131mirafiori forum

The 131 Sport is crap! It was a cynical and ill thought out showroom special designed to capitalise on its much more capable, competition developed, cousin from Abarth.  The fact that it lasted in production for 4 years is surprising given its many faults.

When the 131 was first designed, the basic car shape was not intended with a sporting variant in mind. Along with the 127 Sport, it was the first ?sport? version of an ordinary Fiat for years that didn?t have its own body shape. Stickers, plastic, velour, weird wheels and laurel wreaths were all thrown at this pair of hot shots in an attempt to create distinct and top of the range models. Where the 131 was concerned, ?stand out from the crowd? colour schemes and a few nods towards sportiness such as a stubby gear lever, a spoiler and wheel arch extensions, aggressively styled headlights and a grill that was compared with the fascia of a transistor radio were expected to convince customers that the higher price was worth spending. Of course having a 2000TC badge on each rear quarter helped in the showroom too as the customer must have felt that they were getting something close to the Ford killing rally version. Once you sat inside the soft yet sporting seats with head rests all round, tinted glass, door mirrors like the Abarth, a better stereo that was expected (in some markets) was all it would take to convince the prospective buyer that this was a car for all purposes and would be a good companion for their lifestyle. ?Where do I sign up???

In reality, the 131 Sport was excessively noisy (inside it had the dubious distinction of being the noisiest car to travel in that was available to buy new at the time, according to a magazine test) and unrefined and the dash and trim buzzed and rattled at all sorts of engine and road speeds. It was slow compared with its main competition. The RS2000, Dolomite Sprint, BMW 320, Lancia Beta 2000, etc could all out accelerate the heavy Fiat. Its top speed (claimed to be 180 km/h by Fiat) was never achieved in any credible road test and the maximum speed in gears was quite low necessitating two changes up to 100 km/h. At least changing gear was a pleasure with that small sporty gear lever. The brakes were not up to the performance that the car did have. Discs the same size as were fitted to Fiat 127s and rear drums easily faded and didn?t have the required emergency stopping power for the car?s weight. What about the back axle ? Initially designed for lower powered versions and not upgraded for the 115 bhp Sport. Fiat obviously were not too concerned about their customers once the cars were a few years older. Flimsy seat trim, a body with corrosion friendly water traps, weak door frames and questionable electronics all helped to degrade the owner?s pleasure from the car. I wonder how many new owners bought another new 131 Sport. I suspect very few. The replacement model (Supermirafiori 2000) was a much softer and refined car and was probably a reaction to the rather crude Sport.

So why do we love these cars and in my case why is it my all-time favourite? From some angles it is plain ugly. The design can lack an integrated look especially with the different wheel arch heights from front to rear. In bright light the front treatment with its large gaps and rather gormless mis-matched headlights looks like something designed in the dark! However from some angles and in certain colour schemes the car looks like nothing else on the road. It has a menace and look of sporting intent quite unlike any other car that doubles as a method of family transport. Once you open the wide door and settle into the inviting and luxuriously covered seats, let your hands settle on an ergonomically sound controls layout and fire up that gruff yet tuneful twin cam, you know this journey will be different than in any other car. Press the clutch and select first gear with just a minimal adjustment of your hand. Build your speed keeping the revs between 2 and 4 thousand RPM in each gear surprising yourself that not only do you not need to brake for corners, but that you can actually embrace them in a level and grippy well balanced behaviour, one where you can feel what each wheel is doing through a large steering wheel giving lots of feedback.  Perfect visibility out of a glassy cabin lets you observe all potential hazards and although manoeuvers such as overtaking require advance planning, the whole experience is satisfying and engaging compared with a modern car. In fact you are probably covering ground a lot less efficiently and more slowly than a modern car but you ?feel? as if you?re driving quickly. The harder you drive the car and the more the gearbox and other oils warm up, the better the car performs. It seems to thrive on spirited driving especially on open sweeping bends. It?s easy to provoke oversteer which can be caught quite easily with an adjustment to the throttle or a change in steering wheel input ? In fact balancing this car on the edge of its grip (at least on standard suspension and tyres) is one of the many fun things to do in this car. Much has been written on the engine powering the car but aside from the wonderful sound, the characteristic that constantly catches me out when I?ve not been driving it for long is its flexibility. You really can drop your speed as low 30km/h in fifth gear and then accelerate without hesitation.

