Fiat and Abarth 124 Spider and Coupe

John Tipler has had a lifelong love affair with Italian cars which includes club motor racing. A professional motoring journalist nowadays, in the past John has been Press Officer for John Player Motorsport and has worked in the Brands Hatch Press Office. John is married and has four children.

A(c) John Tipler & Veloce Publishing Acknowledgements 4 Foreword 6 Introduction 8 Chapter I HISTORY OF FIAT CARS 12 The First FIAT 13 The Balilla and Topolino 15 Enter the 124 16 131 supersedes 124 18 CoupAe & Spider for the Millennium 19 Chapter II EVOLUTION OF THE 124 SPIDER 20 Design and design associations 20 Peer pressure 23 Interior style 26 BS and CS series cars 26 Enter Abarth 27 Stradale Spider 30 CS1 and 1756ccs 39 Spider 2000 39 Pininfarina take over 40 Turbo power 42 Volumex 42 Chapter III EVOLUTION OF THE 124 COUP - 44 Mario Boano's design for the CoupAe 44 AC series CoupAe. The original 124 CoupAe 48 The BC series CoupAe: extra headlights and 170 more cars 51 1800CC 52 Chapter IV DEALERS AND SPECIALISTS 58 DTR European Sports Cars 58 Old Forge Garage 65 Guy Croft Tuning 65 Middle Barton Garage 65 Holtmann and Niedergerke 68 Other specialists (UK) 69 Chapter V THE 124 DRIVING EXPERIENCE 70 A Spider ... 70 ... or a CoupAe? 76 The final choice 77 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter VI RESTORATION 78 Superb Spiders 78 Typical problems and general advice 78 Right-hand drive conversions 91 Concours CoupAe 91 Chapter VII COMPETITION HISTORY 98 The Abarth story 98 1971: Enter the Fiat-Abarth 124 Spider 100 1972: Lancias stay ahead 101 1973: Alpine-Renaults too tough to beat 103 1974: All's lost at the eleventh hour 109 1975: European hat trick, but out of World series 116 1976: 131 in the ascendency 121 Still competing today 123 A surviving CSA 125 Appendix 1 DIRECTORY OF CLUBS, SUPPLIERS & SPECIALISTS 128 Belgian Clubs 128 British Clubs 128 British Suppliers & Specialists 134 Dutch Clubs 135 Dutch Suppliers & Specialists 136 French Clubs 136 German Clubs 136 German Suppliers & Specialists 138 Italian Clubs 138 Swiss Clubs 138 U.S.A. Clubs 138 U.S.A. Suppliers & Specialists 140 New Zealand Clubs 141 Appendix 2 HOMOLGATION PAPERS FOR THE 1972 124 RALLY ABARTH 142 Appendix 3 CONTEMPORARY ROAD TEST COMMENT & DATA 150 Index 156 A(c) John Tipler & Veloce Publishing