Happy New Year!

Happy 2015 - it's been a while!

Definitely time for some catching up - I'll do this in a couple of posts otherwise I'll be here all night.

2013 continued to be as busy as it started - I did manage a few trips out in my little car over the summer! We also managed a quick trip to Austria to have a look round Salzburg and Vienna and a bit of mountain driving (and cake eating and coffee drinking - the Austrians know how to do cake and coffee). We were driving a Mercedes Hire car - it was ok, but we weren't convinced by their parking brake system.

We've done some stints of mountain driving before - it's good fun, not necessarily for those without a head for heights and definitely a summer pastime! The views are incredible, some of the roads seem to cling to almost nothing and the villages tucked in and around corners are exactly what you expect - little chalet houses nestling in valleys surrounded by meadows full of cows.

The cities are beautiful as well. The centre of Salzburg is not the sort of place to drive round; narrow picturesque streets which are far more suited to walking round - you can't imagine Julie Andrews and and the rest of the cast of the Sound of Music nipping round in a car can you? No.

Vienna is far more car centric, like most capital cities. Many of the larger roads round the centre of town, like the Ringstrasse are large wide avenues, with trams buses and cars all vying for position. Some of the side roads are quieter - it's a bit like seeing the busy chaos of the Marylebone Road in London compared to the quieter roads round the back of Soho or Covent Garden.


One evening while we were in Vienna, we saw this:

Looks like a Fiat 500 doesn't it?

It's acutally a Puch 500, built by Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Austria.

Steyr had manufactured mainly military vehicles during world war Two and in the mid 1950s decided it was time to start car production again. There wasn't sufficient money to design a new model from scratch, so the company negotiated with Fiat to base a design on the 500. Fiat was to supply the basic body shell, Steyr were to provide the engine, transmission and carriage. The engine was a two-cylinder (16 hp/12 kW) flat engine which was found to suit the mountain routes of Austria well. 
The first Steyr-Puch 500 launched in 1957 and proved to more popular than anticipated.

There were a number of updates over the years - as the 500 itself developed, so did the Steyr version; in 1959 it gained a metal roof option rather than the folding cloth version (the 500 D, D standing for Dach, meaning roof in German). Engine upgrades also followed and estate versions, again with more engine options. These eventually lead to a 650 series of models - similar to the route taken by the developments of the 500 back in Italy.

By the late 60s, they were flying out the factory and almost the entire car minus the engine was being shipped in from Fiat. The only part that was still being made by Steyr was the engine. The model was called the 500 S at this point (like the one in the picture). From the outside, other than the Steyr badges, it looks pretty much like a Fiat 500.


The 500 isn't the only car which Fiat shared the designs for - the 124 had various guises. Other manufacturers have had similar arrangements; some have been straight rebadgings for specific markets such as the Mazda 121/Ford Fiesta. In some cases there have been far more subtle sharing of designs and parts, such as the Fiat 500/Ford Ka.

Much of this is about cost saving - if the design can be used more than once, it keeps the costs down. If there are common parts which can be shared, it keeps the costs down. If the same production lines can be used, it keeps the costs down. With the economic woes which have been rippling round the world, it helps keep a few car companies ticking over and hopefully means cheaper spare parts (yes, I haven't noticed this much either, but the thought is nice).

One other quirk of this sharing of designs is just how far some or the shared parts go. I still remember various jokes about the Austin Allegro door handles on Range Rovers (which apparently also appear on a Lotus Esprit), or asking a colleague how many Peugeot parts were fitted on his Lotus Elise.

The best story I heard was from a former colleague who begrudingly had to sell his Lancia Delta Integrale. During a test drive the potential buyer was looking over the car when he suddenly laughed. My colleague thinking something may have been wrong, asked if everything was alright. "Yes," the buyer replied. "Those are the same column switches that are fitted in my Ferrari Testarossa."

Who knows what parts are lurking under the bonnet of your humble little runabout...

It's that time of year again...

Saturday, sat at terminal 5 at Heathrow, waiting for a flight - the start to my year always seems to involve disappearing to far flung corners of the globe - so far in the past 4 weeks, I've been to Poland, Korea and today I'm off to the US.