And at the end of all the fun, you can still pick up 3 adult sized passengers (and their luggage) and travel across a continent in relative comfort and still be able to drink, dine and dance at your destination. The ideal cruising speed is 140/150 km/h to avoid the dashboard buzzes although at that speed you won?t see the strained necks of the car?s admirers as it roars by! A road tester from C & CC described the car in a triple test with the Dolomite and Escort as the best all rounder and suited to the business man with a family who liked a sporty drive?..which is exactly the profile of my Dad ?.who I still blame for my obsession with this crap/great car!

Did Fiat intend that the car would perform so well? It could easily have been just a short lived caf? cruiser or posers car with its blue/green/orange bumpers and very quickly found out as very in-substantive. I?d argue that the lack of mechanical development for the Sport compared with other models in the range, points to it being just a lucky happenstance that the marriage of the engine with a car that was already well behaved resulted in such a satisfying driving experience. The showroom appeal add ons seem strangely to also have stood the test of time. Make your own mind up whether the car is crap ?or just great :)

I'll vote with GREAT,  The 131 from my experiences has never failed to amuse me and make for a very pleasant,  sporty, and at times thrilling ride.  It's not all about speed but a combination of handling and useability.  Mike Stinson

Nah! They're real crap. Just get rid of yours and give them all to me. I'll save you all the troubles and misery....  ;D ;D

Great  ;D ;D anything but a ford or BMW

Good idea Theo - Kev can I take yours off your hands  ???

I wouldn't start to bad-mouth other manufacturers Jason. You never know who you're going to upset.

I couldn't have said it better myself. You certainly covered some of the sentiments in my 'tale of two sports' story and blew it up to a much bigger and better read.

Is the 131 crap? By todays standards and even if I hate saying so myself, it sort of is.

However, at the time both of us were probably in our informative years, that was the current state of play and therefore was something to drool over. Could have easily enlarged the droolometer to cover higher end Porsches, Astons and the like, but the 131 sport was, at the time, a realistically achievable target, grabbed me by the nads and wouldn't let go till I had one.

Do I still love them? Absolutely Yes . But not for what they are today (did I say crap) but what they did to me in the early 80's.
Maybe these type of feelings ever only happen once and for me, maybe the Sport just happened to be there at the right time.

Hi All.
Kev for one brief moment i taught you were going to sell your Sport ;D it is just as well i read the whole
Story ;D.
      Willie.

A 131 Racing is EMOTION

Quite the opposite - I'm continuing to spend money on improvements Willie - These cars can be a bit of a money pit but in this context the cost doesn't mean that much. :)

I had intended to put these thoughts down on "paper" for some time - It is such a compromised car and easily dismissed by those not bitten by the bug!!! ;D

It seems that we're not alone in liking these cars as more and more seem to be coming into Ireland.... :) One day we'll have a line up of Sports that should get us into the Guinness book of records!!  ;D

The 131 Racing was my first love...and it will be my last  ::)

Kev,

Do you have any idea why the 131 Racing/ mirafiori Sport was designed/constructed?

My first car at 19 was a silver 131 sport ... to me back then it was the coolest thing on 4 wheels back in 1989 nothing came close.. my dad & uncle would of had 5 different 131 twin-cams between them over the years but neither of them ever got a sport... I couldn't believe my luck when I fell on this fully resprayed 131 sport with 2 brand new doors for the sum of ?950 of my hard saved cash...
Never have I felt the same magic for a car as my 131 sport..
Loved it then ... Love it now..  :)
Think she ended her days  in Mayo as a friend of mine saw it several years later
blocking a gap in a field
(http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc408/daverwd/2013-07-09230726_zps18c85ce7.jpg)

Sounds like you need another one Dave!!!  :)

I never saw that pic before - great to have it after all this time and ?950 was a bargain. How did you insure it at 19 though? What did you replace it with?

