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This car used to belong to a buddy of mine.
He drove it on the street, first stock but then he started to modify it.
He brought it to me for sheetmetal modifications, But I have no pics of the first version.
Mostly custom tricks...
Welded on sunvisor, modified rocker panels, functional X1/9 side scoops, and he painted it deep shiny black & red wheels.
But then he got more interested in racing it so he brought it back for some more mods.
The visor came off, new stock rockers welded on, slightly wider arches.
Next color combo was Gray, Black & white.
Edit.
All the missing pics because of Photobucket damage are reposted later in the thread.
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After racing it like that for a while he brought it back again> This time I completely gutted the car, built a spaceframe for it, suspension mods, etc. We also made fiberglass doors & lift off front ( the welded in steel hardtop was already done for the gray version ) That took more than 100Kg of weight off the car ( which is a lot for a car that small) He raced it with a souped up 650cc 126 engine, which is a bigger version of the original 500cc aircooled Fiat 500 engine. 4 port Panda30 head, special crank & rods, pistons, cam, etc...     |
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I did the fabrication.
The owner did all the assembly, engine work, and had it painted, etc...
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He raced it with a 650cc 126 engine, which is a bigger version of the original 500cc Aircooled 2 cylinder. But with a special crank & rods, pistons, 4 port Panda 30 head, twin 40 Dellorto, etc... That was about 25 years ago. After several years of racing it, he stopped and put the car in storage. A little over a year ago I heard through the grapevine he was thinking about selling it, so we got in touch and made a deal. I couldn't organize the shipping right away, so another buddy of mine picked it up and stored it at his place for a while.     |
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Fortunately getting the shipping arranged didn't take too long. Here it is coming out of the container, and being reunited with my other Fiat based racer ( I brought that one over some 10 years ago )    |
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Here it is at a friends' Shop BBQ. Blends right in, doesn't it...    |
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OK, I have lots more but Photobucket wont let me post anymore pics.
I haven't used Photobucket in a while, it was somewhat usable before but it's a total piece of curse word now.
If there is a better alternative, I'm open to suggestions...
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Test.  |
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OK. Maybe its just that pic...  Pulled the engine to get the clutch unstuck, rebuilt the carb, checked the valve lash, etc. Put it back in the car with an open exhaust and a airfilter ( don't want to run without one in the desert )  |
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Very cool cars there! You mentioned that the car has a Panda head on it, but I believe the Panda is a 4 instead of a 2 cilynder motor, right? Maybe there was a twin cilynder Panda that I've never seen? Maybe I misunderstood something. Regardless, I hope you share more about your TC replica, I'm envious.
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OK, I have lots more but Photobucket wont let me post anymore pics. I haven't used Photobucket in a while, it was somewhat usable before but it's a total piece of curse word now. If there is a better alternative, I'm open to suggestions... Just drag and drop straight from your computer into the post box. Got to say, this is bookmarked already! |
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My buddy raced it with the original Fiat 500 brakes, but with 10" wheels instead of the original 12". He used 10" classic Mini racing tires. I wanted more braking power so I started over by modifying a set of Fiat 850 Spider spindles.   So now I had discs in the front. The rear was a straight bolt in with Polish Fiat 126 parts. ( drums. Which I found out are the same as Yugo, and those were sold in the States. So my local parts store could get them... )  I used a nice vintage set of 6X13 Campagnolo's I had, with 175/50/13 A048's I got from Demon Tweeks.  |
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Thechadzone,
The regular Panda had a 4 cyl pushrod engine ( most of them 903cc, if I remember correctly )
But there was a Italian market 2 cylinder version which was based on the Fiat 500/126 Aircooled twin.
It's cylinder head has a de-siamesed intake which is a huge advantage when used on racing 500's and 126's.
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Here is a better pic of the head.  |
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So then it was time to take it to the track...    Handling was really great, but I needed more horsepower to keep up with the other cars on the track ( Miata's, 240Z's, S2000's, some of them with V8 swap's ) |
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So the next logical step was to swap in one of my spare engine and gearboxes from my red racer.  That also meant I had to put in a radiator, and plumbing.  And holes in the body to get the air in and out.  It all added up to a bit more weight ( just over 100Lb ), but I was very careful to not mess up the weight distribution. And the extra torque and horsepower of the 1000cc engine was worth more than 5sec a lap... |
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When I changed the suspension to 13", I narrowed the front track. So the wheels would fit the bodywork without modifications. But I had the feeling that was compromising the balance and turn in of the car. So I decided to do a couple of little tests. First I ran the car as is. Then I took the nose off, to see what ( if any ) the difference in laptimes was. And then I ran it without the nose, bit with thick spacers behind the front wheels to get the track back to where it was.  I was surprised to find out that the handling was a lot better without the nose on the car, and the laptimes were better too. And then when I put the spacers on, the laptimes got even better than that. So that told me the front bodywork was creating lift, and the front track needed to be at the wider setting. |
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So I extended the front arches to cover the wheels.  I made louvered panels to try and kill some of the lift.  I made a new, bigger airdam.  And I made a new splitter to match the new airdam. Bigger, and with 2 diffusers in it.  After trying that on the track, I cut some more holes in the fenders behind the front wheels. To get some more trapped air out from under the nose...  It all helped to get better laptimes... |
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I also extended the gurney flap on the ducktail to balance the improved traction from the front.
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