I don't mind travelling and it's nice to see some different parts of the world (albeit for work, which sometimes means I don't see much more than a hotel and an office). Jet lag is unpleasant, but thankfully I'm pretty good at sleeping on a plane. To be fair, I'm pretty good at sleeping anywhere - I think I must be making up for the little sleep I wanted as a baby according to my mum and dad.

I've timed this trip badly though - it's the start of the F1 season this weekend. It's a bit frustrating to be heading off the when it all starts again. As a Fiat fan, some of my allegiance lies with Ferrari (they do have Fiat written on the front after all!), but I like to see the British drivers doing well (my car's called Jenson - there you go!). 

Did you know there have been a few F1 drivers who've owned Fiat 500s over the past years? Michael Schumacher did - if it's good enough for a 7 time world champion, then who's going to argue with that? Other F1 owners have apparently included Jarno Trulli, Nick Heidfled, Jean Alesi, Johnny Herbert. I've even seen mention of Sebastien Vettel having an old Fiat 500 among his collection of cars.

Why would anyone who makes a living out of driving cars as fast and hi-tech as a Formula one car want to own something as simple (and lets face it, comparatively slow) as a Fiat 500? Maybe it's a nostalgia thing, maybe it makes a nice change not to drive a car with that many buttons on the steering wheel  - who knows. It's nice to think that someone who has the chance to drive something as amazing as a Formula one car would also enjoy something like a Fiat 500.

Well, my flight will be heading off in a bit - time for me to sort myself out for the flight to Chicago. Hopefully I'll get to see some of Q2 and Q3 when I arrive, given the weather issues in Melbourne. Who do I think will do well this season? My automotive head says Ferrari (Fiat), my patriotic head says an Englishman, my practical head says Vettel is in with a chance again. Let's see what happens!

Good day sunshine...

It's the first Saturday in February 2013 - and it's been a beauty! Glorious winter sunshine, a little bit on the chilly side, but nothing a jumper wouldn't keep out. There was only one thing to do - get the car out!

My last post was looking back at the state of him when he first arrived - definitely in need of more than a little TLC. Well, now he's looking much, much better.

He started first time - a little bit of choke, turned over for a few seconds, then the unmistakable sound of 650ccs chugging away.  Everything has started to bed in nicely now - the gearbox is much smoother than it was when it was first fitted, the engine runs smoothly and idles beautifully once it's up to temperature - wonderful stuff.

The body work is in a much better state now - no more holes, no more tired paintwork:

There is now a functioning bonnet catch, which is much better than the "stick a finger in the hole and fiddle about with the mechanism" method previously used, especially if the engine has been running for a while and things have warmed up (ouch!). Yes, that is a GB badge on the back. We've been toying with the idea of taking on a bit of a trip at some point - not this year, but maybe in the future (watch this space, as they say). This year we'll be sticking to the UK!

The front badge is something that did get changed  - the sloping 1970's Fiat badge although original just isn't as nice as this one. Maybe if the car had been more original in terms of the running gear, I might have left it as it was. I like this one - it matches the horn button nicely!

It's not only outside that has been improved:

The roof and fittings are rust free now, which is a big improvement. The dashboard was in reasonable shape anyway, but a little cleaning and tidying has helped things along.

The door linings are properly attached now and as you can see, the roof opens perfectly. Just the thing on a sunny day!

All in all it's been a good day - I'm hoping that we're in for a few more sunny weekends so that I can get out in my car!

One final picture - my Little Blue Fiat and his younger brother, my 500 sport in the background. He was getting jealous of all the attention his older brother was getting!

 Here's hoping 2013 has it's fair share of good weather!

So, the new year started optimistically - get out on the road, get a few more miles on the clock, enjoy getting my car out. I'm currently looking out the window at a rather lovely Christmas card scene with more snow falling from the sky and a good layer of ice on our street. As much as I love driving, now is probably not the time to go out unless it's a necessity.

To console myself, I've been having a quick dig through some photos of my Little Blue Fiat, dating back to the point he first arrived.

As you can see. he's come a long way - this is him when he first arrived (hanging out with a Stilo and a Punto Sporting - yes, it is a Punto Sporting. You can't see that clearly from the photo (other than the slight spoiler over the rear window), but trust me it is - it was my other half's car at the time!)