Mike I'd love to know. I have an article from a dealer only magazine that announced the launch of the two Sports dated 1978. I'll have a look and see but I guess it was to capitalise on the rallying success. I'd like to have been a fly on the wall when the design committee came up with those wild colour schemes!! :o

Kevin let's just say it had book of a less powerful  2 door model.. :-X ( I was only 19  ;) )

I replaced it with a lancia delta GT...
Was a lovely car but never lived up to the 131.. rwd is so much more fun than fwd

I remember reading an article back in the days claiming that the 131 Racing/Sport was created to silence the many critics who lamented the loss of the 124 Coupe without a suitable replacement. But I don't believe that and I think, as Kevin said, it was to capitalise on the racing success of the model. Fiat are in the business of making money and not trying to make a few crazy people like us happy  ;D

I had my first Sport at 14. Use to sit in it in the garage all polished up inc the rust with my mates. At 18 my dad welded, painted and had it mot'd, taxed and insured and it went from there. I was a named driver. Kept it for a bit then my uncles Uno turbo was given to me. 20 years old and the turbo said it all....the 131 was crap and had to go. Sold it on and realised I made the biggest mistake ever. Anyway few years passed, Got married in may 2004, bought a red Sport in August and It all started again...I went Sport mad and ended up with 3 in a year...2 runners and one resto.

Yes, the Racing/Sport was capitalised on the rallying succes of the Abarth.

As you probably know Fiat wanted to participate on rallying with a "family car". The 124 Spider was outdated and the Lancia Strato's was a purpose build rally car.
For homogolation 400 street versions of a rally model were to be constructed and in this case the 131 Abarth Stradale was designed. These were all distributed to the dealers in Italy, except for a handful that were sold to French dealers.
But the car was impossible to sell for dealers. The price was just too high. Some cars were even just sold in late 1978.
Btw, it's a fairytaile that 50 were withdrawn to be converted to Group 4 cars. As a matter of fact, Stradales don't even come near to the rally versions. Perhaps 10 % of parts are alike.
Then the 131 Abarth got world rally champion. And since Fiat has Always been only interested in selling cars, the Racing/Sport was constructed. A sporty version of the already excisting 2-door coach for a reasonable price. Not as spectacular as it's pre-decessor, heavier and not as fast because of the more economic engine.
It was all about selling numbers.

About the colors. Stradales were only available in three colors: Blue, Red and Yellow. The three colors in the Abarth badge.
The Racing/Sport came in totally different colors. More to the modern time standard and totally different to the standard versions. Three were available: Orange, black and gun metal with options for trimming in black and silver. Trimming in orange, green and ice blue were just examples in the folders and not a standard. Some buyers probably liked thosecolors and so they did a respray. Together with the 131 Sport, the 127 Sport was launched, only in orange and black.

A couple of years later the Racing/Sport was only available in silver. 50 old stock cars in gun metal that were still standing in the parking lot were withdrawn back to the factory to become Abarth Volumetrico's.

 :)

More good info but I think your colours are slightly incorrect.

131 Sport was available in silver, grey and orange from launch with black becoming available shortly afterwards. Factory versions with blue (silver body) and beige/gold trims (black body) were also available from Fiat but there is mystery about the orange and green bumpers. Some say they were for the Asian market only but you may be right that they were never officially available. The 127 Sport came in black, silver and orange only - no grey which is a shame as it would look great in that colour.

I didn't know the Stradale colours were based on the Abarth badge colours. :)

Yes Kevin, you could be right about the silver. I probably should have said it was the only available color from 1980 and on.
The beige trimming was only for Britain and, i believe, for Germany. Altough it could very well have been gold. Perhaps someone could shine a light on this?
Here in Holland most Racings were in orange and some were in gun metal. Later on only in silver.

I'm not sure about silver for the 127 Sport 70 HP (1050 cc). I have never ever seen one. I know for sure the second (75 HP, 1300 cc) was available in a bigger color scheme.

