Living in Australia, one is constantly surrounded by what I like to term "the V8 mentality".  Yobbos who think that the only way you get horsepower is to give it more cubes.  My early experience of four cylinder cars easily put paid to that theory, but when I developed my love for FIATs I discovered a new Aussie bias.

Your "new age" yobbo now seems to accept you if you drive a 124 Coupé and the airhead chicks dig you man if you drive a Spider.  But no one expects a little old nineteen sixty-something matchbox car to go nasty when the lights turn green.

I have developed a penchant for the real baby FIATs like the 850s and 600s and one day I'd like to do an 850TC replica.  But for the here and now, to achieve street-respectable horsepower, rear-wheel drive disc-braked twin-cam power is all available easily in the 124 series.  The Sedan has the same undercarriage as the Coupé and Spider and the pushrod engine is easily swapped for the twin-cam.  And at 855 kg (1880 lbs) it's about 100 kg lighter than a Coupé with the Spider being even heavier still.  With the 1800 twin-cam on board, my Sedan has officially weighed in at 920kg.

And that's essentially why I've chosen the 124 Sedan.  It's unique (getting bloody rare), easily converted to rocket-status and yet very subtle!

124 sedan variants

Europeans will still be very familiar with the 124 as, until recently,  Lada still produce them in great numbers as the "people's car".  Someone once told me a story (don't believe anything you hear but...) that Fiat set up the Lada factory in Russia in exchange for Russian steel (the rouble was worthless) and this is the reason that 1970's FIATs have a tendancy to rust!  Perhaps lending some weight to this story is the fact that the Lada Riva (et al) is made of a much heavier guage steel and hence they lose all of that weight advantage I was talking about.

Spanish car manufacturer Seat used to sell "badge engineered" FIATs long before they sold the current badge-engineered VW's.  One of the best known of these was Abarth's 1850TC (I'm sure that name's wrong but try finding a reference to it) which was a Seat 124 with all of the bits from an Abarth 124 Spider.  We're talking hellfire 1800 twin-cam and trick suspension including independant rear end.

124 Sedan vs 124 Special

Ladas, Polskis and Seats aside, the Fiat models were the 124 Sedan, 124 Special and 124 SpecialT.  The Sedan was introduced in late 1966 as the replacement for the 1100 and is characterised cosmetically by the single pair of headlights in the grille, small overriders on the bumpers, "ribbon" type speedometer and button type door handles.

The Special was released around 1970, its most distinguishing feature being the twin-headlight grille.  The yucky brown dashboard of the Sedan was replaced by a black one with thicker padding and much sportier dial guages.  The door handles are the pull type ones as per the Coupé and Spider and there are larger (I don't like them personally) overriders on the bumpers.

The biggest difference between the two though was in the drivetrain.  The engine was bored out to 1438 cc (from 1197) and the Sedan's torque-tube rear end was replaced with a more conventional 5-link setup as per the Coupé and Spider.  The gearing was also revised with a 4.1:1 (4.3:1 in the Sedan) diff and altered gearbox ratios(a bit odd as the Sedan gearing is a better spread).  Coupé and Spider owners can swap this 4.1 diff for their 4.3 if they so choose.

The SpecialT never made it to Australia but was essentially a 124 Special with a super-ugly new front grille and a 1592 cc twin-cam.  Why the 1592 I don't know seeing the 1608 was around at the time and is a much sweeter engine.

What's my car?

After a long search, I eventually found a 1968 124 Sedan.  Through pure peer group pressure I really wanted a Special but they are even harder to find now.  Actually there are plenty of dogs around.  I think as the more "sporty" of the two, in their later years they were bought by uncaring owners who thrashed them within an inch of their lives and let them just go to shit.  Conversely, Sedans are generally in reasonably good shape.

I acquired a rusted out Special from which I took the dash (straight swap) and reclining front seats.  I was going to remove the front three panels too to "convert" mine to a Special but somewhere along the way I really grew accustomed to the "oh-so-sixties" look of the Sedan.  The idea has been to convert the car to what I would have wanted if I was around in 1968.  Keep the car almost unchanged cosmetically and drop in a twin-cam. 

So what I end up with is a 124 Sedan with 124 Sport (Coupé) springs (lowers the Sedan a couple of inches) and wheels (5½" Cromodora magnesium alloy) and a nicer steering wheel.  Then add the twin-cam and a 5-speed gearbox (ZF-type from FIAT 132 2-Litre is best but they are all quite a difficult fit) and there I have my 60's-mobile Italian rocket.  But...

Once the above was all sorted out, the search was on for a new body. I found a pristine condition Special. It was the classic "one old lady owner" job which had been lovingly touched up by her grandson. He still had it in bits when I bought it. I transferred everything over in a matter of days and had the car looking absolutely brilliant!

Then I got a new job offer and moved to Sydney, taking then-wife, house and Fiat with me. We'd been here for just over one month when some fkn turd in a truck wrote our little Mussolini off. I still can't believe it. 30 years without a scratch and it lasts in Sydney for a month.

Well the truck driver got a huge fine and loss of licence, I packed the wife back off to Perth for being a fuckwitted driver and got on the search for a new body. Found one but it took me nearly three years to restore it. See the body page to check it out. It's got some work to go to make it really pretty, but it'll do for now and it's fun for now!

If you go to the links for my 124 Sedan, I've included just a basic table of current specifications.  But as this is an ongoing project (the car and the web site) the whole dramatic story will unfold at some stage.