 Probably the first thing you'll notice (other than the lack of a bonnet catch and badly faded light clusters) is the paintwork - after the best part of 30 years driving round various parts of Italy and the UK, time and weather conditions had taken it's toll. Anyone that's owned an older Fiat or any older car will know all about this - my 1989 Fiat Uno which was, according to the manufacturers plate Rosso Corse, was as everyone else called it "Fiat Orange".

Some of the paintwork damage was superficial and with a bit of time and some careful polishing, would have been fine. Other bits - well, other bits had stopped being bits and had turned into holes. Again, anyone that's owned an older car (especially an Italian one) will know of their reputation for rust. My little car had succumbed too.

 The roof fixings, odd patches on the wheel arches and door sills, one or two blisters round the windows. It wasn't only on the outside...

 Yes, the bodywork needed some work, bits would need replacing, it would probalby need a resapray as a result, but nothing was impossible.

The front panel needed a bit of work as well:

Obvioulsy a new number plate was in order! There were also four small holes on the front, just above the bumper. These were where the original Italian Number plate would have been. It would have been lovely to find him with that still attached, but it was long gone. As he was a 500R, he had the later Fiat badge on the front (the sloping letters). Although the authentic badge for the age of car, we opted to swap this for an older version, purely on aesthetics.
And so onto the next part - the engine, gearbox and running gear.

 It needed work, there was no doubt about that. It's actually not that difficult to get a complete replacement engine and geabox, which is waht we did in the end. The beauty of the Fiat 500 is that it was designed to be easy to work on, so the engine is small, accessible and removable - it was intended as a car for the people, cheap, practical, city friendly. If you watch the shots of Turin in the Italian Job (the original and by far the best version), you can see that this was the case - the city is full of them. They were ideal for the hustle and bustle and narrow streets of the Italian town or city. The first time I saw the new engine and gearbox for mine, it was happily sitting on a workshop bench, not taking up surprisingly little room - a compact uncomplicated air cooled engine with equally compact gearbox. So, that was the engine sorted. We chose to go for a 5 speed gearbox to make the most out of a slightly larger engine than the original one would have been. As a result we also changed the brakes all round to disc brakes - if we were going quicker, we wanted to be able to stop quicker too. 


And so, the interior. Well, you've already seen the roof. Yes, that would need a bit of work. That wasn't the only bit.

 The door liners were on the loose side and were worn.

Most of it wasn't too bad - certainly nothing too serious.

The dashboard was in a reasonable state as well - yes, it's in kilometres and the writing is in Italian, but that's half the fun of it! And yes, that's pretty much it in the way of dashboard features. Lights, battery, petrol, oil. Nice and simple.  The steering wheel and associated swtiches and levers was fine - quick coat of paint on the metal work and it would be good as new.

There were also other things like wheels, petrol tank, window trims - all of which would need looking at and deciding whether they could be salvaged or would need replacing.

It was a longish list and it took some time to complete, but now it's done. It's nice to look back and see how far he's come and the improvements that have been made and a few little customisations.

All I need now is some decent weather and a free weekend...

Happy new year - time for some resolutions...

A quick hello to 2013! Those last few months flew by. One minute it was the Jubilee weekend, then all of a sudden Christmas was here! In between times, I've been busy with work, managed to spend two weeks in Korea (some work, some time to have a look round) and probably spent too much time watching sport (bit of football, the Olympics, quite a lot of F1). Christmas seemed to arrive out of nowhere!

It's the start of 2013 and time to look ahead. My car arrived back just before Christmas (my other half collected it - I was off to Norwich and Cambridge, but that's a story for another day!) so the plan is to get out and get a few more miles under our collective belt. I have been informed that he's driving like a dream, the gear box has bedded in nicely and he's got quite a turn of speed (in Fiat 500 terms). Here's hoping that the weather smiles on us!

A tale of the unexpected...

Ever had one of those days (or couple of days) where things life takes a bit of a surprising turn? Well, that just about sums up the past two days.

The simple plan for Friday was delivery of a new fridge, return of my car in place of my other  half's little red car. I'd got a meeting in London, so wasn't expecting to be there for most of it, just come home to find a) a new fridge in the kitchen and b) my car in place of my other half's.

