Hi all

Just back from my first trip to the Canaries which aside from the indulgence in food and drink, a few trips around the Island in a hired Opel Tigra yielded quite a few surprises in the classic Fiat dept. Three 131s (all Seats) were literally stumbled across, along with several Seat 127s, a beautiful 1100 Familiare and a complete 130 Coupe being used as a store for some dudes surfing equipment - Much cooler than a Vee dub!? ?

Anyway here are some pics....

The first car was sitting away from the sun and had obviously been cared for during it's 30 year life. The owner had no English (and I no Spanish) so conversation was limited but he was happy to let me have a nose around. Strangely it had a 2500 badge on the rear wing which I discarded as being inaccurate at the time, however reading a classic car magazine later I saw a Seat 131 with a perkins diesel engine for sale. I always thought that Fiat introduced diesel engines to it's range in the series 2 131. This particular car had a rev counter (to 8000rpm) and a flat bonnet so I'm unclear exactly what it was.?

The interior was certainly more plush than the Fiat trim in series 1.







The second car was in a much worse state - Certainly qualifies for a "sad" 131. I've never seen a roof go quite as badly as this one - And in such a dry climate. I didnt stay long as I was on private property and a cacophony of dog parking could be heard behind a wall!







Just as I was getting back into the car a silver Supermirafiori drove non-chalantly by.?

We caught up and followed for some kms before the driver noticed his "tail" and stopped for a chat - And an attempt to sell me his car? - Complete with a donor at home. He has had the car for 10 years and wanted 200,000 pesatas (around ?1200). I showed him some pictures of my Sport to which the only response was that my four round headlights indicated that his car was more modern, having 2 rectangular headlights! I politely and non-commitedly nodded and after some more stilted conversation we parted with the words that I needed to make my mind up quickly as there were other people interested in it!?

Right guys, anorak on!

What you need to do when considering FIAT 131s versus SEAT 131s is look at the engines.

Kev, you are quite correct, the FIAT 131 didn't get diesel engines until the series 2 (1978), but the SEAT 131 had dielsels almost from the start.

Whilst FIAT and SEAT shared body and trim parts, the Spanish engines were in the main locally produced, and therefore were not the same as the Italian produced units. FIAT only fitted the 2500 diesel into the 131 Super (series 2 and 3) with the 2000 diesel being fitted to the CL (series 2 and 3), but what SEAT did was anyone's guess!

(NB - FIAT did fit the 2000 and 2500 diesel engines into both the 132 and Argenta models, but these were not available in the UK).

It's a long held misconception that the FIAT and SEAT models of the same car were identical - this is simply not true. There are many, if very subtle, differences.

Simon

 :)Hi Kev

I am glad to see it is not just me that stops and takes pictures of old Fiats (especially 131's) when on holiday and the Canaries, Majorca and mainland Spain always yield a few even in this day and age. I will get round to posting some of the pictures. In 2003 a beautiful Silver with Blue Interior Supermirafiori MK2 was parked ouside some flats on the road out of Benelmadana on the Costa Del Sol. Two years later it was gone. In the 80's these places were full of 131's and I always got the impression they were a slightly upmarket car. Similar to what a 3 series is now in Europe.

When working in Portugal inn 1993 there was a distinct lack of 131's in comparison with neighbouring Spain. The exception was a few MK 3 Supermirafiori's 2.0 TC, always finished in Silver With Quad Lights and what looked like a black leather interior. The owners of these cars which at the time would have been around 10 years old always seemed particularly chuffed with their vehicle. I must stop now the memories of Portugal are coming flooding back and I remember a Blue 124 Sport that was permenantly parked outside one of the bars in a village above Faro and the English plated LHD 132 in Silver with a blue interior that I would often see around the Loule area of the Algarve.

Absolutely no idea Graham - Never saw anything of interest that prompted me to enquire. I do know of someone who shipped a car from Southern Italy to Cork for around ?600 a few years ago.

As for the first (131 S) mine had a rev counter also (mkI 131 special) and as for the third (silver one) I only have one thing to say... What a gear shift...
When I was young (some 30 years ago) I remember a red 131 Racing with a black top. Does anyone knows if it was a standar feature or an optional one?