My 131 abarth (never ending) story - 2017 season updates

[miro-1980]

The proper fuse box arrived :

[Guy Croft]

Miro,

could you please tell me the emulsion tube, main jet and air corrector in your carbs? I lost the notes of the dyno settings.

Thanks very much,

G

[miro-1980]

Here is a bit of update :

We are working of the brakes . This can be followed at :

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1901

Interesting reading I hope and showing how difficult it is to do a serious upgrade on the brakes, especially if originality is a priority.

The change will involve special ordering of the front and maybe rear disks, as well as changing the master cylinder and possibly the booster. installing a complete new hydraulic hand brake with special shuttle valve. Proper setup with no booster twin master cylinders and a balance bar is -planned for next season.

Big job

Miro

[Guy Croft]

Miro,

get into that carb and give me the jettings I beg you!!

GC

[miro-1980]

Guy

I do not have access to the garage until Monday but will do it Monday morning.

Sorry for the delay

Miro

[miro-1980]

Hi ,

In the meantime we made some progress:

The original dash was removed and new ( gr.4 ) was fitted :

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The gauges visibility is what I aimed for ; perfect view of all gauges and the RPM meter centrally located. With built in shift warning light this should work quite well.

Difficulties : not many

It was important to keep all gauges ans switches connected after removing the original dash - to help identify all required wires to connect switches as well as gauges.

The dash is mounted on bent 4mm x 40mm strips of hardened aluminum. This gives both stability as well as light weight. It also offers required safety - the strips will give in under pressure and bent rather than cause potential injury.

Currently all the wires are being connected to new switches and gauges.

It will be painted satin black , and the top will be lined with thick felt . The felt will be glued on by a special automotive contact glue. On the felt I will glue thick black woolen cloth. The top dash lining will be up to 1 cm thick.

The sharp edges of the dash top plate will be protected by a thin plastic tube cut in half. This will create a bulge on the edge of the top dash plate making it much softer and not as sharp . When in addition covered by felt and thick cloth both flipped over the edge this should be well protected. As the felt and cloth will be flipped over the edge it will also provide lining between the top plate and the dash. This should make this connection soft enough to prevent rattling due to vibrations. If required additional mounting bolt on points will be made to keep the top plate and and the dash integrated.

More as progress is made...

Miro

PS : as there was no speedo in gr 4 cars I plan to install an SPA digital speedometer. It is fully programmable , including
a programmable acceleration timer (it will give a 0-100 km/h accelerations time). This speedo is completely universal -the speed reading is taken from magnets which are attached to a wheel hub. Calibration can be set to any tire/wheel size. With 48x29x25mm it can be easily mounted under a flip cover so that will not spoil the gr.4 vintage dash look - and when needed can be opened to be visible.

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M

[miro-1980]

More done !

The felt gluing went very well !

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The surface is soft and absolutely flat.

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The black cloth will be glued over after I can attach the aluminum mounting brackets. This requires bolts to be attached . To hide the bolts under the black cloth on the top I have to position them properly and cover with small pieces of felt.

Hopefully this will be done tomorrow.


Miro

[miro-1980]

More progress ...

The dash stop watch pocket finished :

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The Heuer will be lit by a red pilot light and the helicopter chronometer will be lit by an eye brow set of red pilot lights ...

Miro

[TomLouwrier]

Beautiful as always, Miro!
I never knew Abarth got their chronos in Russia :-)

regards
Tom

[miro-1980]

Thanks, Tom!

Re Russian chrono.

Actually they used chronos from Sikorsky choppers , ( Sikorsky was Russian) so a Russian chrono is quite in place !

Seriously: this is the best I could find : resistant to vibration and very accurate. It was used on many Russian (Soviet) airplanes and choppers. Dully verified in combat ! In 70's and 80's most of the top rally cars in Poland used this for on-board time keeping. Because you had to have good contacts in the military to get one it was also a status symbol :-) LOL.

Miro

PS : it is taking more time to assemble than I originally anticipated , as small mechanical issues mainly related to mounting of the top plate keep cropping up. Well , it is a never ending story ..... But from what I can see it will look quite well. Use of vintage switches and warning lights should give it a nice vintage look.


PS I was asked : is it exactly like the original? Well , of the 35 which were raced it seems there were no two identical dash boards. Every driver/co-driver wanted this switch here and the other switch somewhere else , and some wanted additional switches .. so the Abarth Team mechanics installed what they had in the spart parts bag, and the driver/co-pilot liked.

Some features were practically constant, ( location of gauges) but the kill switches were moved from left to right ... Bottom lone it is exactly as in the original ( as I would have wanted it).

M

[miro-1980]

Dashboard finished - pictures later this week (end?)

Miro

[Guy Croft]

Extraordinary, some of this stuff has never been seen!

One day some smart-alec will no doubt say, 'but it's still only a replica..'

To which I might be tempted to say, 'yes, but it's one heck of a replica!!!'

G

[miro-1980]

Thanks , Guy

I am too busy to post more pictures , but as you know , Guy , the car is being prepared for a Moto Nostalgia (Polish equivalent of the Essen Moto Classic) where the ClassicAuto magazine featuring this car as a "cover story" will have its monthly launch . The June issue will also contain the interview with you ( I am told this will be a two part story , as they editors found your interview fascinating.)

There will be some time at the moto show for some additional pictures , which I hope to post here next week.


Miro

PS it is one heck of a replica largely thanks to your engine, Guy.

The car looks good ,. but with 6.14 diff and almost 190 horse power and 225 torque it drives far , far better than it looks ...

BTW: I had to replace the clutch assembly , because the one we installed originally was not about to cope with this power and torque. I drove it only one 300 km rally and as you know this rally was driven very gently and the clutch was totally gone. Now it is a metallic clutch disk and very strong clutch ( it takes two man to depress the clutch pedal), but now the car lifts off (not just starts). I have not measured 0-60 yet but it is impressive ... Incidentally with this diff the car makes to 100 km/h in second gear.

Miro

[Walezy]

Can you post gear ratios? I find it quite difficult to make 100kmh on 2nd gear with that ratio.
Look here, i get 100kmh on 3rd gear on 5,37diff and revving the car to 9000revs
See this movie from last event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgc0gZy3omY

P.S. The speedo reading is from 20Hz GPS and all data is from datalogger.

[Guy Croft]

Miro, you mean my supply Helix 179lbf ft clutch wore out?

That suggests it's slipping because the cable is too tight.

Sorry but Helix won't believe me if I tell them your motor wore their clutch out. Or the cover plates are missing betw eng and gearbox and crud is getting in there. I've supplied hundreds of them, to motors with actually more torque than yours (with respect). Or the thing was rendered unserviceable during fitting by hanging the gearbox off it.

Your urgent comments please.

G