As I already announced, there's an article (written by myself) in the German car magazine "Abgefahren", published September 6, 2012. For your info here's the pages photographed; for your amusement, below my humble approach of translating the contents into English
Have fun!
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Looking for a sporty ride in the early Eighties, it was hard not to fall for the ?Fiat 131 mirafiori Sport Special Edition Walter R?hrl?, featuring a happily revving twin cam engine, a legendary name and the Master?s facsimile signature on bonnet and C-pillar. At least if you were on a limited budget. And orange was to be the color of choice! This picture was sticking to my memory, and this car it must be. It took almost ten years until I was able to fasten my vanity plate on this car ? my very personal interpretation of a ?Special Edition Walter R?hrl?. But, first things first.
In March 2003, an orthographically interesting ?ebay? ad caught my eye. On auction was a ?fiat 131 exomat 2door 1979 2 liter with 4 sidedraft carbs without airfi 5speed?rad leaks?. 500 Euros was the starting price, the blurred pictures scary; impervious to advice I went 200 miles to Swabian No Man?s land for a test drive and returned as a Fiat owner. Although no similarity to the desired Special Edition was evident (save the two door body), the former automatic transmission car (thus the name ?Ex-omat?) whose engine was built by its previous owner with used parts from the Fiat shelf was a lively ride ? I was intrigued. This looked like the base for a low budget rally car! I put my shoulder to the wheel: The goal was to prepare the car for next year?s ?Rally Classic Acropolis?.
First, the 131 was registered to red license plates (a kind of historical registration); the rotten exhaust, the front discs and the adamant tires were replaced by new parts, as were the hard to get strut mounts, which I imported from Turkey in my holiday baggage. Since LHD 131s do not provide space for air filters on side draft carbs, I laboriously modified four trumpets to fit in the tight space and installed fine mesh stainless steel nets to filter the intake air. A rally odometer conforming to FIA standard was installed, the car?s front grill and lights were changed to Series 1 ?Abarth? looks and an additional set of wide angle auxiliary lights was installed, and then I hit the jackpot on ?ebay?: A fully complete Fiat 131 Sport for breaking cost me 5.60 Euros! The body was totally rotten, but the skid pad, the drive shaft and the yellow Koni shocks I installed immediately in my rally project; the other parts I stored for future use.
In early May 2004, me and my co-driver drove all the way to Athens, Greece to participate in the Rally Classic Acropolis? from the previous year we knew already that a Regularity Rally means for Greeks you just have to drive regularly fast (with the emphasis on ?fast?). The three day event featured some gravel special stages from the WRC Acropolis Rally, and the 131 finished eighth overall, covered in dust and with a broken front spoiler. Laden with cups and pride, we returned home via Italy.
Summer 2004 brought along other treasures: ?ebay? provided a rare Heigo roll bar with FIA papers, and in a friend?s garage I rescued his N?rburgring-proven racing fire extinguisher from disuse. Perfectly equipped and with re-laminated front spoiler, autumn saw us participating in the notorious 500 km night rally ?Boxenstop500?, a wild ride over the Swabian Alb through pouring rain and fog; an unforgettable and inimitable experience ? unfortunately, ?Boxenstop500? will never be held again.
2005 was devoted to major restoration works to keep the car competitive; we took part in several national rally events, and in February 2006 a dream of every motor sport aficionado came true: participating in the winter rally ?Histo Monte?.
It didn?t start well, only a few minutes after the start we were stalled by a distributor problem; but on the Hockenheimring we made up for this by clocking the fastest laps. The same night, on an icy dirt road in the Vosges, we went (without looking stylish) trunk first into the ditch, luckily without damaging neither man nor machine. The very next day, climbing the Ballon d?Alsace, our secret dream of winning the ?Monte? like ?Walter? was shattered, when during a crucial special stage we proud, snow wise Bavarians (?we don?t need no snow chains?) had to watch the ?lowlanders? passing us by effortlessly while we were busy mounting snow chains, swearing in our native dialect.
But fast we were: after overtaking three participants who had started after us on a narrow mountain road (Yes, we had previously taken a wrong turn), one of the overtaken, a Porsche driver, sat stunned at the evening get-together: "130 hp?? I thought, you have at least 330." In the final account, we found ourselves only midfield, even though no team had won as many special stages as we did - but we had arrived. At Monte Carlo. Like "Walter". And even he didn?t win every race...
