Hello Chaps/Chapesses. I read over the weekend that there are two types of ECU for the Barchetta. One mounted in the engine compartment (Hitachi?)
( That must have been a bad pasta day if ever there was one) and another, I am guessing BOSCH to be found in the/a footwell. The latter being tweekable, the former not. Well, I must admit to being on the cusp of buying a little boat. What I need to know IS in which version/period of the car is the tweakable ECU fitted. My gut says the facelifted model was prob with the Hitachi. Local dealer is not really interested in providing any info on the matter. So, I would greatly appreciate some help from the forum. Best wishes from the Forrest of Blackness. Chisel Chest.

Don't know all the details, but I can say mine is a 1999, non facelift, and the ECU is a Hitachi one attached to the inlet manifold....

1996 model, Hitachi fitted in the passenger foot well. Definitely not tweekable.
Don't actually think any of the Barchetta ECU's are tweekable. But I may be wrong.
But don't let that put you off they are a great car, and you are able to extract extra power, unfortunately the extraction is equal to the extraction from your wallet.
Good luck Dave

2005 Barchetta - ECU is Hitachi in the engine compartment.

The ePER parts system has only ever listed two part numbers for the ECU. Both Hitachi units. Have never heard of a Bosch ECU in a Barchetta UNLESS it is a retro, non production fit, from another Fiat/Alfa/Lancia model that uses the same basic 1.8 engine.

The reason for two Hitachi units is that the last CF3 models need to have updated emissions systems.

My heart leaped at the Pic from s130. I wonder if you are the owner that used to turn up at the Goodwood and other track days with your own and your wifes cars? Thank you all for the info contributions. So far I have visited 3 cars. The last one only about an hr ago. That was a 2001 car with about 40K genuine miles on the clock. Made a hell of a clatter upon start up. I deduce / suspect that the Hydraulic actuator is about to pop its clogs. Or make even more noise. This car had an ECU bolted to the plastics at the rear of the engine. Throttle control appeared to be electric. And a cat. The whole throttle assy differed greatly from the car I saw yesterday (96) that had a Bowben cable control and no cat. Somewhere in this forum I found the info ref tuning the engine. Only about 15 Hp max was apparently achievable. My master plan was to buy a second engine and rebuild it to my specs. Valves, cams hence the need to have a tweekable Ecu. This would avoid having to go with heavy modding. IE new injection system and therefore Visible modding. Just as a note, the appeal of the cloth interior to save weight is strong. However, I have yet to visit a Riviera. Stay tooned for further updates. My lust for the 130TC increases with EVERY trip my memory takes down that lane. My greatfull thanks to all. Ch-Ch

Chisel Chest said:

My heart leaped at the Pic from s130. I wonder if you are the owner that used to turn up at the Goodwood and other track days with your own and your wifes cars? Ch-Ch

Click to expand...

Yes that is us. Has been a few years since our last track/sprint event/outings. Do we know you? PM me if you want to.

Basically we decided to call it a day when prices went over the £150 to £250 each for a full day. For both of us, plus tyres, brake pads and fuel it became too expensive to do all the events we wanted to do throughout the season and saw no point in just doing one or two. As you will remember we were regulars at all the Italian car track days (FTCR, AROC, Lancia) and of course more private 25 cars only events at Goodwood organised by the owners of Mithrel Racing.

We had a good innings, no damage, no vehicle failures and were well respected for our dedication, always going round and round and track presence/relative performance.

The real killer was just the balance of value for money and laps covered.
Just looked back at the logs and *some* of the great and real value for money sessions were like this:

Castle Combe : 95 laps
Kames: 77 laps
Castle Combe: 105 laps
Mallory Park: 143 laps
Goodwood: 120 laps
Castle Combe: 125 laps
Castle Combe: 153 laps

These are LAPS PER EVENT with prices as low a £40. To pay £100+ for 10 or 20 laps is ludicrous IMHO and going from many events per year to just one or two did not appeal to us. Priced out of the market if you like by the new surge in people wanting to do track days who were prepared to do just the one or two per year and only do a few laps.

Both of us managed over 6000 on circuit track miles in total during those 10 years (over 600 miles per year). Lost count of tyres and pads

I still keep my hand in though when safe to do.