Gold bumpers & trims were sold in Irish market, German market and  in Malta too. Gun metal with pippin red velour and orange bumpers sold in Ireland too. 

I seen a France 131 Racing very early 1978 in silver  a few weeks ago with silver bumpers and trims, they were painted black but silver plastic bumpers under the black paint, the grille had not been painted so it was the original silver & the seat belts front and rear were silver.

As far as I know abarth did also only one green stradale, which is still alive in his original colour and matching seat green stripe. But I have no pictures of it.

The Fiat 131 sport or racing is the best car I have ever driven and I am a mechanic so I drive everything.
As for all these people who go on about bmw's, merc's, audi's etc these days, I can only pity them as they have never driven a proper car and generally all modern cars are boring dull and souless.
I was contemplating buying a Fiat coupe 20 valve turbo but while being a good car by modern standards it just doesn't grab me like a 131 sport and I must admit I don't like front wheel drive but then I don't like the german rear wheel drive rubbish either so I think I will keep my 131 sport as I don't think there is a substitute.

mirafiori76,
                  There were 127 sports in silver in the UK, I had a W reg one (1980).
I think I still have the log book somewhere.

I didn't know that. Like i said, i have never seen one and i wasn't aware of the exsistance of silver 127 Sports.

very interesting initial post, particularly the axle section, i remember, axle s exploding in "2door sports" as we used to call them quite regularly. and yes it desperately needed a longer 5th gear, (which the 2000super got).

 it was because they were crap that we loved them, and still do.. as a 17yearold in 1989, i didn't have rich parents to buy me a ?2000 w'reg mk 3 escort like my friends did so i bought a w'reg strada cl instead for ?350 OF MY OWN MONEY!! it was so much cheaper because it was generally thought of as crap by anyone you asked yet had 5thgear and rear wiper and was better looking and faster than the escort.

my ist foray into 131 ownership was when a faily tidy x'reg 1600 cl (7years old)was towed it to the garage i worked in with the OHV cambelt broken,  the owner said "ITS CRAP,do you want it for ?50" now even in 1990 it was n't particularly difficult to source a rotten 1600 tc and swop all the super bits on to the  tidy cl  shell, the V5 said cl so insurance was ?250 for an 18yearold!! i ended up with a very nice car (self funded) for less than 200 quid far cooler than the sierras and montegos my friends were now getting bank loans to buy,    crap? yes but wonderful, marvellous and utterly lovable in a way that  only"we" will ever know. the car was eventually sold on to fund my ist 105tc but a photo of it remains above my bed today, thats the difference beetween a fiat and a ford

Imagine getiing a bank loan for a montego !
We used to call them  "montebloodywontgos"  ;D are there any left ?  I hope not....

The word crap is to good a word to use about an Austin Montego >:( I hope to that there are none left, exterminate every Montego ;D

I had a few supers back in late 80's early 90's and there was always something about them, even to this day i can't say for sure what it is but probably a mixture of looks, sound and that not many people knew much about them and were always asking what was under the bonnet!!
I've just this week got my project on the road and it's been 19years since i last drove one and have been breaking my neck to get behind the wheel again all this time. And now i think they are even rarer and cooler than before (even my kids now say it looks cool).
Yes the build quality, colour co-ordination and technology was crap but they do have soul and personality and they put a smile on your face, and not many crap cars can do that!!!

In the words of FIAT...... :)

nobody know how many 131 sport / racing produced ?

I see in live 1 series racing identification number have been 131ak-039xxxx but in finland least identification number have 131ak-0413xxx and this car first register date 11.7 1978 and last identification number have 131ak-056xxxx this car registered 1980

in Finland have been avaible colors
for body : gun metal, silver, orange and black
bumpers color: gray, black, and blue (i have reality photos when cars have been new )

Problem is they numbered on through the 131 line, only the AK indicates it's a Racing. And far better since around 1981 they went to the international system of chassisnumbers with 17 positions and started all  Fiat group cars with ZFA, while the old numbers had 16 positions when you count Fiat also there.

One of, if not the best articles ever written on this forum 8) 8)