My funny Fiat Barchetta

[Iva Barchetta]

October,found out that Germany has a 2nd round of world RX this year,at the Estering,Buxtehude near Hamburg.
Cue road trip to be organised.
Wolfsburg is way up north nearish Hamburg,so it goes on the list.


So the VW museum is on the list.


Corrado softtop concept,nice looker.

Walking distance away is VW Autostadt,which I compare to Mercedes Benz world for VW.


It's not just VWs here,they have display of significant cars in history.




Next day north to Hamburg for the Prototyp museum,that I only became aware of when a PHer visited and posted about it.




Spread over 3 floors ,packed with old race cars,mostly Porsche or related.


Now off to the world RX for the weekend.







That's about it.

[Iva Barchetta]

And this is what the comedy Fiat looks like now.


Currently just 2 fitted,post office red Alfa Romeo 155 alloys,shod with 2 New Uniroyals as the pair I bought 3.5 years ago spent 38,000 miles on the front and were pretty well done for.....

[Iva Barchetta]

For those who enjoyed my 2016 condensed road trip pics, take a look at my 2013 Italy trip

here.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[lucido grigio]

May has been a busy month for me and Fabio the Fiat.

My interest in World RX ,see previous posts n pics ,has seen me go to 3 rounds this month.

First weekend in May ,Hockenheimring via the Nurburgring ,although I got there too late to see anything and on the way home I

dropped into Stavelot ,Spa for the car museum in the abbey there ,2 days after the Spa WEC had taken place.

Next weekend ,was the World RX of Belgium ,in Mettet ,which is an easy schlep from Calais being only 2.5 hours.

This actually should've been 1 long roadtrip but it just went pear shaped so I came home and travelled twice.

Weekend just gone and it's the final round of World RX at the home of rallycross ,Lydden hill circuit ,Kent.

After travelling twice to Europe, I couldn't possibly miss the home round only about 75 miles from home.

Car was 100% reliable for all these trips out and received complimentary comments from the nice people I met and shared a campsite with

on Saturday night in Kent.

I'll add pics from the phone tomorrow ,it spends longer with a flat battery than it does actually switched on nowadays.

[lucido grigio]

A few pics from this month's trips.

Wild camping in the woods near the Ring.











Mercedes 'display of DTM cars.

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World RX and DTM on the same bill = win win.







Another indoor display of old DTM cars.

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One of my favourites too,partly due to the colour,shame my phone cam has trouble with orange.








These were displayed separately and the top 2 were demonstrated on track during lunch breaks.




An old safety intervention car.

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During lunch I went outside to the museum.










M3 GTR

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Some more including bikes.


Mercedes S class shaped dragster.

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Try and finish this road trip report off'

Next day on the way home via the Spa circuit museum in Stavelot abbey.



















My 2nd M1 seen in 2 days ,took more pics but won't upload.

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The pictures from the next week in Mettet ,Belgium are on the phone.

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Vitorio said:

lucido grigio said:

Try and finish this road trip report off'

Next day on the way home via the Spa circuit museum in Stavelot abbey.


My 2nd M1 seen in 2 days ,took more pics but won't upload.

good man, i was there last month after the 6hr de Spa

beautiful collection down in that basement

Same here ,I was there on the Monday and slightly disappointed the Gulf 917 used on their promotional leaflet wasn't present.

But have to accept that all museums rotate their displays.

[lucido grigio]

marky911 said:

How have I never seen this thread????

Absolutely cracking stuff!
You have some awesome adventures. Thanks for documenting it all. The photos are great. Too many amazing cars to mention.
And the how the hell do you find out about all the events you always attend?
Just good research?


Anyway like I say, brilliant. Thanks for posting it all.

Yes, research.

Without getting too long winded about it.

I read about 1 event in whatever country ,I book time off work around it and then find as much other stuff that could be fitted in around it.

Take my Sweden trip as a good example ,I first heard of "Power Big Meet" from a car magazine article and drove there in 2010 in my Cosworth.

It's a massive and brilliant American car show in Vasteras ,though moved this year for it's 40th year.

I wanted to return in my brilliant little Fiat and in 2014 found that in the same city there was the "Midnightsun rally" ,which started just 1 week later, so that made up my 2014 trip.

I cut short that trip due to a bad back pain and so had to go back and finish it off properly ,in 2015.

I then find out that 2015 has Midnightsun rally ,followed by Power Big Meet and same weekend the World RX round also in Sweden ,so 3 major events ,1 country ,2 weeks.

Midnightsun rally is listed as Sweden's largest historic car rally ,its well worth the visit if that's your thing and some British teams are now entering it.

BTW all the above happens in the next couple of weeks.

That did end up a bit long winded.....

Did you look at the thread I linked to on my 2013 trip ^^^^^ ?

Went to Mille Miglia,found Lamborghini 50th anniversary tour coming down there one week before.

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After managing to transfer a large number of pics from old laptop I might as well post a few more from random foreign points
from my travels.



Beside the Ligurian sea ,Meditteranean May 2013.



no idea where some of these are ,apart from Italy.





pic says all you need to know



in the village where my sister's house is



and in Sweden 2014

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As far as I know all Barchettas have the same engine ,which falls halfway between your 2 choices at 1750cc but generally listed

as a 1.8.

Thanks for appreciating my efforts.....

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That's quite a rare colour as I have only seen a couple of cars in that blue.

Note from your pic that when Barchettas gather it appears that they have a huge variety in wheel styles ,both OEM and

aftermarket.

At Auto Italia this year ,also at Brooklands, I'm not sure there was 2 cars with the same wheels ,out of the dozen or so that attended....

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Mine came with the steels too ,as seen earlier I the thread ,nicely refurbished by DTR prior to my purchase.

Have now fitted a pair of Alfa alloys on the rear ,powder coated in Post office red ,which looks slightly odd .

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Finish off today with a pic of how the car looked after driving through the night in July through Sweden.....2014




Luckily it rained very hard before getting back to Calais ,saving me the effort of washing/scraping that lot off......

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PowerslideSWE said:

You pretty far north I seem to remember? It gets worse insect-wise the further up the country you travel.

Great thread.

That pic from 2014 was when I cut it short due to back pain,so didn't go way up north,which I did do year after,right up to arctic circle in Finland.

The fly pic was whilst driving from central Sweden area back to the bridge overnight,still with the top down.