Tell me about Fiat Cinquecentos

[Lankytim]

Ive just been given one with a blown headgasket, good order otherwise though. Are they any good and what engines will fit to boost the peformance? I'm kinda toying with the idea of a budget track day car

[Panda Matt]

There was this thread last month on Cinq's. Even features a minor DarrenW picflood...

I like them!

[Lankytim]

Wow, someones doing what I hope to do- thanks!

[akku]

pretty much all covered there, especially the "DO IT" imperitive.

[trg1984]

ooo yeah go for it mate, slap a turbo on it and grin ur face off

[Lankytim]

don't fancy a turbo TBH, too complicated to install reliably for my little brain. Prefer the larger engine route..... Uno lumps don't fit though??

[akku]

1.2 8v appears to be the choisen option.

[Lankytim]

Ok, ill get looking.

Havent even seen this Cinq TBH. all i know is its in good nick with MOT but the head gaskets gone.

Ive found a couple of 1100 sporting engines on the bay. are they much good? Straight swap for the 800cc lump?

[dollywobbler]

Sportings are certainly nippy but not mind-blowing.

[deathgaytothemax]

standard cinqs the struts are curse word and leak,they handle like pregnant pigs,the front gearbox mountings have a tendancy to smash,wishbones bend,part of the electrics for single point injection goes tits up.they are horrible horrible cars.iv bin abusing them for the last few years now.98mph ish flat out down the motor way haha frightening

[Lankytim]

There no good then should I weigh it in?

[dollywobbler]

Shouldn't base your decision on one person. I'd be tempted to do it anyway as it'll be cheap fun!

[vicsmith]

Ran a Cinq sporting for a bit back in May, it was a lot of fun . The standard Seicento is a laugh as well with the 1108cc lump in it. I can only assume therefore that a standard Cinq with the 1.1 or above would be a reasonable bit of kit.

Certainly don't weigh it in, you wont get f*ck all for a start cos it weighs bo diddley, but it also has a value being a insurance group 1 car - last year I had an M-reg one in with a blown head gasket and was gonna get it done as its not that bad a job but some guy offered me £350 for it "as is", and I of course took it!

[Lankytim]

Id probably get £40 for it scrap, more with a load of concrete slabs inside (just joking about that last bit Mr EMR)

Ill have to arrange picking it up soon for assessment. Not sure where I can put it though. Ill find somewhere hopefully. You say the HG isnt a bad job to do? I could just do that and smoke it about for a bit see how much I like or hate it.

[vicsmith]

Thats probably the thing to do, you could get good money for it later if you didnt like it, all these tiny little cars that get cheap ins, tax, 50-60 mpg etc are going for values out of proportion to age etc at the minute.

[Lankytim]

Well, all I know so far is its an and reg and motd till the summer......

*edit* don't know what happened there, must have been having some kind of attack...

Its an and reg and MOTD till summer.... phew....

*EDIT AGAIN* why wont it let me say and reg??

and reg
and reg
and reg

not AND!!

* E D I T *

Its the one after M reg, ok?

[CR500Dom]

We built a Panda (Cinq`s older brother) with a 1242 Fire engine in it and it abolutely flies

Its about 40-45% up on standard Power wise but its the torque that really makes the difference

Caged and lowered on Sparco suspension and soon to have a full set of Bilstiens on it

They really do take the small and light thing to extremes though...... Hollywoods one is Kerb weighted at 550kg standard

We of course stripped it all out so its lighter still

I think the next phase may well be MPI system and throttle bodies, then once thats working, Swap the head to a 16v one

So you end up with stripped and caged well handling Panda, 1242 16v MPI and Bike TB`s ;D

[Panda Matt]

Tim, just re-read my first post - didn't mean it to sound like I was complaining at you for not using the search function, it was intended as helpful

cr500dom said:

We built a Panda (Cinq`s older brother) with a 1242 Fire engine in it and it abolutely flies

Its about 40-45% up on standard Power wise but its the torque that really makes the difference

Caged and lowered on Sparco suspension and soon to have a full set of Bilstiens on it

They really do take the small and light thing to extremes though...... Hollywoods one is Kerb weighted at 550kg standard

We of course stripped it all out so its lighter still

I think the next phase may well be MPI system and throttle bodies, then once thats working, Swap the head to a 16v one

So you end up with stripped and caged well handling Panda, 1242 16v MPI and Bike TB`s ;D

Dom, we need photos!

[Mr K]

cr500dom said:

I think the next phase may well be MPI system and throttle bodies, then once thats working, Swap the head to a 16v one

So you end up with stripped and caged well handling Panda, 1242 16v MPI and Bike TB`s ;D

might as well swap the whole 1242 16v lump in too, they are stronger block, with better made, lighter stronger con rods than the 8v bottom ends. they also have the added bonus of oil jets in the bores... ready for your forced induction....

[deathgaytothemax]

do it mate,i was just pointing out the bad bits.iv written one off bent another and curse word another gear box.standard they have week clutches to.but i think the sporting has better suspension and stuff.you can get lowing springs full set for 70 quid off the bay of gay.iv got a 13inch set of oz's if the price is right like.