Re: My Winter Project

Picture Gallery

My Winter Project

Fiat128 02-19-2008, 5:56 PM
I sold my little 1972 Fiat 128 Sedan, which has served me well for a couple years of track duty. While it was a "tad" slower than the STi I tracked before, it ran a dozen events on the same brake pads, same set of Kumho V710 tires, and got me back to tinkering with cars, instead of just little motorcycles. Quick pick of the 128 for reference:

Late fall, I decided to sell the Fiat as I had been bitten by the Formula Vee bug. After a bit of searching, I came across a 1964 Autodynamics FV from the South/Central California area, that was being run in VARA. It was a mid-pack car, and needed a good freshening up. It came with some spare parts (engine parts, complete trans, extra set of wheels) and a 10' enclosed trailer.

As picked up:

After a couple weekends of plotting and scheming, I had my list of "to-do" items, and began work. It didn't take long to get it stripped down to the frame. I did a bit of a redesign in the rear suspension, and added a bit of gusseting to the chassis, all keeping it Vintage Monoposto legal. It then got a fresh coat of silver paint:

A few weeks later, most of the "big" components found their way back into the chassis, thanks to a couple of four-day weekends over Christmas and New Years:

Another couple weekends allowed me to flush the car out, including most accessory items like steering, seats, fuel cell, harnesses etc.:

I also put together a proper dash panel, including a nice little home-built (thanks Sean) digital tach:

...to be continued...

www.subrew.com

Re: My Winter Project

Fiat128 02-19-2008, 5:57 PM
And, just yesterday, I managed to run it up and down the road for the first time, sans body work. After that, I spent a slow couple of hours getting the freshly painted body panels on the car, and sure enough, it starts to look like a car:

I'm going for a WW2 Fighter plane look, and with a friend's help (rallydecals.com) I'll soon have a nice graphics package to complete the look. I'll update this thread with more pics as the car gets more complete.

Looking forward to getting out on track in March.

Chris H.

www.subrew.com

Re: My Winter Project

tracknut 02-23-2008, 5:27 PM
That car looks awesome, Chris, nice job! Looks more like an airplane than a car. I look forward to seeing it live and in person.

Dave

Dave Mills
2003 Radical SR3

Re: My Winter Project

Mike Hall 02-24-2008, 12:31 AM

Nice job Chris! Where does it fit in ARC or do you plan on racing it? I'm also looking forward to seeing it. Can't weigh 1000 lbs....with me it would!

Mike

Mike Hall
NCRC/ARC #10
'95 Mustang Cobra (race car)
'03 Mustang Mach 1 (road/track)
'93 Mustang 5.0 LX (drag car)

Re: My Winter Project

tracknut 03-06-2008, 9:28 PM
I think he'll still be in GT4, Mike. Unless there's one of those fancy Berlina sewing machine motors in there, then GT3.
:) :) :) :)

Dave

Dave Mills
2003 Radical SR3