Was this winter rally a turning point? In any event, the 131 deteriorated fast from then on. For three more years I managed to keep the car in competitive state, but in fall of 2008 - coinciding with the "Classic Vorderpfalz" rally - the final curtain fell. Now I had to make a choice: scrap the faithful companion or rebuild her. Now, even though I am a decent mechanic, my welding talents are nil. So I was forced to outsource at least the body work. Timidly solicited quotes were as high as the car?s original sale price, standing diametrically against the philosophy of a low-budget rally car. Again the internet helped solve the problem: via the website "131mirafiori.com", founded by three Anglo-Saxon 131 enthusiasts I met Tomasz Cecot, a Polish rally driver and mechanic, who offered me restoration works at a very competitive rate. In September 2009 I packed the partly disassembled Fiat onto a trailer and transported her to Upper Silesia, 1000 km away.
During the following fierce winter, the body was sandblasted there, welded in best Polish craftsmanship with some parts I had provided, some custom manufactured Polish parts, and some new parts from Turkish production (Did you know that a Fiat rusts in places whose existence you have never heard of?) and painted in the early summer of 2010 - in "Arancio racing", my favorite color. To save weight, the 131 was fitted with a Group 4 fiberglass bonnet and trunk lid; also, any soundproofing was omitted.
Eleven months after delivery I took the car home the same way it was delivered, on a trailer; now that the body work was completed, I was able to devote several days to the idiosyncratic Italian electrics. The next phase of the restoration was to be a suspension overhaul, followed by the (re)build of a new engine.
Now the long-standing collection of spare parts paid off. For the suspension overhaul I had new brake calipers, brake discs, wheel bearings, control arms, an overhauled steering rack, new tie rod ends and all required rubber bushings on the shelf; for engine overhaul, my stock comprised a refurbished Abarth cylinder head, four new high compression pistons, two Weber 40IDF carbs with manifold and K & N filters, an ANSA double exhaust muffler, a good gear box and a short block from the rotten vehicle acquired in 2003. Another contact from the Fiat scene also proved to be a stroke of luck: Enzo Michelini from Bergheim, well known for his perfectly crafted Fiat 131 Abarth and Lancia Stratos replicas. Trained as a master mechanic, Enzo carried out the overhaul of the engine block, rebuilt it with the above mentioned parts and completed the compact four-cylinder engine with a lightened flywheel during winter 2010/2011.
In March 2011 I carried the 131 on a trailer to Bergheim, where in Enzo?s workshop she was to be equipped with the new engine. That was the plan. But in fact it was a Round-Up: If the trip to Poland was the cake, so now came the icing. The engine was equipped with an oil cooler, silicone coolant hoses, a new radiator and an electric fuel pump in the trunk; the front axle was completely rebuilt, including steering and brakes, the twin-pipe exhaust muffler was installed, as well as the K & N air filter. To my email inquiry as to how the sound of the car was now, Enzo replied tersely: "Too bad that images have no sound. I'll tell you it just sounds AWESOME! ".
When I picked up the car in early April, she was completely finished, with bucket seats, strut bar and new MOT, including legal registration of all modifications. Only the new engine still had to be broken in; we did this immediately by attending the yearly Fiat 131 gathering ?3MA2011? in May 2011 in Cornwall. But before I fastened my vanity plates "WR 131" on this car ? the car that turned out to be my very own interpretation of a "Special Edition Walter R?hrl": with Group 4 bonnet and trunk lid, snap closures, a powerful twin cam engine, roll cage, bucket seats and checker plates, painted orange, with the Master?s facsimile signature on flat black bonnet and C-pillar.
The trip to England was mastered by the 131 as easily as all of the 50,000 km we covered together. In July 2011, the carb setup was matched on the IOC? rolling road to the now broken-in engine. Now 127 hp are available, more than sufficient to throw around a curb weight of just under a ton. By the way, and despite of the two Weber carbs: thanks to a multiplex ignition the car is quite fuel efficient at normal highway speed, but the observed fuel consumption of just 8l/100 km can be easily doubled on rally special stages.
Now, ask yourself: is this car still a "Low Budget" vehicle? My answer is: yes. Meticulously I have recorded expenditure and revenue over ten years; deducting all revenue from the sale of unneeded parts effectively leaves net expenditure of almost ? 6000 for parts and labor. A detailed valuation certificate states that the vehicle has a replacement value three times as high.
Of course the equivalent of ?50/month, which was the cost of the131, can lease a parrot colored, new, environmentally friendly, economical, super individualistic Renault Twingo. But unfortunately they are banned from participating in historic motor sport events.
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