[DeTomaso] NPC: 850 Fiat Spider driving impressions

[Jerry Knotts]

So Sean,  If you get this car and don't like the power level you can up 
the anti with another Fiat motor. About 6 months ago a friend was 
selling an estate for a widow and asked if I could come by and identify 
a little race car that the fellow had purchased.  It was a Fiat 850 with 
a 1300 spyder engine that had been modified to run backward. Strange 
little car set up for autocross.  It had a couple of DCOE side drafts 
and was really peppy.  I wasn't familiar enough with the water pump to 
tell if the belt was routed differently or the pump impeller had been 
changed.  Anyway I offered $1000 if they could not sell it to anybody.  
They put it on EPAY and it went back to the left coast from whence it 
had come (somewhere north of $4000) about a year earlier.  Anything is 
possible with enough effort.

jerry knotts

On 6/8/2013 6:08 PM, Sean Korb wrote:
> There is slight Pantera content, but come on.
>
> My first car was given to me by my father when I was 11 years old: a 1969
> 850 Fiat Spider.  It wasn't much of a gift, as in the north these poor
> things rusted out in less than 5 years.  So I used my paper route money to
> buy a lot of bondo, and I bolted my swing set to the bulkheads to keep it
> from splitting in half.  I rebuilt the motor (cracked piston) and when I
> was 16 I started it up and drove it a few miles.  We couldn't afford to put
> it on the family's insurance policy so it sat, and when I was without a
> home the summer of my 17th year it was parked on the street and the city
> took it away.
>
> So today I saw a lovely '73 Fiat.  Did you know there's a cross brace under
> the passenger compartment?  This is news to me as the one on my '69 had
> thoroughly rusted away into the aether.
> http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3790786060.html
>
> It was as described.  No rust.  And it really runs great for a 40 year old
> car.  He said I was the only person who knew how to drive it.  In the
> corner, you downshift, turn in and then mash the gas.  It's natural for me
> in any car I'm in, but modern cars are so forgiving that you don't really
> have to go through that ritual.  In the Fiat, the 812cc motor will stall
> and you will come to an abrupt halt.  It's a really very well balanced car,
> and the rear end doesn't want to swing out as much as I remembered as a 16
> year old (radial vs bias tires?), but driving by yourself would be more fun
> as having a passenger adds almost 10% to the gross weight.
>
> So the worst part about it is I made him an offer, he counter offered and I
> held firm and got the price I wanted.  One final condition though, my
> spouse is pretty upset with me for considering a car that I don't have
> garage space for and might leave to rot.  I have to say I share her
> feelings.  I told the seller I would decide this week and he did not have
> to hold the car for me.
>
> This is a tougher decision than I would like it to be.  I should really use
> the money to get the air conditioning working in the Pantera and drive it
> in the summer months more.
>
> Thanks for any advice, cat calls or 2 cents.
>
> sean