turbo124.com

For sale
1976 Fiat 131 abarth rallye. 1 of only 400 homologation specials ever built.
car is in perfect original condition, 55,000 km.
Car is a 'virgin' it has never been raced or rallied.
The car has been kept in storage since the mid 80's. It has never been driven on australian roads.
lasty registered in italy 1984
comes with all papers.
If i need to tell you the specs your probably not interested but anyhow
2lt 16v abarth engine, Independant rear suspension, all fibreglass panels, alloy doors etc

Genuine buyers only please, this car is extremely rare and even rarer due to its condition.

$60,000 us
overseas buyers welcome

0298922900 (australia)

damm if only i had 60 grand US anyway good luck with the sale

tell me about it!

"thankfully" i don't, so i don't have to worry about checking authenticity

Sadly it looks like my dream car will have to remain a dream for the moment...

You would not happen to have any spare CD68's lying about would you?

Hmm, right hand drive? Out of Italy?

they all came out of italy

Yes, but if they only made 400 for homologation then they were unlikely to make LHD *and* RHD versions. And if the car was registered in Italy why was it RHD? So a) it's not actually genuine, b) it's a 'genuine' Abarth which has been converted (so not 'virgin'), or c) it's a genuine RHD Abarth homologation model which would (possibly) justify the asking price.

I must say I never would have thought Graham would part with the Abarth. It is truly a unique car which I've admired for many many years.

Hope you get a great buyer for it.

did the genuine Abarth eng only come with one carb? or am I blind and cant see the other one in the pic?

I wouldnt say no, just have to as my bank would just laugh at me.

pics from twin cam italia by phil ward of engine of 131 abarth. though dont know if this pic is of competition car or road going public version. where is SteveC....

This site mentions street 131 Abarths had one weber 34 carb:

http://www.131abarth.com/fiat_131_abarth,_street.htm

and this one:

http://www.sfconline.org.uk/models/131/131abarth.asp

very observant, yes graham converted the car to RHD, the word virgin though is relating to the cars workload. 90% off the 400 have been raced or rallied and of course this creates a huge amount of wear on cars. This car has never had any of these stresses placed on it hence the statement and of course the condition which brings us to the reason of the asking price...
Yes they came from factory with a single carby, only the rally cars had the mechanical injection.

The car is genuine hence the photo's of the papers, Yes dave graham is not exactly happy about selling the car.... big fires cost us lots of money though... you wouldnt believe how many unknown 'abarth goodies, fiat & lancia goodies' are now ash...

Guido sorry to say, we had 2 extra sets of those rims... i can send them to you in a sandwhich bag off ash though if ud like

i pondered the single carb vs mech inj and ended up deciding it must be road vs race.. glad to see i was right for once!

still.. would it have hurt them to wack some idfs on in the factory?!?!

hi guys,
was just wondering if anyone knew of any overseas websites that i would have success in targeting a fiat buyer for this type of car?

ebay gets massive exposure?

doesnt ebay take a percentage of the selling price though? which in this case would probably be huge

Have you had any nibbles?

Not wanting to spoil your day...but I would actually question the authenticity of this car myself....

The chassis number is not (AFAIK) correct for a 131AR... however I'm far from an expert on the model, but I have had the opportunity to examine two real ones close up...

The pic you posted of the rego/transfer papers list the chassis number (Telaio) as 0446160 .... all 131AR's I have ever seen all have a chassis number that commences "131AR*203...."

so yours is definitely out of kilter from every other 131AR chassis numbers I've catalogued from around the world... (about 100 cars)

(though the chassis number on the Italian paperwork isn't necessarily correct...humans do make mistales)

SteveC

Isn't the 7 digit number technically the chassis number and 131AR just the type code? Maybe the explanation is that the type code goes elsewhere on the Italian papers, or, like you say they stuffed it up. My 131 for instance is 131A*0393794. Although weirdly its supposedly a '78 and the chassis number is earlier than this one....
I have to say if its a fake its a pretty damn good one!

Steve;

This is defiantely a real road version of the 131 abarth. The chassis number is correct. 131AR refers to the type, not the chassis.
It would not be a 78, as all the 400 were made prior to homologation which was late 75. I think you would find the chassis number is most likely listed as a 76 officially.
All the chassis were taken of the Fiat production line (not in numerical order), so the early type chassis number fits.

As per previous observations on this car :-

*Grahem Smith converted the car to RHD. He kept all the lHD components.
*The road cars came with one weber carb as std, dual carbs and F/I were all options
*The black and white pitures from the Phil Ward book are of rally cars, not road cars
*The rally cars were only similar to the road car, as the differences between the 50 (approx) works rally cars produced by abarth, and the 350 (approx) road cars assembled by Bertone were considerable, so much so, that the two cars really only shared items like engine/gearbox and diff castings (not components), body shell ofcourse, some of the lighting, door handles - and not much else.

