том
Posted a lot
"If in doubt, flat out!"
Posts: 2,707
|
|
Jan 24, 2011 17:36:38 GMT
|
Hey all,
Was after some/much info on fiat 126's. All I know is they're small, 704cc, 2 cylinder, 26(i think) BHP.
So... any thing to look out for, be aware of? How easy will it be to get a little more grunt without dropping a bike engine in there. What's the PCD? how avalable are parts? etc.
Cheers everyone
Tom
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 25, 2011 9:06:13 GMT by том
1988 V8 Rangey Bobtail :: 1968 Volvo Amazon 133 Ratrod :: 1977 Land Rover 88 :: 1985 Opel Monza GSE :: 1983 MKII Fiesta
|
|
|
|
|
Jan 24, 2011 17:39:44 GMT
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jan 24, 2011 18:57:35 GMT
|
Early ones were made in Italy and then the licence got sold to communist Poland's FSM factory. They were made under a name of 'Polski Fiat 126p' and had 650ccm air cooled engine that you can take apart and put together with your eyes closed. The one you're talking about is a BIS which came much later and shared the same angine as a Cinquecento (also produced in FSM). If you want any cheap cars / parts / info I advise looking on google.pl and translating websites as literally everything is there. Everyone had a 126p in Poland in the 80's and 90's. It was a bit more difficult to get 1 in the 70's as the waiting list was sometimes more than 10 years About bike engines have a looky:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jan 24, 2011 19:22:51 GMT
|
i had a pink one, lowered with little arches and fiat x19 wheels, i discovered it was REALLy hard to stop from 80mph, because it just bounced and skipped over bumps, was fun in summer though with the big sunroof and the doors cut in half.
|
|
Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
|
|
|
|
Jan 24, 2011 19:31:45 GMT
|
My mates into these..or was till he got married Hes still got one,a de ville model with the sunroof but its all in pieces like it has been for about 5 years,i have fond memories of going to scotland in it and also to run to the sun at newquay 2 years running ;D
|
|
1984 Subaru GLF Hatch 1983 Skoda 120LE Super estelle 1977 Subaru DL Wagon 1978 Datsun 120Y Coupe 1995 Skoda favorit estate
|
|
|
|
Jan 24, 2011 19:56:11 GMT
|
my dads got a bis sitting in his garage so buried you cant see it, he bought it over ten years ago to tow behind a camper and its never moved since. lol
|
|
Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
|
|
|
|
Jan 24, 2011 20:01:24 GMT
|
Hey Tom,.. glad you are still alive and well (I hope) I know the Fiat 126 has a great owners club who are a great bunch of guys.
|
|
|
|
том
Posted a lot
"If in doubt, flat out!"
Posts: 2,707
|
|
Jan 24, 2011 21:18:08 GMT
|
|
|
1988 V8 Rangey Bobtail :: 1968 Volvo Amazon 133 Ratrod :: 1977 Land Rover 88 :: 1985 Opel Monza GSE :: 1983 MKII Fiesta
|
|
bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,882
Club RR Member Number: 71
|
Fiat 126bstardchild
@bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member 71
|
Jan 24, 2011 22:19:26 GMT
|
Thanks for the info, really good to read such pro stories. I've been without a retro for too long now, and i'm lusting over 126's big time, specially this one... Cheers for the welcome back hotwire, i'm doin good my old fruit, hope you are too Hi Tom - *waves* Fiat 126 in readers rides should be worth a look for some inspiration aside from the bike engine element retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=display&thread=95897&page=1I learnt to drive in one - but I thought it was only 600cc
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jan 24, 2011 22:21:28 GMT
|
There were 600cc , 650cc aircooled and 700cc was in BIS EDIT: I learnt to drive in one too! When I was around 14 (on a private road)
|
|
|
|
том
Posted a lot
"If in doubt, flat out!"
Posts: 2,707
|
|
Jan 24, 2011 22:38:12 GMT
|
cheers bstard...what an awesome thread, i'll read that properly tomorrow, just skimmed the pic's, looks legen......
wait for it
.....dary
|
|
1988 V8 Rangey Bobtail :: 1968 Volvo Amazon 133 Ratrod :: 1977 Land Rover 88 :: 1985 Opel Monza GSE :: 1983 MKII Fiesta
|
|
mino
Part of things
Posts: 99
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
the bis has a watercooled horizontal twin the uk cinq is a 4cyl eng . you need to talk to urchin re these & pandas
|
|
theres more to life than mpg & to much power is just enough.
|
|
том
Posted a lot
"If in doubt, flat out!"
