131mirafiori forum

Hi, me and the sons attended this event yesterday 01/08/2010.  Pic's here of my sons Racing and my other sons 124ST.  Will post more pic's.

Some more pic's. Abarth replica and 131 1600 Rally with strong 2000 engine.

And more!

Another 124ST and 2300 Coupe

Sorry missed the 124ST.  Some sports model.

Ok now you got the yellow 124ST twice!  Will try not to post it 3 times!  Sorry not the best of pic's as it was taken with my Cell phone but want to share this with you. 

Great pics and cars ...and all RHD too! very jealous of those 124 STs. My dad had a new one in 1973 - Mustard green - It replaced a red 1200cc Fiat 124 Berlina.

Boy did it go compared with the cars we used to have and Dad must have thought he had changed jobs from Sales to Rally driver when he got this car. Despite my tender years at the time I can vividly remember the fact that this was the first of our cars that had a rev counter. Dad and I always had a secret not shared with the sisters or mother. Whenever an icy challenge of "why are you driving so fast ...dear...?" was heard, an inncocent finger would be pointed at the tacho saying "but we are only doing 40 mph - Look!" Of course in reality the 1600 twin cam was howling along at 80 mph and 4000 rpm!!  ;D ;)

Did ye get a "job lot" on those lovely 13inch alloy wheels...? ;) Great to see that the classic Fiat scene is so healthy in your part of the world.

Kevin my very 1st car was a 124ST and I was mad about this little car.  My dad always had very boring cars. A few DKW's , Studebakers, Cortinas etc.  So when I got this ST I just could not keep my eyes of this revcounter. And then this car had a Twin Cam engine and disc brakes , 5 speed gearbox!!!!!!  Since then I always had Fiats.!

Very nice cars , the condition is incredible  ;)

This 124ST belongs to my son Neil.  He turned 23 yesterday.  He loves his Fiat and only uses it on this occasions.  This car has never been restored or resprayed.  Looks new inside with no cracks on the dash.  Even still have the original 124ST thick chrome exhaust tail pipe.

You have a good climate in South Africa for Fiat's not like here in Ireland, I have a 1977 Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV that came out of Pretoria TP was the reg rust free. Were the Fiat's built in CKD form in South Africa ?

Fantastic cars, really nice. 3 other 2 door 131s and for sure I love your Racing 131 Sport story. Different from here in Europe, very, very interesting. You see how great actually history of the 131 was isn't it?

Thanks for sharing the pictures. Are there anymore "normal"131 survivors in your beautiful country? Or do you know of  surviving Ford Perana's, 2nd generation BMW M5 and Alfa Romeo GTV 3.0? I am very interested what's al around!

Greetings from Holland!

Hi, yes our 124ST was also bought in Pretoria, about 50km from where we live.
The FORD stand was right behind the FIAT stand and they had 2 Cortina Perana's and a V8 Capri Perana. I counted no less than 3 GTV 3ltr's at the Alfa Romeo stand. South Africa really has a rich history of unusual cars we produced ourselves! ;D

Looks like a Fiat Osca 1500 by Farina  ;)

Fiats were fully manufactured in a car plant at Brits which is about 30 km from Pretoria.  In South Africa Fiats never rusted more than any other cars around,  In actual fact some other cars like early Toyotas and 5 series BMW's from the '70s rusted much more.  My sons 131 Racing and the 124ST is still rust free.  But I must also mention that my 130TC which was imported new from the UK in 1985 is also still rustfree.  Our climate are very kind to our classic cars where we live.  At the coast it is obviously the usual story as the cars rusts badly there.

Great to hear. I am always interested in nice pictures an great stories!

Nice cars + nice climate = Many happy FIAT owners.... ;) You have beautyfull cars. Looks like that they were well looked after...