The road car like Grahems was very special, the Abarth built rally car even more so.

Steve, how many of the road versions still exist, I would have thought not more than 200 - if you were lucky? Making this a rare find.

Original Abarth rally cars - the number seesm to be in slight dispute, but between 4-5 seems to be the go. Making them very rare indeed.

Bill

I wasn't refering to the chassis type.... but the chassis number....

Chassis type of 131 abarth rally is definitely 131AR... everyone knows that... but from all the research I have done on the model... I have found that the chassis numbers for the 131AR model type are all in the 203**** range ... both my dads cars have 203**** chassis numbers.

My dad's grp4 is an Ex-works car... but prepared by Volta for the last few years in Italy for a rich privateer before my dad purchased it... It came with a 3/4 set of spare ( damaged) secondhand guards from prior to its rebuild by Volta... complete with W. Rohls name still signwritten on and works (three shades of blue on white) colour scheme... I'm still trying to determine the exact provenance of my dad's grp4... not to many people left who can actually give straight answers in europe... one thing for sure... as soon as I give any "experts" a digi photo of the chassis number, they have all replied "Is it for sale"........

I'm not saying that Graeme's car is a copy... but if the chassis number is actually the one shown in the documentaion, then it goes against all other chassis numbers I have ever seen, or have documentation for....

SteveC

Fiatfactory,
Like your father you should learn not to shoot your mouth without some proper research. Bill knows what he is talking about.
I do not appreciate your comments which may deter a potential buyer. As they did with one of the people who have made an offer ringing up worried about the legitimacy of the car. I do not mean to cause hard feelings but don’t you think a 'private message' would have been a better way of expressing your query?
The chassis no. is 2032511 shell no. 171

Nick

Nick,

I dont "shoot my mouth off" and I have done the research...

you giving a chassis number of 131AR*2032511 tells me that it could a "real" one... just like I said... they are all 203**** numbers... unique to the 131AR.... did anyone else point this out to you... (I doubt it)

I was simply querying the chassis number shown on the Italian "hand in the rego plates" paperwork that you scanned and posted, that show the TELAIO (chassis) number as 0446160 (IMG_0104.jpg)... which must indeed be a typo..... (as I suggested it might)

Anyone who would be seriously interested in your car would have asked for a chassis number anyway... to confirm the cars authenticity, so that's nothing to do with anything I said/wrote.....

171 isn't the shell or spares number either... thats the colour code... rosso corso (171)

SteveC

have added a link to this on the homepage of the website - get a lot of souls that browse through without hitting in the forum....

hope it gets you guys your sale.

Dave

http://www.turbo124.com

ladies.. ladies.. behave

If the chassis number is 131AR*2032511, then it actually makes this car the lowest numbered chassis on my list of cars....

all the other 131AR's I have chassis numbers for are in the 2038*** and 2039*** range....

what's the "spares number" for your car? (found on the alloy ID plate RHF corner under the bonnet on the radiator support panel)

My dad's Stradale is spares no 70... see pic

SteveC

hmm seems to me that Steve's not the one shooting his mouth off.

Steve,
Sorry to nit pick on my first post but the legality of your dads Abarth could be questioned due to it being RHD.
Does your dad still have the Grp4 ex works??

I don't think a well done RHD conversion would actually affect the value very much if the car is otherwise genuine....

In my dad's stradale example, I picked (spot weld by spot weld) out a RHD firewall from a wrecked mirafiori, and after removing the abarths firewall in exactly the same way, my dad welded in (spot weld by spotweld) a genuine RHD full firewall... I doubt anyone would ever pick the conversion... Its seriously neat. chassis is 2038***, spares number "0000070"

I'm sure Graham Smith's job of RHD conversion to his example, is very similar, if not identical in method and execution.

Yeah, the grp 4 is still sitting there in pieces... chassis is 2039*** and spares is "0000177"

Speaking of chassis numbers again... I just recently had emails from two more Abarth owners (added to my list) who gave me chassis and spares numbers.

there's a Mr Miyajima in Japan with a beautiful Stradale, chassis number begins 2040***, and the spares number is "0000124"

and another from a fellow in the UK, with a chassis number 2039*** and a spares number of "0000211"

..... so it seems 2038***, 2039*** and 2040*** is the range of chassis number spread....

and it seems like the spares number could be a clue to where in the sequence the cars were built... but the spares and chassis numbers don't appear to be in any sequence.... so that is still a mystery.