Posts: 2,707
|
|
|
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 25, 2011 9:13:13 GMT by том
1988 V8 Rangey Bobtail :: 1968 Volvo Amazon 133 Ratrod :: 1977 Land Rover 88 :: 1985 Opel Monza GSE :: 1983 MKII Fiesta
|
|
|
|
|
Without wanting to sound negative, may I please chime in with some words of warning?
If you want to know what a Fiat 126 is like, it's basically like a Beetle, but worse. They're slower, have even less power and worse handling than the swing-axle Beetle and I'm pretty sure they're even noisier although I haven't done a dB meter comparison.
Problems you might have with tuning them up is that the suspension design is fundamentally pretty poor and it's difficult to mount up a tyre much bigger than 12" by about 5" wide. The gearboxes are also very fragile so will need replacement if you start doing engine swaps. They can be made to be very cool, certainly, but most of the nicely-modified ones I've seen leave almost nothing of the original car left. A bike engine conversion, different rear axle setup and front suspension with a cage tying it all together will produce a very fast car, but then you could do that to just about any small bodyshell.
As people have already said above though, there are tried and true methods for fixing most of these problems and the parts are all available. For example, you can get a bolt-in conversion kit to change the front suspension from transverse leaf to double-wishbone.
|
|
|
|
том
Posted a lot
"If in doubt, flat out!"
Posts: 2,707
|
|
Jan 25, 2011 10:02:01 GMT
|
hey waveman, i'm wanting peoples honest opinions, so words of warning are very welcome too. Don;t get me wrong, i do have doubts too. I have no idea what the top speed will be, i don;t even know if they are 4 or 5 speed, (i'm guessing 4). So thank you for your imput.
As it stands now, i've got an Astra G, which is due for T&T, it needs a new cat, brakes all round, load sensing valve. I've just put 4 new boots on, which was 200 quid. Add that to everything else it come's out to just shy of a grand, which i don;t have, especially for a car worth under 500 quid.
SO, i was planning on spending little money to polish the turd, see if i can get as close to 500 as posible, and buy summit small (i don;t do much milage now i've moved) and summit i don;t mind working on. I was looking at pre 72 stuff, but to get it under the 500 mark, they need a bit more work, so i found these little puppies, not exempt, but nearly half the tax i pay on the ashtray.
Thats my train of thought, all relys on selling the astra which will be the hardest bit.
|
|
1988 V8 Rangey Bobtail :: 1968 Volvo Amazon 133 Ratrod :: 1977 Land Rover 88 :: 1985 Opel Monza GSE :: 1983 MKII Fiesta
|
|
markbognor
South East
Posts: 9,968
Club RR Member Number: 56
|
Fiat 126markbognor
@markbognor
Club Retro Rides Member 56
|
Jan 25, 2011 10:33:31 GMT
|
You might need arches for these.
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 25, 2011 10:34:17 GMT by markbognor
|
|
том
Posted a lot
"If in doubt, flat out!"
Posts: 2,707
|
|
Jan 25, 2011 10:42:40 GMT
|
ha, love em, it's look like a mini version of tony c c's merc. I did like the look of these:
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 25, 2011 10:43:31 GMT by том
1988 V8 Rangey Bobtail :: 1968 Volvo Amazon 133 Ratrod :: 1977 Land Rover 88 :: 1985 Opel Monza GSE :: 1983 MKII Fiesta
|
|
|
|
Jan 25, 2011 11:55:23 GMT
|
Hahaha 'polish the turd', anyone else see a pun in there? Great pictures, they bring back a lot of memories! I want one now. Oh and yep sheffieldcortinacentre you're right. Engines from BIS were only in early cinq's and only LHD but I've known people putting a regular and sporting engines from both cinq's (SPI) and seicentos (MPI). To be honest I remember everyone complaining about BIS that the engine was very unreliable. I don't remember what it was about exactly but you never saw many of them around. If it was me I would also just go for a 126p 650 aircooled. There's no boot but there's lot of space for a bigger engine Apart from that I remember one with a punto 1200cc but it didn't look that pretty as the boot had to be extended. Some more examples: Bad 'village tuning': And this little gem. There were quite a few of these made: www.polskie-auta.pl/stara/126kab84.jpg[/img] That's another one with a Punto engine but I think he's loosing out on the back seats. Aparently he got it to 220km/h! This is an example of tasteful mods. Everything stock + Punto 1200cc That's how I would do it. Oh and it's definitely not louder than the beetle. It has 23bhp (600ccm) or 24bhp (650ccm), weighs 600kg, max speed is around a whopping 50mph and as a factory default it uses around a litre of oil every 1000 miles. After a few mods to the suspension it handles great and is lots of fun to drive! Oh and I just found out that they only started putting headrests as standard in 1999 Also they made about 3300000 of them in Poland until 2000 so there's quite a few left
|
|
|
|
|