RE: Spotted: 1988 Fiat Strada Abarth 130TC

[vjj]

My Headmaster, the great fast bowler(in his mind) Maurice Devereaux had one of these .................by default.

He had purchased a beautiful but rusty-even-when-it-left-the-factory Lancia Gamma Coupe as a present to himself for, as he said, 'putting up with 25 years of her at home'. Within 6 months the subframe had rotted through and he returned it to the Lancia/Fiat dealer for replacement. Whilst he waited they lent him a 130TC. Two years later and still no replacement - so they gave him his money back - and let him keep the Strada!

These were the days of 25% inflation so it was probably about right.

The rest of our teachers were driving round in Imps, Huskys, Ladas,Escorts,Woleseleys and the like and our hero gets himself the coolest car on the planet.

It was black and we all loved it.

[Alfafan]

I've had a couple of these, nothing to write home about, wouldn't pay more than £1000 for one of these, £5000 is crazy in my opinion, you get get much much better cars for that money.

[andyps]

PeteSBC said:

I have this sat out the back of my factory, owned it for years but cant bring myself to scrapping it.
Its still pretty solid for an 80's fiat with only about 24k on the clock.

Get it fixed, it's got to be done.

[PeteSBC]

Too many projects on the go mate, it needs a new owner!

[Dunk130TC]

I'll never let mine go....




D

[Stu - B]

Being restored at the moment. Garage owner says it had rusted in a weird way in that areas like battery tray were perfect, yet middle of random panels holed.

[MadDog1962]

I know these were good to drive, but they were so wrong in so may ways. The body is so ugly, the dash and switchgear were horrible (especially so compared to contemporary Fords of the day). I really consider these are not worth the effort. I'd much prefer an (8 valve) Golf GTi or XR3 of similar vintage, much easier to live with and just as much fun.

[KimZ]

Aaah.. another soft spot of mine ... Ritmos!

Some pics from the archive.. sorry for quality!

My 75.. sohc 1.3 screamer!


105TC abarth...





Then fell in love with old RSTs...



and as I got older... gets more expensive! I'm saving E34 M60s....

Great thread -got me scanning early Sat am!

Bests

KimZ

[fastjason]

I'm newbie on piston heads and it took this post for me to join up, I too had a 130TC (B160 NLH) at the age of 19 back in 1993. I picked it up locally though I had no idea about the car and bought it on the back of a recommendation on my best mate, £450 bought me 6months of MOT work, but what a car. Once I started going though the history of it, I realised that the owner had traded in his 1 year old 105TC to buy it, then within the first month he'd spent neary £4k on engine and suspension upgrades(not bad as the new price of the car was about £5-6k. Needless to say with a rolloing road graph for 168bhp at the wheels it was rather rapid. Sadly I made the mistake of selling it about 2 years later for about the same money I bought it for, only to learn that weeks later that the owner had wrecked it on a tricky bend passing a tractor??? Idiot.

Will have to dig out the pics and add to this post

[KimZ]

Welcome FJ! the 130 was a handful - especially if tweaked! Easy 175 hp - only problem was they used to split the front crossmember if power got near the magic 200 hp.. Amazing power from the capacity (for the time). I preferred the serie 1 as imo were prettier also had twin twin-chokes on board.. the later models iirc had single as standard..

Aah the memories (and smell of Castrol R) and manic torque steer!

"takes rose-tinted specs off"....

[KimZ]

Stu - B said:

Being restored at the moment. Garage owner says it had rusted in a weird way in that areas like battery tray were perfect, yet middle of random panels holed.

Nice one Stu - Keep us posted plz!

[K50 DEL]

Not long after I left uni I was offered a straight swap... one of these for my 205 GTi 1600cc.... sadly the insurance was about twice as much so I had to pass.... I've still never driven one but there's something about them... a cool car and no mistake.

[anonymous-user]

rallycross said:

that clip has a load of 80's classics racing door hand to door handle;

Starions
Monza GSi
Capri 2.8
Mercedes Cosworth 2.3
Strada 130
Golf GTi
Astra GTE
Toyota Corolla
Diahtsu turbo cyl
Lancia Delta
Nova Sport
635 Csi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4bd4hNY8h0&NR=...

Brilliant racing from a time when even race cars had comedy body roll through the bends..........

(makes me wonder where car development is going to peak, after all, put something like a mid '80s Gti against a mid '60s car and the Gti would just dissapear off into the distance. And the same effect would be had with a mid '00s Gti compared to the '80s one. So by extrapolation, a mid '20s "future" Gti is going to be absolutely ballistic ??? Or, will peak oil have hit home hard and we will all be cruising along slowly accompanied by the sound of whining inverters etc ?? ;-)


Back on topic, i used walk pass a house in Pangbourne with a race prep'd 130TC in the drive on my way back from school (too many years ago now !), and thought it was absolutely the coolest thing ever

[Mouse1903]

anything fast said:

its nice but nearly 5k?? no thanks

you could buy a reasonable mk1 and a mk2 16v golf gti for that

I'll take the Strada any day of the week.

[Dunk130TC]

Max_Torque said:

Back on topic, i used walk pass a house in Pangbourne with a race prep'd 130TC in the drive on my way back from school (too many years ago now !), and thought it was absolutely the coolest thing ever

That'll be my mates house. Red 130TC with Blue stripes that used to race in the Italian Intermarque. See pic below, accompanied by a 105TC with 130TC drive train,driven by a good friend and later acquired by me.



D

Edited by Dunk130TC on Saturday 1st October 13:15

[VX Foxy]

Is there a worse way of spending 5k on a car?

[K50 DEL]

VX Foxy said:

Is there a worse way of spending 5k on a car?

Yep..... buying the 2 VWs mentioned earlier!!

[Mark-C]

VX Foxy said:

Is there a worse way of spending 5k on a car?

Absolutely - there are many worse ways ....

I imagine whoever bought it really wanted it and will cherish it and enjoy it ... how is that a bad way of spending £5k on anything?

Or is the fact that it isn't what you'd spend 5k on what makes it wrong for someone else to do so?

[GC8]

Another car I shouldnt have sold, along with my supercharged Lancia HPE VX and my b*stard Thema Turbo-engined FIAT Mirafiori Sport.

Actually I should have sold the 131 Sport, because it was a f*cking liability: half-engineered, barely braked and always about to burst into flames - but when it went.....

[rtz62]

Just sold my 1985 C Toyota GT16 AE82 hatch, 30k from new; they don't make cars like these any more.
Ok, no airbags, abs, traction control etc, but they would good, honest cars, where the skill in getting the most out of them was down to the driver, not computer aids.
Modern hot hatches may be quicker, but they arent as raw or exciting.
Bring back the 80's.
Oh, hang on a minute..... my wife says shes looked in my wardrobe and the 80's are still alive and kicking in there...