BMW Z3 vs Alfa Spider

[Vitorio]

Liquid Knight said:

I thought the Bravo 150 and Punto 120 t-jets were SuperFIRE units.

Anyway I'm not a fan of the newer Fiat 500's either. Too much like the "Modtro" modern-retro Micra of the period and just like the BMW MINI now available throughout the entire range from a 1.2 to a Multipla sized JTD powered shoe box with rounded edges.

But I wouldn't mind a twin-air engine in a proper Panda for laugh.

Could be, i might be wrong here, but i thought superfire was just the NA 16v units, wikipedia does list the turbo ones in the FIRE article though, so im probably wrong here.. apparently even the multi-air things are fair game (which i suppose is fair, if they share the old FIRE bottom end)

On the subject of pandas, i still have this perverted fantasy in the back of my head of taking a FIRE panda and bunging a punto 75 lump in there, it'd probably need a hood bulge, and it would be dangerous as fk, but should be quite a lot of fun, and relatively doable. (or just throw a punto 60 lump in, no need for MPI shens)

[Liquid Knight]

Punto 60 1242 block with a 75 had and most important cam'. It's the set up I had in my Panda 4x4...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCSk5XzGbYY

...oh yeah and TDM850 carb's.

[Vitorio]

Liquid Knight said:

Punto 60 1242 block with a 75 had and most important cam'. It's the set up I had in my Panda 4x4...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCSk5XzGbYY

...oh yeah and TDM850 carb's.

Nice! Still got the non-75 exhaust mani on there from the looks of it though

I had a cinq project for a while, fixed the headgasket, put in an 866 cam and 34mm TB, but after that discovered that there was too much rust for it to make sense to continue, so i scrapped it without driving a mile with the fixed engine

[Liquid Knight]

75 manifold into an adapted down pipe. Two into one so it would fit the pre-cat' 4x4 exhaust. Still have the engine, exhaust and inlet manifold in my shed.

[Vitorio]

Liquid Knight said:

75 manifold into an adapted down pipe. Two into one so it would fit the pre-cat' 4x4 exhaust. Still have the engine, exhaust and inlet manifold in my shed.

Aah awesome, mustve misjudged it, its been a while since ive been up close with fiat parts!

Still have a 1.1 lump in my own shed by the way, but it needs to go some time.. The bugger is just a bit too heavy to move in one piece easily, and i dont want to drain the oil (im not 100% sure, but its still got that gunk in there...)

[Ozzie Osmond]

zz55 said:

I always rather liked those, although the combination of LHD and FWD meant it had little chance in the UK market.

[kambites]

Ozzie Osmond said:

I always rather liked those, although the combination of LHD and FWD meant it had little chance in the UK market.

I'm not sure the FWD bit really had much effect. The huge majority of potential customers probably didn't even know.

I think they'd have been everywhere if they were available in RHD and priced below the MX5.

[Ozzie Osmond]

I'm not sure that's right - it's often said that FWD helped kill Elan M100. Mind you, they were both more interesting cars than MGF.

Never been a fan of Z3 myself. I think the 3-series convertible was simply a better car. Z4 is a big step forward.

[kambites]

Ozzie Osmond said:

I'm not sure that's right - it's often said that FWD helped kill Elan M100. Mind you, they were both more interesting cars than MGF.

The Elan was aimed at enthusiasts and was bloody expensive; the Fiat was a cheap cheerful drop-top aimed at women in their early 20s.

Personally I'd take an MGF (or at laest an MGTF) over a Barchetta or an M100 or indeed an MX5 if I could find one that wasn't about to fall to bits. Fabulous chassis and the 160bhp VVC K-series is a wonderful engine in that sort of car.

Edited by kambites on Sunday 7th August 16:21

[Liquid Knight]

A bit of bidding activity and I'm close to budget.

I'll leave this...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1984-FIAT-STRADA-CABRIO-...

...here just in case.

