General RHD Conversions?

[salvo's yellow punto]

just otu of curiosity...how come nobody has had their barchettas converted to rhd?

i know if you buy a new 1 itl invalidate the warantee but if you buy a 2nd one it wont haev 1 anyway. i heard there is a company who does convert them. isnt it worth it ?so its much safer and maby the insurance would drop?i heard the only downside is that the dash layoutwil b facing slightly the other way.besides that surely aint it worth makin the gawjus b converted?anybody ever done that?

 

[lanciaman]

Yep, the doc has one. Cost around £3k to do by dtr - who themselves said in an Auto Italia article they wouldn't want a rhd conversion!

LHD is not a problem anyway. I've had 5 left hookers - 2 b's and 3 Lancias. Never been an issue other than car park barriers. Besides, I'd argue it makes you a more aware driver as you have to be sure before you take on a manoeuvre (or however you spell it!).

 

[salvo's yellow punto]

3 grand?geeez thats alot. wouldnt the insurance drop alot though?

 

[lanciaman]

Dunno, ask the doc! I would doubt it though.

 

[salvo's yellow punto]

haha whos the doc anyway?

 

[LittleRedB]

The Doc's is still a left hooker!!

The conversion from Left to Right is quite complicated as the car's were only ever built to a LHD spec (unlike most Euro car's where components are build for both RHD and LHD cars). It's not just the dash that has to be changed, the steering rack etc also has to be changed - DTR have converted 3 cars (I think), there is also another company who have converted a couple but do a pig of a job - I saw one a couple of years ago and it looked awful!

As the car is categorised as a group 19 I don't think the conversion would make any difference, if anything such a mod would probably add to the insurance premiums!

The b is such a well balanced car I would not consider changing the setup, I speculate that it would upset the handling!

 

[jiggy]

Is Doc's B a RHD?? All those pics and I never noticed!

DTR have converted about five or six B's in total I believe. For me, I don't really see the point after a few hours in a LHD it really becomes second nature and like Lanciaman says it teaches you to drive pretty carefully anyway so could even be safer.

Salvo: This is a good thread about Doc's car - see how it goes from being a 1999 B in a pretty presentable state to something that has an engine bay you could eat your dinner off! Very inspiring but I think undertaking such as massive project takes a lot of time, money, knowledge and ingenuity, only one of which I've got (time!!)

 

[jiggy]

Beat me to it LRB! I think the confusion with Doc's car is maybe that in his sig he's reversed the picture of his B so it looks like a RHD

 

[LittleRedB]

Beat me to it LRB! I think the confusion with Doc's car is maybe that in his sig he's reversed the picture of his B so it looks like a RHD

I had never noticed that before but you are right!!!

I would not be surprised if he turned it into a McLaren F1 style 'middle wheel' configuration to make space for a couple of nuclear reactors each side of the seat!! (to power the flux capacitor)................

 

[jiggy]

to power the flux capacitor

Doc at the next B meet:

"Latest mod: it's got 1.21 gigawatts of Fiat power!"

 

[LittleRedB]

 

[lanciaman]

Yep, twas the pic that fooled me.

Given what he seems to be like, a central steering wheel wouldn't surprise me.....

 

[docorangepeel]

LOL you lot kill me LOL HEHEEHEHEH

This is off the DTR site:

Fiat Barchetta Right hand Drive
Despite rumours to the contrary, we built just 6 of these cars, of which 2 went for export, 1 was our own demonstrator and used for the RHD moulds and 1 was built for BBC Top Gear show. This is the car shown here, and was a 1997 model, later sold (and still maintained) by us.

 

[salvo's yellow punto]

hahaha the docs car does look mint.fair play

 

[Rustbucket]

RHD is sooo cool! You see how mine has been done properly..except the instrument binnacle has the speedo on the right (straight swap over) however ebay provided a complete 'mirror' console layout so the clock etc is on the drivers side along with the aircon/vent switch!

 

[docorangepeel]

Can you take a few pics of your engine bay as I would like to see how it was done?

 

[LittleRedB]

RHD is sooo cool! You see how mine has been done properly..except the instrument binnacle has the speedo on the right (straight swap over) however ebay provided a complete 'mirror' console layout so the clock etc is on the drivers side along with the aircon/vent switch!

Wow - I had no idea yours was a right hooker!

As the Doc said can we have some piccies of under the bonnet, very interested to see how the conversion was done. Also a few more of the dash would be good, looks very professional from the piccie

 

[Rustbucket]

Ahh..I cannot tell a lie. Its a standard LHD, flipped by paint. One of the series I did on the other thread..didn't think you guys would swallow it..sorry:worship:

 

[Sunny Funny]

Wishfull thinking

Good joke, should have waited 10 days....

 

[LittleRedB]

You s**t!!!! - we've been 'ad gov!! Too much black stuff this week