Seicento Back in a 'Cento!

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Seicento Back in a 'Cento!

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I had a Cinquecento Sporting as my first car back in 1997. Had it for a few years, before selling and upgrading to an Alfa 33 16v followed by an Alfa 155, Alfa 75, a couple of 156s and a Marea 20v before ending up in a variety of Japanese and German company cars.

In between, I've also had a 1970 124 Spider and an Imola Blue Sporting which I bought in 2009 and built into a track day special (Punto 75 cam, induction kit, stainless exhaust, super chip, Bilstein suspension, bucket seat, Momo steering wheel etc), but sold it when I had a heart attack and was unable to drive it due to the heavy steering.

Roll on nearly 8 years, I sold a Trabant (which was a drunken eBay purchase) and started looking for a Seicento Schumacher.

After trawling all kinds of sheddy basic Sportings being advertised as Schumachers, and overpriced cars, I found a reasonable example on the Isle of Wight and collected it a couple of weeks ago.

Just given it a quick colour-match polish today... it has seen some paint over the years and is far from perfect, but it's a straight and honest car with only 56k miles on the clock and a cam belt done within the last 2 years / 10k miles.

I'm going to keep it as a long-term investment as I reckon these things will become sought after, just as 126s have. But it won't stop me using it on track days, starting at Castle Combe next Thursday.

I would post photos, but it seems I can't until I've made more posts!
 
Worked out how to get photos into a post!
 

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Hi, I've just bought one of these too! It has been debadged and the dude claimed it was the schmacher (I wasn't bothered), but it has different alloys to yours, no boot spoiler, the same bumpers but not the skirts. Would that make it the abarth, or is it likely someone has stuck the bumpers on? It has no fog lights at the front either...

My dad is an Alfa man (78 GTV, 76 alfetta salloon, 2 90s, 166, 78 spider). I bought this as a run around for the misses as it was local and cheap, but got kinda interested in the thing now...

Thanks,

J
 
It is regular Sporting then. ;) Schumi, great find...nice!
 
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I had a few issues on track yesterday, see separate post!

However, the little Sei attracted a lot of attention and even a couple of people who wanted to buy it!

I found an OEM accessory catalogue rear shelf with speakers on eBay, so that went in last weekend... couldn't find a proper connector, so ended up using crimp connectors, but it's not a big deal.

Only other issue was a dodgy sunroof mechanism - replaced with a 40 quid part found on eBay which took less than 10 minutes.

So far, I'm loving the little thing.
 
Just wanted to revisit this.

The overheating was most likely caused by a combination of old and clogged up radiator and missing thermostat.

We've replaced the radiator, thermostat and water pump, back flushed it and put it back together.

I now have an OBDII display stuck to the dash, meaning I can keep an eye on oil and water temperatures. (It also has a nifty 'change point' display and alarm, just like a race car...)

Not driven a lot since due to work, but all now seems to be fine.

I'm going to change my mind a little on keeping things original... it now has a Sportex exhaust and K&N induction kit... next will be suspension and grippy tyres.

Just wish I could lower the driver's seat but still keep the original seat, rather than go with an aftermarket bucket.
 
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