Cool! Love the green 124 ST. Here's a pic of mine now with 1995cc EFI turbo  ;)
My car is ex South Africa too and still has a Victoria Falls Rhodesia metal badge on the grill. I thought the reflectors under the headlights were non original and deleted them during the rebuild but i see both your son's car and the yellow one have them.
You definitely were blessed with some interesting Fiats over there. A friend had a S.A. import 128 that was badged as a rally, had all the rally bits, but was a four door and showed no signs of having being modified. My 850 Coupe is from there too. I doubt it was originally built with the 124 DOHC but you have me wondering now. Is there any info available on all the Fiat 'specials' from South Africa?

Hi 131v6.  I saw a silver 850 Coupe with a Twin Cam engine about 25 years ago.  I am sure it must be this car!  What does the wheels looks like?.  I heard about this car and I visited the owner one Saturday morning.  The car was then in an exceptional nice condition.  He was a German guy and did the conversion him self.  I never saw this car again.  And a very nice 124 of yours!  I always wondered what happened to all the old Fiats in SA.  Seems they all ended up on the other side of the sea...

wow! very interesting. The 850 came here in 2002 (with i think the emigrating S.A. owner) and the papers show previous registration in South Africa in 1987 so that would tie in with your time line of when it was built maybe. The wheels are 13" momos. Here's a couple more pics. Some of the distinguishing bits would be the gauges, the front spoiler and mesh grill under the bumper, and wooden interior trim at the top of the doors instead of the usual plastic.
The 124 came here in 1980 so its not a recent loss  :)
Nick

Yes that is the car I saw many years ago and now I know why I never saw it again.  I remember the wheels and gauge cluster very well.  I always wondered what happened to this car.  I really hope you have fun with it!

Would like to show you this, last weekend at cars in the park and this weekend at a track day. My son really enjoyd the track day!

Great pic Nick - He certainly looks like he is enjoying himself. I remember those split glass sun roofs - very fashionable in the 80s here!  ;)

hi all
 Only wish i went through with importing one from SA years ago ,
 a SA freind from Ipswich ,he was going back and filling a 3 car container, he'd found me a red 131  ,,,,,,but somthing happen to the family car and i had to buy  an alfa 164  
to replace it quickly instead  ,
 i had to phone him up in SA and cancel my order , i lost my deposit  .
 God if only with hindsight i had gone through with it      

Any chance that you took some pictures to The red Fiat X1/9

No unfortunately not.

Hi 131v6.  I saw some pics of your 850 Coupe yesterday when it was still in South Africa.

Hi 131R. Thanks for that. I'll PM you my email address. I'm curious to find out anything new about its history.
I fired it up last week and took it for a run to 'blow out the cobwebs'. We've had a trying week here with a massive earthquake and hundreds of aftershocks but a few minutes behind the wheel of the 850 cheered me up no end  :)

Hi 131v6
I like your Fiat 124ST, must be a rocket with that turbo engine?  ;)
What i would like to know is what year model is your 124? and has yours got the later model 124 "bucket" seats and centre consol? I will attach fotos of my cars interior.
I also like your 850 coupe, looks like it could have been something from the Abarth factory!  :)

Hi 124ST. Sorry i didn't see your post. My 124 papers say it is a 1977 model although they could be wrong. Were they still being assembled is S.A. that late? Mine has seperate low back seats and a centre console for a radio. I thought they were all like that... interested to see pics of yours to compare.  Yep goes very well with the turbo  ;D
Mine is a 124 Special rather than a special T. The original engine was 1438cc pushrod

Hi 131v6!
Sorry I'm replaying to you just now.
Here is a picture of my car's seats and console. I changed my console a bit by putting in Alfa Gulia gauges. I also fitted the sports steering wheel this weekend  :)
To reply to your question, Fiat 124's where still produced up till 1977 in South Africa.

Wow! Your interior is in such a lot better condition than mine! I see now what you mean about the centre console. Mine does not have that. It has a smaller one that drops down to the tunnel. One like yours would tidy mine up a great deal as i modified the tunnel to get a Fiat 131 gearbox in there and the carpet had to be cut. My seats and door trim are a cream colour and the car originally had no tachometer, just a big clock. I replaced with instruments from a 125 Special. Seats look similar,will take a photo.