1970 Racer with Abarth emblem

I

iburyem73

Daily Driver
I am new to the forum and new to the fiat world...but getting drawn in quickly. Wondering if anyone can answer how many '70 abarth (or if they just put the emblem on it at some time) Racers were built or may still be around....I have bought one here in Hawaii, comes with a title and a ton of extra parts (three complete cars worth all disassembled). I will be restoring the racer and selling everything not needed.
 
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What do you mean by 1972 racer?

This?



If so, I believe 4 full rally cars and 1 road version. I also believe all of those have been accounted for, but there is a lot of speculation about that.

Photos of yours would help a lot.

Cheers,

Rob
 
Do you mean...

A Fiat 850 Racer? Like an 850 Spider, but a hardtop? If so I might be interested in some parts.
 
yes it is a 850 spider racer (hardtop). All of the extra parts to a standard 850 spider, including a removable hardtop.
 
It looks like the 1970 850 Spider Racer that I have seen online. It has a non removable hardtop. I have seen two different number for how many total were built, one was 1500 and the other said around 4500 with only a few hundred left. This is a true barn find. The old fiat collector has had it for years and held this one back to someday restore it.
 
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They made around 2890 Racers. Most came to the USA.

They were available from 1970 to 1972, so three model years.

It started as a 1967 show car that was shown with the early style covered headlights but never went into production in that form, I believe the original car was part of the Bertone collection. All production cars had the 1969 series two body with exposed headlights.

All production cars in the US had the 903cc engine and were delivered from the factory with a lovely (not) vinyl roof covering on the hard top.

There are still some lovely examples around, they are extremely rare cars in any case. There are a large number of replicas that didn't start out as a Racer from the factory. The hard tops lasted better than the cars they were bolted to...
 
thanks so much for the information. this one does not have vinyl on the top. It also has the mirror mounted more forward on the fender than any i have seen. It is not terrible rusty but does need the normal. It is complete.
 
It is a 1970 Spider Racer. I'm guessing someone put the abarth lettering on the back and it was not an abarth?
 
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Very Rare car you got there. :thumbsup:

Since it is an Abarth, it's well worth spending the time and cash to bring it back to as new condition
 
Careful

Be careful, as the chrome letters on the back plate were easily transferred. An original OT would have had a ventilated back plate as seen here: http://bringatrailer.com/2011/08/28/smoky-project-1967-fiat-abarth-1000-ot-spider/ and here http://bringatrailer.com/2010/06/28/in-pieces-1966-fiat-abarth-ot-1000-spider/

The Abarths will have a serial number that is specific to Abarths and an engine number that is also specific. Usually the engine number would start with AB

I know some about Abarths but am not an expert, I would be careful about assuming it is in fact one. Jeff Stich knows much more and will hopefully chime in.

My recollection is that the show car was a early covered headlight car and was the only Abarth labeled Racer I am aware of.

This is not to say that the car is unworthy of restoration, a rare car is a rare car. A well restored Racer will bring 10k so one could reasonably sink some money into it.

The reproduction labeling is still available if you want to reapply it.
 
He's right...in fact

there's been a small (very small) cottage industry making "regular" Racers look like Abarth's.

You have the Racer quilted dash and Racer side cards, but didn't see the Racer console. Looks like you have a ton of body work to do, having done the same on mine I'd say you have several hundred hours of work to do.

Good luck with the car! It's worth saving and I'm very glad you plan on doing so. It will be a very unique car at car shows when finished, if you plan on going that route.

I'd gently suggest you NOT sell your extra parts immediately, just until you know for sure what you are going to need. Since you are in Hawaii it might be very difficult for you to get spares in the future. Admittedly I have no idea what the real parts availability is where you live, and am making a SWAG.

But good luck! As a fellow 850 Spider owner I'll tell you, you have a lot of work and even more fun heading your way now :)

Couple other suggestion and please forgive my impudence here:

Check out FiatSpider.com, they have a small but good Fiat 850 forum there (as we do here) and check out the Yahoo Fiat 850 group. Be careful there, there are several make sure you join the one with several hundred members and "lots" of activities.

Of all of our 850 vendors probably Obert's shop is the best on inventory, Midwest Bayless is really good too. Mr Fiat in Atlanta is the only place I've seen in the US with NOS and reproduction parts (seat covers, dashes, door cards, body panels). Mr Fiat is very expensive, but when you have a monopoly on new stuff, it's to be expected.

I would finally suggest you not sell your Racer stuff, especially logos. (Unless to me :) )

Jeff Stich knows more about the 850 series than I think anyone. R&D Automotive (see You Tube) is the main group racing 850's if you decide to go that route. I'll shut up now.
 
Welcome and thanks for posting the photos...

You can post ALL the photos in one thread simply by clicking-on... Click to add image to post again, each time. Then click on Preview Post before Submit Reply to see what it will look like.

As Mr. McKenzie says... you have a ton of sheet metal work ahead of you and hopefully YOU have the SKILLS to do the work or the $$$ to have it done. I can't ever recall seeing a Hard-top before. Congrats!
 
Thanks for all of the info...The metalworking doesn't scare me on this car as I have experience with all of that as well as the mechanical. I most likely will be asking for help in figuring out which parts are original to this car. I want to make sure it is as original as possible and since there are three extra cars worth of parts some distinguishing will need to be done. I am also the General Manager for our local tv station here in Hawaii, I plan to take a lot of video and put together a show on the progress of the rebuild. Any thoughts, recommendations and criticism is welcome! LOL
 
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