Friday 30th September 2011

Spotted: 1988 Fiat Strada Abarth 130TC

To be filed under 'Find Another One...' (shame the auction's finished...)

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If you started naming eighties hot hatches, how many would you come up with before you mentioned the Strada Abarth? Be honest...

At a time when lots of small and small-ish hi-performance hatchbacks were light, fast, responsive and brimming with character, one of the most responsive and characterful was the 130TC. They may have lacked the build quality of a Golf and the engaging handling characteristics of a 205 (...in the dry at least), but they still had much appeal for leaden-footed yoofs of the day.

The carburettor-fed twin-cam motor was reputedly strong enough to survive anything short of a nuclear explosion and, like the majority of its contemporaries, it was riotous to drive.

Of course, Italian cars of this period were still suffering from Fiat's decision to trade the plans and tooling for the 124 to the Russians in exchange for some iffy steel, and the Strada was no exception. Generally speaking they rotted...badly, which is what makes this 130TC survivor all the more special.

The vendor claims to have known of the car since 1993 when the then-owner supposedly partially stripped the car and treated it to the mother-and-father of anti-rust treatments. His claim that the car is still rust-free, has never been welded and furthermore that it needs no welding would appear to back this up.

On the inside the fascia is less than inspiring, but just look at those seats! What's more, aside from the headlining needing attention it all looks to be in very good order. Under the bonnet, the motor reportedly benefitted from a quality rebuild about 12,000 miles ago, which included some lightening, balancing, and blue-printing which, it is claimed, has upped the power a tad to 137bhp. This all sounds good...

If there's any bad news it's that you can't buy it. The eBay auction has run its course and, although it didn't burst the £5000 mark, £4580 is still a fair amount of wedge. You could get, say, a late-eighties 16-valve Golf or 205 1.9 GTi for less than that, but could you be tempted by the rarity of the Strada?

[Carnnoisseur]

Wow, now this takes me back. I had two of these back in the day. Great memories......

[thewheelman]

These were kind of the leftfield choice in the same way the Renault 11 Turbo was, the bigger, less loved brothers of the Uno Turbo, & the Renault 5 Turbo. Good find

[Raoul Duke]

Always had a bit of soft spot for these.

[gforceg]

A mate of mine had one of these in the late 80s when I was running round in Mk1 Golf GTIs. It was savage compared to them, so light and direct. He spent a fortune on it inside and out, including a new straight cut gears box which Fiat told him was one of only two left in the country at the time. I think he paid about £2k for the box (in the late 80s). I'm pretty sure he had a cage fitted at one point and made wild claims for the power it developed. Ah, well we were all young once.

I liked the way the huge front seats couldn't be folded forward far enough to allow easy access to the back because the headrests used to hit the headlining.

This would be a great weekend car to use on empty roads in nice weather but otherwise....

[rallycross]

Loved these when they first came out, a real hoot to drive, race ready recaro seats, 2.0 twincam with 130 bhp in a hatch was amazing in 1984.

Rust was the problem we had a B reg red one that already had rust around the window frames/door locks at 3 yrs old.

Here is something for all you Fiat 130 TC fan's; in action in group N (showroom spec racing) It shows how good they were out the box on track (if you ignore the terminal understeer and lack of brakes!)

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

If you want to buy one the place to go is italy for a rust free example but they are not cheap now;

http://www.autoscout24.eu/Details.aspx?id=cabbeq4a...

[angry jock]

Love it! Now I need to find a Mk 1 105TC Abarth!
The old man had a new Strada every year in the early 80s as company cars.

[Harry H]

Was one of my dream cars when they first came out. Everyone had GTi's or XR3i's but the Strada was just so "Italian"

[anything fast]

its nice but nearly 5k?? no thanks

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

[jimbro1000]

anything fast said:

its nice but nearly 5k?? no thanks

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

But then you'd just have a couple of golfs....

[rutthenut]

Liked these, on the basis that they had some Italian 'flair' (aka faults), were a great alternative to the Fords, French or German hatches and that they were fitted with a good-old carb-fed Fiat/Lancia twink.

Also remember competing against one of these in the 1998/1999 Auto Italia race series. Those were the days.

[vz-r_dave]

you could buy 100 pairs of shoes for that, insanely priced, ugly and a waste of space. I'll take 1000 fish and chips thanks

Love it

[rob.e]

A mate at uni had one of these - bought it for buttons as it had a collapsed driver seat back, no reverse gear and a bunch of rust holes.

We swapped the drivers seat with the passenger side (good idea, but meant the fold-forward levers were in the wrong place) and he just drove it until it failed its next mot.

A real blast to drive though. Just had to remember not to park it nose-in pointing downhill..

[rallycross]

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=...

[newdogg06]

My first car, a Strada 65CL, that's the one to have.
On the other hand, it put me off the cheaper end of the Italian motoring market for life. Loved the round door handles though.

[LuS1fer]

It would have been the first one I named. It always came top in the group tests so was always on my wish list.

Inevitably, times changed and I bought an R5 GT Turbo. It's pointless comparing this to the samaller 205 GTI as it competed with the Golf/Escort/309 GTI if anything.

Edited by LuS1fer on Friday 30th September 13:40

[anything fast]

jimbro1000 said:

anything fast said:

its nice but nearly 5k?? no thanks

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

But then you'd just have a couple of golfs....

yep a mk1 to push start every day and a solid 16v gti mk2 to hoon around and i'd still be happier with that.. the strada's nice to drive but my god its an ugly bastid..

[Husker]

Forget the 130TC, the one to have is the 125TC !

[andyps]

I like these, did when they were new and still do now. I am amazed how much the bids were but then there is the rarity of a hatch which in many ways was the best hot hatch available at the time.

On a related note I saw an immaculate Strada cabrio a couple of weeks ago, first one of those I have seen for a very long time - I really wouldn't have been surprised to find there were none left at all.

[Owlwood]

Wow, I cant remember when I last saw one of those. Hen's tooth on wheels.

[Hub]

Husker said:

Forget the 130TC, the one to have is the 125TC !

Is that the pre-facelift one? They were better lookers!