Another Aussie

[Kendoo]

Hi all,

Bought my first Fiat three weeks ago and loving it. Was driving down the road and saw it for sale and it was in my driveway two days later. Not the first Italian car I have had as I had an Alfa 156 Selespeed but too modern (2002 model).

I am now the proud owner of a 1976 Fiat Spider, brilliant red colour with black interior. It was running like a pig when I first got it but as I have a good mate who is a racing car mechanic he quickly retuned it from 5 degrees retarded to a 10 degree advance and it now drives beautifully. Hardly any rust which is a huge bonus.

It is in good enough condition to drive for the rest of summer, then the real fun comes as I will have time to get it on the hoist and do some work.

I am planning on doing a mild cam job (adjustable so we can dial them in), extractors and a 2 inch exhaust and twin sidedraft DCOE webers (we are lucky in Australia as right hand drive gives you plenty of space on the carby side).

If anyone has done the side drafts before any advice would be great, also any good australian suppliers of these parts. Will post some pics as soon as I work it out.

Matt

[Curly]

Welcome to the Forum Matt. There's quite a few Aussies on here, a few in Melbourne too.

A good place to start looking for tuning equipment and advice around Melbourne would be Phil from Bits of Italy in Dandenong. He's a Weber agent as well. http://www.bitsofitaly.com/
There's plenty of twin sidedraft Weber equipped Fiats around. A simple and effective performance upgrade.



Looking forward to seeing some pics of your car

[PininF]

Hi Matt
That engine looks sweet and very clean ,Its obvious major work has been done
Look forward to seeing more pics of the car
Haven't seen any listed for sale for a while was it a private sale
Great job well done.

Cheers

[RRoller123]

welcome!

[Fi8spider]

Welcome Kendoo,
I've done the same sort of upgrades to my 74', Fiatorque (Ross Smith ) in Sydney is another option. http://www.fiatorque.com.au
Ross's manifolds are up there with the best.

I managed his 6 Hour regularity race team this year at Wakefield and would you believe a bunch of near 40 y.o Fiats beat the opposition to a pulp! We in OZ are blessed to have guys like Phil and Ross still looking after guys like us.

Good luck and have fun mate.

[Kendoo]

Thanks all,





This is my first attempt at a photo post. Hope to get some better photos soon. Also replacing the non original tape deck at the moment and having some interesting times. Will post photos under another forum with my interesting solutions required to get a standard din unit to fit neatly.

Regards,

Matt

[PininF]

Hey Matt,
Where in Melbourne are you ?
Im In Mt Evelyn ,are you a member of the Fiat club Vic yet ? I am yet to sign up but will do soon theres a great once a year event coming up in Feb, auto bella that Im sure you will be interested in, Show and tell picnic day would be great to catch up along with the other guys on this forum !
If you need any help with uploading your pics give us a yell
Cheers.

[Kendoo]

pininf,

In Newport. The photo worked out in the end (I found one of your earlier posts that helped). First time I loaded it was upside down but as my wife said "it is a spider".

I have seen the fiat club and was thinking of joining. I became a member of the Phillip Island Auto Racing Club as I have some friends who are members, but two clubs can't hurt. Looking forward to one day taking it for a spin at the island, must do some work to her first though.

I would like to go to autobella, and when I can confirm I will be in touch so we can meet up.

Boy Curly has some nice machines, and that coupe is something else.

Matt

[PininF]

Meet, greet, picnic,fiats, Couldn't think of anything better.
Lets hope Curly can join in the fun would really like to meet him too, his car is a real gem and would luv to see it up close
Cheers
John

[divace73]

well done Matt, there are a few of us lurking on this website.
What size motor have you got in it?

[Kendoo]

divace73,

Its a 76 and has the standard 1800 motor in it. As I said earlier though I am going to do a bit to it.

I am going to be up in Sydney next week so I might drop into fiatorque and see if they have a straight shot manifold for the DCOE's. If not I might get one made up.