Mystery Car of the Week***January 2nd, 2006***

[LannyMCS]

Well, here it is. It's small, and it's pretty old (older than me.)

By the time this one was built, they'd produced almost a million of them, and yet I've never seen one in person......

http://img348.imageshack.us/img348/4284/oldandsmall5nq.jpg

[Peregrine]

that looks like the Mini Cooper,
although I've never seen it with that bumper and the front emblem (at least I don't remember the front emblem). It must be a customized Mini Cooper.
Is that a wide body? lol

[LannyMCS]

that looks like the Mini Cooper,
although I've never seen it with that bumper and the front emblem (at least I don't remember the front emblem). It must be a customized Mini Cooper.
Is that a wide body? lol

This car was actually sold a few years before the original Mini. It's not British though. It's 6" longer and 2" taller than a Mini, but it is narrower than a Mini by 1".

The fact that this particular one is wearing Minilite wheels, which were commonplace on early Minis, would certainly make one think this could be a Mini, but the owner of this car probably couldn't find any other 13" performance rim that fit......

[Peregrine]

Hmm... that emblem definitely rings a bell, but without searching on the net, I can't tell.

[AcidLotus]

Minus the front bumper, it looks like the red car in the movie "Some Kind of Wonderful" that Watts drives. Maybe Alfa Romeo?

[ChinchillaX]

looks like a modified Subaru 360.

[LannyMCS]

Minus the front bumper, it looks like the red car in the movie "Some Kind of Wonderful" that Watts drives. Maybe Alfa Romeo?

Watts drives an original Mini; these cars do look very similar. The bumper on the car I posted isn't stock; here's what a stock one looks like:

http://img326.imageshack.us/img326/3251/oldandsmall22tx.jpg

[HondaMan]

Minus the front bumper, it looks like the red car in the movie "Some Kind of Wonderful" that Watts drives. Maybe Alfa Romeo?

Alfa is my guess as well. :donno:

[LannyMCS]

Alfa is my guess as well. :donno:

No, it's not an Alfa, but here's a clue. You're in the right country :D.....

[lokman]

Some sort of Fiat?

[HondaMan]

Some sort of Fiat?

:sprint:

That would have been my guess as well.

[Peregrine]

ok, I know what it is, but I cheated cause I used intenet for research. But if nobody (honestly) will know, I can post the answer tonight. But remember - honestly, because if you start the research, I was first in line
:)

[MemphisRheins]

yeah, I thought it was a Alpha myself, could be a Fiat, to tell the truth I have no Idea anymore at this point

[dina]

I think its a Fiat. Its so cute

[LannyMCS]

Yes, Fiat it is.........

[Peregrine]

so nobody knows it yet?
Can I post the answer Lanny?

[bob shiftright]

so nobody knows it yet?
Can I post the answer Lanny?

Fiat Abarth. (Note the airscoop.)

[Peregrine]

Hmm...
I was gonna say Fiat 600 - http://kadusa.com/fiat600/eng/
I think the air scoop is just a custom thing, and the name Abarth is kind of applicable to other very different models, too. I think "Abarth" was just an extension of the Fiat manufacturer's name, in the older days. So like most of them were Fiat Abarth ...

[bob shiftright]

http://www.forum-auto.com/uploads/200408/rosso_racing_1093157781_abarth1000tcr_200.jpeg

Abarth 600.

http://www2.uol.com.br/bestcars/carros/fiat/antigos/600-abarth-1000-tc-1968.jpg

Carlos Abarth was an Italian hot-rodder, kinda like Carol Shelby, except he was working with 600cc 2-cylinders while Shelby was working with 4700cc V8s.

I always thoughgt the rear hood propped up on rods was a nice Abarth touch! (Combination of better cooling, a spoiler, plus then you didn't have to be so particular about routing your exhaust system!)

