I was finding it hard to get back into the projects in my sig after a little sabbatical from cars, and I decided it was because the welding jobs weren't fun and I needed to start having fun with cars again.
Enter this:
It's a Fiat 126 Bis prepped for class 7 grasstrack racing, with a full spaceframe, converted to centre steering and with huge arches ;D
Originally built with twin bike engines, there's enough room in the back to fit a variety of 4 cylinder or 8 cylinder transverse engines.
All credit for the work on this car so far goes to Nat at Retropower, who built it as his own twin Ducatti engined monster grass track car before deciding to switch classes and buy a special ready to go, stripping the Fiat and giving the shell to me.
So what am I going to do with it? Welp, as much fun as grass track racing looks and although it isn't a contact sport, those grassers take a battering and the superb engineering Nat has put into even his grasser is far too good to die by my unskilled hands on the oval! So, inspired by the Prescott hillclimb at the gathering and watching the footage of the annual Pikes Peak event, I'm gonna build me a hillclimb car
I'm thinking a stupid fast engine, cut doors back in about half way up the body, perspex windows and a big, unapologetic air intakes and aerofoils to match the mad arches and sills ;D
Speaking of which, I was having a think about what I could use on the project that I already had in the workshop and I remembered I had this:
The front valence of a Rover P6 V8. Which kind of reminded me of the front of this:
And I thought grafting it on might make it look like the more modern 126's take on the Abarth. Let's see!
I trimmed the top lip off the valence so I could offer it up to the Fiat front and see where it sits.
I think the way it juts out suits the arches. I like it, but it needs those grills taking out:
That's better!
As you can see the profile is pretty good, just needs some trimming on the width and a bit of shaping.
The other grill needs to go now, the one in place of the windscreen. I roughly chopped it out so I need to clean up the lip where it was welded in.
So, that's as far as I've got.
I need to start thinking about what engine to put in this. I'm realistically only going to be doing track days and the Gathering Prescott hillclimb so I'm not bothered about which class it will fit into or anything at the moment, I just want plenty of power and a I must have a turbo, because I have a plan for that
Suggestions welcome!
Thanks for looking!
Enter this:
It's a Fiat 126 Bis prepped for class 7 grasstrack racing, with a full spaceframe, converted to centre steering and with huge arches ;D
Originally built with twin bike engines, there's enough room in the back to fit a variety of 4 cylinder or 8 cylinder transverse engines.
All credit for the work on this car so far goes to Nat at Retropower, who built it as his own twin Ducatti engined monster grass track car before deciding to switch classes and buy a special ready to go, stripping the Fiat and giving the shell to me.
So what am I going to do with it? Welp, as much fun as grass track racing looks and although it isn't a contact sport, those grassers take a battering and the superb engineering Nat has put into even his grasser is far too good to die by my unskilled hands on the oval! So, inspired by the Prescott hillclimb at the gathering and watching the footage of the annual Pikes Peak event, I'm gonna build me a hillclimb car
I'm thinking a stupid fast engine, cut doors back in about half way up the body, perspex windows and a big, unapologetic air intakes and aerofoils to match the mad arches and sills ;D
Speaking of which, I was having a think about what I could use on the project that I already had in the workshop and I remembered I had this:
The front valence of a Rover P6 V8. Which kind of reminded me of the front of this:
And I thought grafting it on might make it look like the more modern 126's take on the Abarth. Let's see!
I trimmed the top lip off the valence so I could offer it up to the Fiat front and see where it sits.
I think the way it juts out suits the arches. I like it, but it needs those grills taking out:
That's better!
As you can see the profile is pretty good, just needs some trimming on the width and a bit of shaping.
The other grill needs to go now, the one in place of the windscreen. I roughly chopped it out so I need to clean up the lip where it was welded in.
So, that's as far as I've got.
I need to start thinking about what engine to put in this. I'm realistically only going to be doing track days and the Gathering Prescott hillclimb so I'm not bothered about which class it will fit into or anything at the moment, I just want plenty of power and a I must have a turbo, because I have a plan for that
Suggestions welcome!
Thanks for looking!
