Hi All,
I'm a Newbie to the forum, and here is my car, a 130 TC.
I'm a Newbie to the forum, and here is my car, a 130 TC.
Ritmo/Strada Newbie to the Forum
- Thread starter NEWKSTAR
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Ritmo/Strada Newbie to the Forum
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Thats a beauty. It seems to take a beating in the press but I drove one years ago and still think it was a very decent drive. Its nice to see a car of this year looking so great.
Thanks for your kind words'The Panda Nut', yes I thought the same when I first saw the car. The underside and engine bay is also very good, a rare site to see an unrestored Ritmo 130TC in such condition. I think it must have been left in the Fiat factory for circa 25 years!
Welcome from another 130TC owner
If you PM me your chassis number or previous/current registration then I may be able to find some history for your car.
White! ? The 130TC MkII, MkIII Strada in the UK was only available in:
Dark Racing Red: Code 112
Black: Code 601
Met. Slate Grey: Code 639
All only came with Black/Red Cloth
Dark Racing Red: Code 112
Black: Code 601
Met. Slate Grey: Code 639
All only came with Black/Red Cloth
Took a beating in the press for the same reason the likes of Clarkson pick on small glove boxes
The 130TC was a different beast in its heritage. The 105TC had been fairly successful in Rallying when front wheel drive was the norm and used basically all the standard road car suspension, etc. and bits and bobs. Meanwhile the 105TC road car was being out performed by the new fuel injected Golf. So Fiat also working on their rallying in front wheel drive (after the massive success of the 131 rear wheel Rally Car) came up with the 130TC as a works rally car. For homologation then road cars had to be produced as well. So the 130TC was if you like a "reverse" production. instead of Road to Rally it was more Rally to Road.
The 130TC was never campaigned by Fiat as 4x4 took over and the Fiat Abarth development team moved to Lancia and the Chivaso factory to work on the world beating Delta Integrale.
So all that work done on the 130TC left it as an uncompromising, hard ride, noisy, powerful, two door family unfriendly beast. (with a small glove box
)
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The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
The steering wheel is on the WRONG SIDE of the car too!!!! Thats probably why they painted it white!
May be in a mirror it looks a different shade of white, maybe red....
I only ever drove the Strada and it was a hell of a lot better than my BMC beast of the time. I only have very small gloves so a small glove box is just dandy.
I missed the left hand drive. Should have gone to Sepcsavers
That may explain white being possibly the original colour available in the EU / other countries. I only have UK data resources to hand.
Interestingly there is a very healthy population of 130TCs in New Zealand which surprised me till I was contacted by them.
Thanks for all the comments. The original colour was white, but what was changed was the black front grill, black plastic door skirts, bumpers and of course the wheels. After it was imported from Japan into the USA it was owned by a racing/rally drive who made the changes, I assume he changed the colour of the above parts to emulate the 130TC cars of the past that rallied. The car had only done circa 1400 kms from 2019 to until a couple of moths ago.
Here is a photo of it when it came in from Japan.
Which do you prefer?
Here is a photo of it when it came in from Japan.
Which do you prefer?
Really is a great car, be sure to make a garage entry for it with loads of photos 