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://vea.qc.ca/vea/v/fiatabarth850.jpg&imgrefurl=http://vea.qc.ca/vea/club/voitures1.htm&h=300&w=450&sz=29&tbnid=ye0QcBC6rzMJ:&tbnh=82&tbnw=124&hl=en&start=4&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAbarth%2B600%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%2 6lr%3D%26sa%3DN

He also did some lightweights for Porsche, the Porsche Abarth Carrera.

http://es.geocities.com/porsche2001es/images/abarthb.jpg

http://www.classiccarsmagazine.co.uk/uploads/2003/05/18/tn_image22copy.jpg

[Peregrine]

ok, so then Lanny's first picture is the Fiat 600 Abarth. But his 2nd picture is the unmodified Fiat 600.

[bob shiftright]

http://www.f600club-filiales.com.ar/FotosVarias/Abarth/FiatAbarthVolcado.jpg

They seem to have become popular in Vintage Sports Car Racing -- Of course, you can rebuild the motor on your coffee table! (Kinda hard to do with a McLaren!)

BTW do you think these guys are rolling it back up on it's wheels, or stealing the driver's watch and wallet?

[LannyMCS]

Well, I was going to be happy if someone knew it was a Fiat 600; I thought it needed the disguise of the Abarth bodywork to trick people but Bob Shiftright took it one step further and even nailed the custom stuff. So, congrats to Bob; you get to post a new one next Monday :D...........

[ThePanda]

Yea, the original car is a Fiat 600, but if you grew up in eastern europe, you would know the cheap yugoslavian knockoff, the Zastava 750, and 850. Not sure how many of the Fiats were manufactured, but the Zastava was the most popular car on the whole balkan peninsula. My immediate family has owned 4 of these bad boys, and if I were to count extended family, I'm pretty sure we'd reach 50 :D They were amazing, yet a shitbox at the same time. They would run on nearly any fuel you dumped into them, and never FULLY broke down, but they would malfunction 99% of the time. 2 of the 4 we owned the locks failed, one of them the ignition key failed, so we had to rig a button to start the car (and the S2000 is proud of that :grinno: ), and on ALL of them, you'd have to adjust the jettings for the carb nearly everytime you wanted to drive the car, cuz it would sputter and die instead of idling properly.

[Peregrine]

LOL, yeah, sounds like a lot of Eastern European cars at the time, especially similar to Fiat 126p - all that you described and more.

[bob shiftright]

Well, I was going to be happy if someone knew it was a Fiat 600; I thought it needed the disguise of the Abarth bodywork to trick people but Bob Shiftright took it one step further and even nailed the custom stuff. So, congrats to Bob; you get to post a new one next Monday :D...........

So I don't even get a cyber-beer or sumpin'????

http://hem.passagen.se/pretend/EUbilar/DKW%201954%203-6.jpg

Then I gotta dig up some kind of obscure car and post a pitcher of it from image-shack???

Well, THAT sure ain't too much of a prize, is it? (But I'll still see what I can do! :D)

(BTW, Larch probably knows the above car if he grew up in the Fatherland after WW-2!)

[larchmont]

Hey Bob -- I only "grew up" there till the age of 6 months. :D

[Rabb]

fiat 600.

my aunt to this day still has one !! all 25hp of it HAHAHA

[Rabb]

Yea, the original car is a Fiat 600, but if you grew up in eastern europe, you would know the cheap yugoslavian knockoff, the Zastava 750, and 850. Not sure how many of the Fiats were manufactured, but the Zastava was the most popular car on the whole balkan peninsula. My immediate family has owned 4 of these bad boys, and if I were to count extended family, I'm pretty sure we'd reach 50 :D They were amazing, yet a shitbox at the same time. They would run on nearly any fuel you dumped into them, and never FULLY broke down, but they would malfunction 99% of the time. 2 of the 4 we owned the locks failed, one of them the ignition key failed, so we had to rig a button to start the car (and the S2000 is proud of that :grinno: ), and on ALL of them, you'd have to adjust the jettings for the carb nearly everytime you wanted to drive the car, cuz it would sputter and die instead of idling properly.


you still see them everywhere ... zastava was HONDA of yugoslavia back in the day .. yugo was the honda civic hahaha !!

[bimmer_w]

BTW do you think these guys are rolling it back up on it's wheels, or stealing the driver's watch and wallet?


HAHAHA, i thought this only happens in the philippines. at broad daylight and with lots of witnesses! lol.