A damn sight closer than Leeds and my Bravo engine should drop straight in.

[Liquid Knight]

MGF?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiKSX0RL0sQ

My first venture into the world of YouTube.

I always fancied dropping a k18 turbo from a ZR in one but time, money, space, life, etc...

[Vitorio]

Liquid Knight said:

A bit of bidding activity and I'm close to budget.

I'll leave this...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1984-FIAT-STRADA-CABRIO-...

...here just in case.

A damn sight closer than Leeds and my Bravo engine should drop straight in.

No offense, but i do hope you win the alfa, that Strada looks rather... special..

I think you need this one as a reserve:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fiat-Seicento-Sporting-T...

Drop in the aforementioned engine from the 4x4 panda and hitch it behind the fiorino for long range track days!

[Vitorio]

Also, ooof:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2004-ALFA-ROMEO-147-T-SP...

what a lovely car, and incredibly cheap for dutch standards, id have it right away.

[Liquid Knight]

Oh, the mobile man cave. My mate took it for his fishing gear. Welded up and straight through the MOT as it was.

I've never been able to get the seat right in a 147. I think the subframe is too high off the floor. The Seicento is in Bristol. That's worse than Leeds to get to this time of year. All the caravanists headed to Weston bottle necking.

Besides the Punto GT will take care of track day duties I reckon.

[zz55]

Liquid Knight said:

A bit of bidding activity and I'm close to budget.

I'll leave this...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1984-FIAT-STRADA-CABRIO-...

...here just in case.

A damn sight closer than Leeds and my Bravo engine should drop straight in.

are you serious?
that car has fallen apart already several times..

[k-ink]

Liquid Knight said:

For every decent MX5 there are a thousand crap boxes

The solid straight cars are getting harder to find. I had to pay pretty good money to get mine. It will only get increasingly harder as more time passes, so I expect prices will be moving upwards for the cleanest examples.

[Liquid Knight]

zz55 said:

Liquid Knight said:

A bit of bidding activity and I'm close to budget.

I'll leave this...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1984-FIAT-STRADA-CABRIO-...

...here just in case.

A damn sight closer than Leeds and my Bravo engine should drop straight in.

are you serious?
that car has fallen apart already several times..

Trying to tell an Italian car guy rust is a bad idea...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAn-mdS-otE

[Liquid Knight]

k-ink said:

Liquid Knight said:

For every decent MX5 there are a thousand crap boxes

The solid straight cars are getting harder to find. I had to pay pretty good money to get mine. It will only get increasingly harder as more time passes, so I expect prices will be moving upwards for the cleanest examples.

As prices go up the number of Wheeler Dealer'd ones will as well so you need to be even more diligent to the point it won't be worth the effort and you get an MX5 powered MG Midget or B roadster.

[wal 45]

I'd go with the Alfa on this, bidding seems strong especially for a Cat C so who knows?

I bought a 96 Spider recently that is now in lots of bits that I'm aiming to get back on the road within a couple of years, was only £200 delivered though. Went into it with eyes fully open and can guess that this car will be very much the same, rear suspension is the wallet emptier if you like it to handle. Rust has been less of an issue than I thought but it's still there although in an area I didn't expect. Still if it is a bit of summer fun, it's got an MOT until May 17 after all, then why not?

As an aside I think the days of a Barchetta at this money are long long gone, if I could have found one it would have been the replacement for my Fiat Coupe without hesitation. Unfortunately most seem to have either gone overseas a few years back or been scrapped, the rest are pretty expensive.

[Liquid Knight]

I thought my Coupe was a find. 77,000 miles and a 16V Turbo plus. I prefer the 16V turbo to the 20V. I paid £500 for the car, got it home for £150 and noticed it had 78,000 miles in 2009. Damn clockers!

With a full history file and properly repaired/restored the car could be worth £5,000+ but with the mileage maker there's no way of verifying the history so the £1,000 or so I was planning to spend on parts I'm looking at alternatives instead.