SteveC

Steve C, how many 131 abarths have you managed to track down in total?
how many were originally road going versions and how many of the original works cars still survive? or is that impossible to tell?

Sorry full of questions and more questions

Well it has taken me about 8 years so far, and a lot of my list comes from auction and sales lists (Coys, Southerby's etc) so I don't have spares numbers for all of them... which was why I first started my list .... to try get some idea of where my dad's cars were in the run of production through the spares numbers.


recently I have had a few emails from owners, so the number is up to almost 100 (in the low/mid 90's) but I only have pics of the ID plate, and spares numbers for about 25... so the rest I can't actually prove as "Fact", though the auction info, I would think, is accurately compiled.

I have a good contact in Italy who provided me with about 25.... they are all in Italy, all Stradales.... quite a strong club network too...

I need someone to go to the Fiat Museum and get me the chassis numbers of the two in there.... a works car and a stradale.

I would say about 200 cars survive ... for sure... perhaps more will come out of the woodwork slowly... as it seems quite a few have found their way to Japan... there are some mad keen Abarth collectors over there.

I can tell you one thing though... the numbers are not consecutive... 400 cars cover a 2500 number spread in chassis numbers... and no one (as far as I know) is actually 100% sure of even the total production number... though 400 examples seems to be the number most people would agree on...

SteveC

steve, have you checked out teh alitalia stradale in the motor museum just out of perth? (on the way to kalgoorlie, forgotten the name of the town, york??)

Has Peter Briggs got a 131 as well?

He had a works (Alitalia livery) Stratos up there... but last time I was there (about 10 years ago now) he didn't have a 131... I'll have to go check it out. (yes it is York)

SteveC

hmmm,

i was pretty sure there was 2 al italia cars up there...

but my memory is pretty bad.

i could have sworn there was a stradale there???

When refering to steve shooting his mouth i am saying that he should have taken better steps to ask his query. Shooting your mouth generally means making claims to people before finding facts first. As i said to steve i do not want to make bad blood but also wanted to make him see the point of what he did wrong. It did deter one buyer long enough for them to find something different. i would in no way blame steves comments of the loss of this person as it would have probably happened anyway but there is always that chance it made the difference, hence my un appreciative comments.
i will get the parts number when i see the car next i know its in the 200's
steve do you have the chassis numbers for greg cars old works rally car? i can go look at them on the w/e.

fiat - thankyou very much for your efforts in placing the car for sale it is muchly appreciated. i hav almost finished moving in so hopefully i will find those tapes of the 130tt soon. i dont know if your interested but i also have in car footage of dads old 131 sports sedan which is one hell of a handfull. heres a pic for anyone unfamiliar with the car.

Mrboost,

always interested in footage for the site - we need more vid of fiats going spastic

this invitation goes to anyone with video's send em my way - via email or snail mail - i'll encode em and up load em so we can alll enjoy.

Dave

just a thought, its not overseas, but I just had a quick look though and noticed you're not advertising this in the fiat club newsletter, or on their site... Might be a good place to plug it perhaps?

Greg's old car is chassis number 131AR 2045### ( the owner didn't want the last three numbers made public).
The car was Abarth ID G35 (number on the bottom right of windscreen).
The Italian number plate is TO 39606 V If i remember correctly.
I Don't know the parts number

The vehicle that Greg Carr drove was one of the last made at the factory (from what I've been told)

I recall it had the later model rear tail lights... and a few other minor differences that place it towards the end of the production run...

And a 2045*** chassis number is right at the top of my list ... next down is a car that was passed in at auction at COY's in 2004, chassis 131AR*2043648, that was listed as a 1978 model in the auction list....

Who is the owner of the ex Greg Carr car?

SteveC

Steve, I don't know if this will help in your quest for info on all the abarth's built but have a look at the bottom of this page.
This bloke has a fair listing of all the rally cars built including most original number plates and build numbers.
http://www.abarth.20m.com/131abarthrally.htm
Do you remember or know the number plate and build number of your dads car?

I am new to this forum and see a lot of knowledge on 131 Abarth's coming by. I am living in Northern Europe and am lucky enough to visit guys like Volta and Moerenhout now and then.

But now I am looking for an 131abarth stradale myself and am really amazed with what you guys write about fakes. Is it really possible to fake a abarth? How on earth would you source the engine, diff, wheels and manufacture the suspension. And what about the interior?

I am rallying Fulvia HF's (have 4) and there are MANY fakes that were made in the past. Nowadays, even that car (typical value eur25k) is not worth faking, because parts are very expensive. So in the 131 case, I could hardly imagine this would be feasible either. Any thoughts?

Any lhd model would be interesting for me. Suggestions welcome!
Cheers, Peter