850 Engine swap?

Quote :"The trouble is if you compete in Fiat club events there is a list of engines you can use that come from the Fiat family, Lancia, Alfa, Ferrari etc"

Show me:
1. An active FIAT club in the US.
2. An active FIAT club in the US that even cares about the engines at a car show
3. Hell, right now I'd be happy for ANY car show or club event thats not a Zoom call.

FCA is active, there are lots of chapters, sadly most are east of the great divide.

Rear Engine Fiat Club based out of LA will likely be active in the coming year.
 
My impression, FCA is factory sponsored with mission to sell new cars.

Rear Engine club (merkle) is strictly a Los Angeles newsletter that can very loosely called a club with ocassional hot dog night at Merkles house. Having been to several of the hot dog nights, nobody that hangs out with those guys cares what engine you put in your Fiat.
 
Show me: 1. An active FIAT club in the US.

FCA & Fiat America are 2 that come to mind. There are other more regional-specific clubs out there, but since I'm not a member, I have no idea of their activities.


2. An active FIAT club in the US that even cares about the engines at a car show

FCA does (or used to), if judging in certain categories. Most other US clubs are smaller with more-relaxed guidelines.
 
FCA & Fiat America are 2 that come to mind. There are other more regional-specific clubs out there, but since I'm not a member, I have no idea of their activities.

My comment was a bit tongue in cheek, but turns out more true than expected. The Fiat America affiliate in Arizona is one guy with a 600. There is an active club in Seattle, FEN. There annual show is in cooperation with XXX rootbeer. Any italian cars as well as Harley-Davidsons are welcome. Was cancelled last year, and the year before.



FCA does (or used to), if judging in certain categories. Most other US clubs are smaller with more-relaxed guidelines.

FCA or former FLU? Seems to be an east coast phenomena, no real activity out west. Go to their website, buy a 500 (discontinued!)
 
The Fiat America I was referring to is based in Northern/Central California, not Arizona.

http://fiatamerica.com/

This is not corporate-sponsored Fiat Club America (the shell of the former Fiat Lancia Unlimited, aka Fiat Lancia Underground).
 
Thanks Jeff, I may sign up for the newsletter membership. I am considering dropping my AROC membership. The national newsletter is a glossy mag with Zero interest to me. I have been an AROC member since the mid 70's.
 
Quote :"The trouble is if you compete in Fiat club events there is a list of engines you can use that come from the Fiat family, Lancia, Alfa, Ferrari etc"

Show me:
1. An active FIAT club in the US.
2. An active FIAT club in the US that even cares about the engines at a car show
3. Hell, right now I'd be happy for ANY car show or club event thats not a Zoom call.
Not all the forum readers are USA based. The Australian Fiat clubs are very active.
 
You mean the Really Empty Fiat Club? :(
Sadly that is true. Fiat owners are so widely spaced and most are not ’clubby’ people so most of the clubs don’t do very well.

I lead a chapter of FCA in Michigan and deal with the reality of being far flung, having busy lives and a strange set of interests across the whole of them. Some just want to go for a drive, others meet for a meal, some like working on their cars and a small number like to do autocrossing/track time. Young owners, older owners. Newer cars, old cars. The interests and values are so widely varied it is hard to have a club.

I enjoyed the REFC when I lived in LA as we did a number of drives and get togethers but it was few and far between as you suggest.

How many rear engined Fiats are even left in California?
 
Out here in Houston we have a pretty active group. We don't always get together, but when we do it's always a good turn out.
 
But we can still call the new 124 a FIAT, right? Of course it would still be a FIAT. It just wouldn't have a FIAT engine anymore. The OP didn't place any restrictions on where the engines came from. I get purism. I was a purist in the VW world for two decades. But I got over it. There are places where purism makes more sense and places where purism makes less sense. This place here is one of the latter, at least for me.

I mentioned the Beetle engine because there are precious few potential native rear engine donors that would not require a bell housing adapter to stick with the already fragile stock transmission. If I can make something simpler, more powerful, lighter, and less expensive all in one move, I'll do it.

I might be totally misunderstanding the 124 reference but the Fiata has a 500 engine? so you should be good with that.
 
I might be totally misunderstanding the 124 reference but the Fiata has a 500 engine? so you should be good with that.

The Engine is about the only FIAT part it has. If some day I need a heart transplant from a pig, would the result make me a pig? Go ahead and tell all of the K-swapped X owners that they actually own Hondas and not FIATs.

The engine does not change the make of the car. From the beginning of automotive manufacturing, some automakers would buy engines from another automaker. Not every maker had the resources or engineering expertise to build engines. This still happens today with "boutique" auto manufacturing. If one thinks that the engine is the car, then I suppose that is his prerogative. But the engine is just a component of the car, not its identity. You can change the character of a car by changing its engine, but you're not changing its identity.
 
When we do have car show's in the USA, when I park my 600 in spectator parking as it is a daily driver not a "show" car they pretty much beg me to show it just to have more cars in the show.
 
Moving to a VW transaxle could allow you to use a Passat type transaxle with a twin cam B series engine but you may find it is too tall, the single cams are lower.

The problem with the Passat transmissions is that they would produce a mid engine 850 rather than a rear engine, which means considerable work to pull off. Beetle transmissions, on the other hand, have the correct orientation, tons of aftermarket support, and engine adapters for practically any engine worth mentioning.
 
The Engine is about the only FIAT part it has. If some day I need a heart transplant from a pig, would the result make me a pig? Go ahead and tell all of the K-swapped X owners that they actually own Hondas and not FIATs.

The engine does not change the make of the car. From the beginning of automotive manufacturing, some automakers would buy engines from another automaker. Not every maker had the resources or engineering expertise to build engines. This still happens today with "boutique" auto manufacturing. If one thinks that the engine is the car, then I suppose that is his prerogative. But the engine is just a component of the car, not its identity. You can change the character of a car by changing its engine, but you're not changing its identity.

Ok, I said that the engine in the 124 was a Fiat. You responded with a long confusing rant that basically said "the Fiat engine in the 124 doesn't make it a Fiat". Not sure where you are going here.
I have a GM Ecotec in the back seat of my 600 but that doesn't make it a 2007 Saturn Ion that the engine came from.
 
Quote: "If some day I need a heart transplant from a pig, would the result make me a pig?"

What does your wife say?
 
Really? Cool! Any photos?
Thanks
I bumped my old E/M 600 thread and added some pics. Putting a transverse engine/trans in an 850 would require pretty much what we had to do in the 600----start with a lot of cutting and then a lot of fabrication.
 
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