket comes with the car as well and merely needs to be annealed), new genuine Abarth plugs, new spark plug wires, new hoses, replaced head bolts with ARP 12 point head bolts, new Abarth oil pan to replace the original A112 steel pan, aluminum oil overflow (filtered) can, aluminum radiator overflow bottle, new, rebuilt carburetor (original carb included in spares box), spun polished aluminum velocity stack (rare item), new fuel pump and inline filter, stainless braided fuel lines, and more.   This car is an absolute show stopper.  The paint is certainly not perfect with the red on the door panels (with the meatballs - BAT loves the meatballs as do I) not quite matching the balance of the red, and the paint showing its age, as the car was raced, and was not painted since it retired years ago but rather still has much of its "as raced" patina. To further tidy it up and "civilize" the car a bit, I added a flywheel cover, which was not originally on the car.  The battery was moved and mounted rear of the passenger seat and a wooden cover was cleverly made and lined inside to cover the top protruding portion of the battery.  I have not modified this and intended on leaving it in place and perhaps boxing the "sunken" battery area and continuing the use of the originally fabricated wooden cover, or simply sliding in a stainless battery box and cover, but it truthfully has not bothered or offended me, and looks and functions fine.  The "back seat" area (this car hasn't had a back seat since 1965) has been dynamat'd with black foam sound deadening material, so as to clean up and darken the area (rather than using the foil backed stuff which would be unsightly.  The starter switch is a push button which was mounted along with the expensive and period correct toggles on a Fiat 600 chrome dash /switch panel to additionally tidy up the car and use a period correct piece rather than what were much more modern gauges and switches when I purchased the car.  In addition, the interior had blue sparco junior seats which were not right for the car and were accordingly swapped out.  In addition, I have just installed an key operated ignition switch (off/on) adjacent to the push button starter as the floor mounted starter system was not used for many years and the switch is not in place - rather than reinstalling one, I chose to leave the push button starter on the dash, and add the key for street use.  Also, idiot lights were replaced with the proper period correct items which were missing when I acquired her.  Cool little tri-bar headlamps were on the car and remain and function.  I also added, mounted on a black steel bracket which "floats" in front of the radiator within the cutout, the proper Abarth emblem and chrome wing - looks fantastic and doesn't interrupt air flow to compromise cooling. Car comes with both a street exhaust (twin tip muffled exhaust with its own header mounted thereto) and what is believed to be an original Abarth megaphone race exhaust (it sounds awesome) mated to its own header pipe (for easy swap of one to the other). The rear axle carriers have been replaced and are mounted and now safety wired as I had no faith in the old original aluminum carriers - in fact when replacing them, one of the old ones was nearly crumbling the aluminum was so fatigued.  Additional new replacements are also included in the spares box.   Overall this car, in the right hands and with a minimal amount of preparatory work, can grace the race tracks with the VSCCA very soon as the storied club is now welcoming cars of this vintage, particularly given that the modifications to it had been done contemporaneously with the car's original racing history (no, there is no log book as this car was raced privately in Italy over 30+ years ago).  That was my plan, and I had made great headway toward achieving the goal, but alas, my mustang project which is nearing completion, and my 1966 Duetto project, which is now demanding my attention ($$) compel that I let her go to the next italofile of an owner.  You will love this little beast. UPDATE: A question was posed as to whether or not the car is equipped with a roll cage - it is not, although the evidence (bolt pattern and holes) is clear that it had, at one time, some form of roll bar and forward cage which was removed (I was told by the former owner who imported the car) that it was removed in Italy due to something relative to exporting the car as a registered street vehicle as opposed to a race car.  I don't understand the significance, but the story was just that...a story, and it didn't matter much to me as I would not have left a cage in the car due to VSCCA restrictions, and rather had anticipated having a basic reinforced roll bar fabricated for what we affectionately call, the horny little clown car.  Please keep the questions coming (I referenced this last question as I neglected to post it and my reply to the auction page). NOTE - I do not understand why some photos (particularly those of the undercarriage which is in remarkably solid condition) are not as large as the others.  I will reshoot and swap out the smaller photos or simply add additional, larger ones, to the auction for your review so that you don't have to pull out the magnifying glasses to get a clear view. On May-06-12 at 19:18:49 PDT, seller added the following information: Here are additional pictures of the car's undercarriage as promised: