I spotted this yesterday and have already commented in another thread that it had been converted to have a two-cylinder, Kubota diesel engine.
MAL_1011 by Peter Thompson, on Flickr
I had an inkling that they were originally electrically propelled. Not so according to Wikipedia, and I was amazed to discover that after a Villiers engine, models had "a much more powerful 4-stroke 500 cc or 600 cc Steyr-Puch engine"
Apparently there were loads of them which had to be scrapped when the stockpile of parts became redundant when the car was discontinued for safety reasons.
I wondered if anyone has experience of these or knows more about how the Fiat engines were acquired and possibly disposed of.

If you look carefully at the picture you will see that the bonnet badge has the letters 'AC' on it. They were built by AC Cars in Thames Ditton---invalid carriages at one end of the workshop, and AC Cobras at the other end--yes really! The early cars were built with 182cc Villiers engines in them (and I think that the model in the picture is an 'Invacar model 70'). Later models, as Peter stated, had either the 500cc or 600cc Steyr Puch boxer engines fitted--with a top speed of 82mph! Stirling Moss road tested one of these vehicles and stated that "it was probably the most dangerous vehicle that he had ever driven"--and they were handed out to people with disabilities. The arrival of the 'hand-control' cars was a quantum leap forward in safety. The Steyr engines were fitted during the 60s and the 70s, with the last cars being built in 1977. By 2003 they had all been withdrawn ('on safety grounds' being just one of the reasons) and scrapped. Breaks my heart to think of all those lovely Steyr engines being scrapped. If you really HAVE to drive one of these vehicles, the fitment of a small Kobuto diesel engine actually sounds very sensible.

Back in the late 70's early 80's me & my mates used to have our adventures in the local trading estate in Benfleet, Essex. There was a company who used to restore Rolls Royces and also built/maintained these.
At the weekend we used to climb the fence and drive around the yard in these cars. Great fun when you were about 10yrs old!

Franko500 said:

At the weekend we used to climb the fence and drive around the yard in these cars. Great fun when you were about 10yrs old!

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Who's a naughty boy then ! Talking about naughty boys back in the 60's a young disabled guy in Watford had one of these. I seem to remember that after a good night in the pub or at one of the many parties that went on he would get two or three "passengers" into one of these and then go for a good thrash around the one way system. I guess that it must have had the Steyr engine to have the power to do that and in those days the test for drunken driving was if you could walk in a straight line. I can imagine that if the driver got pulled he would say "what with these legs?"

Franko500 said:

Back in the late 70's early 80's me & my mates used to have our adventures in the local trading estate in Benfleet, Essex. There was a company who used to restore Rolls Royces and also built/maintained these.
At the weekend we used to climb the fence and drive around the yard in these cars. Great fun when you were about 10yrs old!

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Sounds like good old-fashioned fun of the sort that video surveillance must have put paid to for the enjoyment of similar hilarity these days.

PS.That NHS blue must have made a real impression on you Sean. (Only joking ) (a bit)

fiat500 said:

Sounds like good old-fashioned fun of the sort that video surveillance must have put paid to for the enjoyment of similar hilarity

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You guys north of the border were not so innocent . About 1970 we were touring Scotland and going past the distillery at Portree when we had to brake hard when some kids about junior school age wandered into the road . When we gave them a bit of an ear bashing they were a little worse for wear after telling us they had found some "leftovers" in the ageing barrels.

Toshi 975 said:

You guys north of the border were not so innocent . About 1970 we were touring Scotland and going past the distillery at Portree when we had to brake hard when some kids about junior school age wandered into the road . When we gave them a bit of an ear bashing they were a little worse for wear after telling us they had found some "leftovers" in the ageing barrels.

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Despite wearing a kilt 24/7, living off haggis and being a huge fan of the Scottish countryside, I was actually born and bred in England, but I have similar experiences up here.
About 20 years ago, I worked for the council repairing lawn-mowers. A lorry-load of whisky barrels came in and the tree-surgeon cut them in two as planters for the flower displays. As I went to lock the door and go home, I just spotted my workmate Tom, totally wiped out on a scruffy sofa we had acquired. He was suffering from alcoholism and had decanted those same dregs of whisky from the half barrels, filtered out the sawdust with old rags and got totally hammered.

My 5p worth on this one and a shameless plug at the same time.
I was lucky enough to own a Steyr Puch 500S with one of these boxer engines and it was a beauty. So much better balanced than a Fiat engine, no overheating and it sounded lovely.
You can get some serious power out of these engines. Just have a look on You Tube. There are cars producing over 50-60 horsepowers.

Anyway, I`ve got one of these Invacar engines up for sale currently on eBay including some tuning parts, Steyr and Fiat.
If anyone is interested just give me a shout. I would be happy to reduce all the prices by around 15% (that`s eBay and PayPal fees).
Here is a link. I hope is not against the rules.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112191297958?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I sold some of the parts already, so as they say, you snooze ...

These were fitted with a strangled villiers 197cc engine.
I thought they were declared unsafe for the roads and should all have been scrapped in 1980.
They were death traps litorilly as when in an accident the driver was unable to escape.
Barry

Can anyone help with info on a car I'm looking at abroad? It's got steyr/fiat badge with abarth markings on the engine

Robbyrob1273 said:

Can anyone help with info on a car I'm looking at abroad? It's got steyr/fiat badge with abarth markings on the engine

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Hi Robbyrob1273, The car in the pics looks to me to be a 500R judging by the type of engine mount plus I can see it has a round speedo. It's had an alloy rocker box fitted.

You'll most likely get more replies to your enquiry if you start your own thread rather than posting on this one.

I hope this info helps you.