Bravo Drivers!!!

Interceptor

Buckfast wrote:

Ah feck, I thought this thread was praising motorists

When did that ever happen in this country?

Does anyone remember the French police campaign to award fuel vouchers to motorists who were seen driving exceptionally well? In the early eighties the French Government brought in this scheme but the police were unable to identify any suitable motorists and ended up giving the vouchers to anyone not breaking the law... The scheme fizzled out with little success.

'c

CJhaughey

IrishRover wrote:

S
Do you know the Fiat Ritmo (aka Strada)? I'm curious to know what people who like Puntos or Bravos/Bravas would think of it today.
Here's a pic I took of the "GTi" version of the Ritmo - the Abarth.

They were nice and punchy in their day, and probably still fast compared to todays "Lardabeests" but the major fault they had which explains their rarity is that they would rust if you put salt on your chips inside them.
They must be made of poor quality mild steel with absolutely no rust proofing at all.
apart from that, a lovely automobile

Gatster

Great cars the 130 Abarth, they were even cheap insurance in the UK in the very early 90's. I wanted to buy one, and found a good one but as as a 17 year old living at home my Dad wouldn't let me as he (quite rightly) thought I would end up spending a fortune on it...

For one of the few proper Fiats, see here - there is one in Dublin somewhere, in black.

IrishRover

Hi Interceptor, sorry for taking so long to get back to this.

I never had a go in an Abarth, but I remember seeing one or two on the autostrada in Italy a few years ago now. We used to have a Ritmo Targa 75 in the same colour back around '81. It looked really good, and actually it never suffered from rust. I do know that most of these cars were stored in a field in Rosslare for months on end before being sold so that didn't give them the best start in life as far as the bodywork went. It was a really smart looking car though and I have fond memories of it. It had the typical "pudding bowl" gearstick too that all the Fiats of the time seemed to have!

That's a bit of a fly looking 131 there alright too. It looks like a bodykit, but that's how it looked as standard, isn't it? I used to call all of them the Mirafiori but I'm not sure now if that name referred to all the 131 models. One thing I didn't know until recently was that the 131 was called the Brava in the states! So that puts a new slant on the current day Brava for me.

It seems like only the other day though that the old Mirafiori was a common sight on Irish roads. They used to have a reputation for spontaneously combusting I remember! The Croma I don't think was really anywhere near as succesful here as the Mirafiori was. I suppose Fiat's bad reputation for reliability meant that anyone in the market for a larger saloon like that felt that they should spend their money on a better badge. I used to really admire the Croma's sister car though, the Lancia Thema. I really wanted one of those. Actually, I may go looking for one some day...

HashSlinging

I have the best pic of a modded tipo at home i'll upload it later.