It must have been about 4:30pm on Thursday when there was a knock at the door  - the fridge was being delivered a day early! Cue a bout of car and furniture shuffling to make space to get the fridge into the kitchen. My other half's red car was moved on the driveway to make room - it was after the delivery driver took a look at it he said "so, is it an Abarth?" 10 out of 10 for spotting that on the sump! One cup of tea and a lot of careful shuffling, one fridge was in the kitchen and there had been a bit of general discussion about the car.

Friday was the day for the return of my car. We weren't 100% sure what time Stef was likely to arrive, so we were looking out the window every time a car drove into our street. At about 2:30pm, a taxi pulled up .We assumed it was going to one of our neighbours, but I could see the passenger pointing to our house. A man got up and came running up to the house. My other half opened the door and the man said "are you waiting for Stef?"

It turned out that Stef was bringing some spares with him and had agreed to meet up somewhere between our house and London. The recipient of the parts, Tim, had beaten Stef to our house. Well, there was only one thing to do - invite him in for a cup of tea. Tim's 500 is Right Hand Drive and Tahiti Yellow (its original colour). It also has the same 5 speed box as mine. This was the reason for the spare parts - the car wasn't staying in 1st gear and was making some rather unpleasant noises. On further investigation, it turned out that there was damage to the main cogs in the gear box. Stef was bringing the replacement parts and Tim's Jubilee weekend (or at least part of it) was going to be spent replacing and repairing it.

Stef arrived about 3pm - traffic out of London was a nightmare (Friday afternoon, Jubilee - not ideal). My car looked and drove beautifully - the idle problems had been dealt with (back to a mechanical rather electronic control) and everything had generally been tightened up after a bit of bedding in. Stef still reckons there are a few more things to do - he's a bit of a perfectionist and there are one or two bits he's still not happy with, so he'll be wanting it back at some point. It'll be a few weeks or so - the other half's car has one or two bits to sort out and Stef is off to Monza this weekend for the Coppa Intereuropa to look after a rather nice Abarth, so he's as busy as always.

Well, it's a long (extra long 4 day!) weekend - and I know 3 people who will be busy with Fiats. One will be fixing a gearbox, one will be making sure an Abarth stays on track and (hopefully) comes back with a trophy and one will be quite  happy to have her car and be driving around in it. Have a good Jubilee weekend, whatever you're up to!

Where did that time go?

Yes, I know. I've been slacking on the blog front. First Christmas, then a bout of snow, then work (including a frenzy of travelling round the UK, Europe, the Far East and then the US) - thankfully things have quietened down for a bit. At least a for month or so anyway. 

My plans at the start of the year were:

1. Get car back

2. Get some more miles in

3. Get the gearbox a bit more worn in

4. Try to get to Bristol Italian Motor Festival

5. Try and get to the Italian Car festival at Brooklands.

Well, none of these have happened. Snow was the first minor problem - we don't live in what you'd call a rural area, but it's amazing how many people sturggle to get out and about in that sort of weather. I had to drive to Portsmouth after an overnight covering and to be fair, it wasn't as bad as it looked (anyone reading this outside of the UK where snow is a regular occurence, yes, our idea of bad snow isn't a patch on yours!). 

Second issue - work and work travel. My work travel varies from 10 minutes up the road (literally - my boss has even questioned my mileage claims before, thinking I've missed a zero off it's that close) to having to fly to Korea, China, the US and Europe. The first 3 months of the year are notoriously busy for me, so this soon eats into any free time I may have, including weekends. 

The plan was for my little car to come back in April while I was in the US. Unfortunately, there was another unforseen accidient - a broken ankle! Not for me but Stef, our Fiat 500 guru. He was lucky - he was knocked off his motorbike in London and came away with a few bruises and the break. All in all it could have been a lot worse. Having been at university in London, I had quite a few friends who came close to ending up as an RTA statistic while riding bicycles to and from college. The good news is the ankle is on the mend and it's now a case of getting it back to normal service.

So, with this and a combinations of birthdays (mine and my other half's), catching up with relatives and other things, Bristol and Brooklands both went by the wayside. Still, there's always next year, and the rest of this year to look forward to. Who knows, we might even get a bit of open roof weather (crosses fingers).