General Barry has a new mate
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Barry has a new mate
the hobbler
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Good addition to the fleet Andrew. What was the 125 used for prior to you buying it? The 125 engine was good for about 95/100bhp (depending on which road test/article you read), and almost unburstable (same designer as the 500 engine). When I was at Radbourne Racing, we put the 125 engine into the 124. Lowered, with widened steel wheels (and the little chrome hub-caps fitted) it was difficult to realise what had been done to the car unless you put a standard 124 alongside the modified one. The only additional badge on the car was a small "RADBOURNE" badge on the boot-lid. But, if you tried to race against one of these cars at the traffic lights you were in for a big surprise---they were just about as quick as a Lotus Cortina in a straight line, and not much slower round the bends, (not many Lotus Cortinas left the factory with the claimed 105bhp). Fiat eventually stopped supplying Radbourne Racing with 125 engines as they brought out their own version of the car---the "124 Special T"---but the factory versions had only a 85bhp engine in them. The Radbourne cars were a hoot to drive---real 'Q' cars.
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Fayray
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Well the NZ 125T is a similar story Tom. In 1972, Torino motors (the importers and assemblers of Fiats in NZ, including the 500/Bambina) decided to build a car that could win NZ's premier production car race, the Benson & Hedges 500. To do this they took a 125 and modified the cylinder head, camshafts and manifold and fitted twin Dellorto 40 sidedraught carbs. They lowered and stiffened the suspension and fitted locally made alloys. Power was bumped to 125hp
To satisfy the homologation rules they had to make 200 of them and in the race they finished 3rd, 4th, 5th and 10th (behind the big 4.3L Chrysler Chargers). However, they only ever built 86 of them having skirted the rules by "promising" to build 200. The official story was Fiat in Italy had got wind of the 125T and shut it down as an unofficial racing program.
At the time the 125T was the fastest 4 cylinder production car ever sold here and was comfortably faster than the Lotus Cortina or Alfa 1750. And they were all yellow.
Not many survive, around 20, 3 of which now reside in Australia, so when this one popped up I pulled the trigger. It was not one of the cars in the race but has been classic racing since 2010. Unfortunately, most 125Ts are a bit like grandad's axe these days. This one has it's original body but the engine is a 132 1600 with twin Weber 45s and the original 4 speed box. And it's very cool.
To satisfy the homologation rules they had to make 200 of them and in the race they finished 3rd, 4th, 5th and 10th (behind the big 4.3L Chrysler Chargers). However, they only ever built 86 of them having skirted the rules by "promising" to build 200. The official story was Fiat in Italy had got wind of the 125T and shut it down as an unofficial racing program.
At the time the 125T was the fastest 4 cylinder production car ever sold here and was comfortably faster than the Lotus Cortina or Alfa 1750. And they were all yellow.
Not many survive, around 20, 3 of which now reside in Australia, so when this one popped up I pulled the trigger. It was not one of the cars in the race but has been classic racing since 2010. Unfortunately, most 125Ts are a bit like grandad's axe these days. This one has it's original body but the engine is a 132 1600 with twin Weber 45s and the original 4 speed box. And it's very cool.
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the hobbler
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Your '125T' has a 'modern' (ish) Fiat 132 engine in it now---so what! i doubt if there are many 'classlc' cars out there that do not have some form of 'grandads axe' in them. By using the '132' engine you have kept the car in a condition that allows it still to be used. At least in this case of 'grandads axe', the engine used is linearly related to the original Fiat 'twin-cam' engine designed by Aurelio Lampredi, who also designed the Fiat 500 engine as well as the odd Ferrari engine. Well done for keeping an important part Of N.Zs. motoring history up and running, and useable.
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Fayray
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Thanks Tom. Physically it's hard to tell the difference from the original engine so under the bonnet it looks right except for the missing airbox which was a unique feature of the 125T and the last owner thinks he has it somewhere.
To be fair, I only took possession on the weekend and haven't even driven it yet (it's a bit of a mission to get a race car registered for road use but not impossible) but I will be preserving it as I think it's important. Also, compared to a Lotus Cortina, Alfa 105 or BMW 2002 Tii, the humble hot T seems woefully under-valued (which meant I could afford it). Maybe it has 2 too many doors.
Bringing it back to the 500, the predecessor to the Benson & Hedges 500 was the Wills 6 Hour at the same track. In 1965 it featured Evelyn Hadfield and Margaret Hough in a 500. It was an all female team and they finished with no issues.
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lazylobster
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Seems that you Kiwis squeezed a little bit more out of the 2 litre
Just me, or do the front lights look a bit Ferrari 288 GTO :slayer:
