Fiat 125 race car - finally back together!
Posted: December 15th, 2006, 10:55 am
My 1969 Fiat 125 race car is finally back together after a racing incident earlier in the year.
Before:
After:
(photo courtesy Stew Wood)
(photo courtesy Stew Wood)
The 125 model has a fine racing history as a production saloon car in New Zealand and Australia. It is best remembered down here for the outstanding New Zealand 125T variant which raced with success in 1972 and 1973. Paul on this forum is lucky enough to have a fine example:
viewtopic.php?t=166
However, even before the 125T initiative, the standard 125's raced with great success, even against much larger and more powerful cars. A Fiat 125 won the inaugural Levin 4-hour race outright in 1969, a meeting which was a warm-up for the famous Benson and Hedges 500 saloon car race (New Zealand's equivalent to Bathurst). In the B&H 500 that year, 125's monopolised the 1600cc-2000cc class and performed impressively against the bigger cars too.
(It is very clear from that report that, while our classic racers have made a few gains in horsepower over the years, the real progress has come in tyre technology!)
Here is a Fiat 125 hard on the brakes in the 1969 B&H 500 race at Pukekohe:
My own 125 was stripped, rustproofed, seam welded and caged by the previous owner, and he did a very thorough job of stripping out excess weight wherever possible.
The motor is a 2L 8V with Delorto 45s, ported and flowed head, custom 4/2/1 headers, forged high-compression pistons and lightweigh forged rods, chev V8 bearings, lightweight steel flywheel and Croma Turbo clutch, later 132 5-speed gearbox, and Ford LSD. Brakes are Wilwood 4-pot front on custom race rotors, and stock 124 front brakes at the rear.
I will post some engine bay photos when I have tidied it up. The repair budget only ran to an external paint job so far - the bay is still a mess of primer and sealer! Before the accident it looked like this:
Before:
After:
(photo courtesy Stew Wood)
(photo courtesy Stew Wood)
The 125 model has a fine racing history as a production saloon car in New Zealand and Australia. It is best remembered down here for the outstanding New Zealand 125T variant which raced with success in 1972 and 1973. Paul on this forum is lucky enough to have a fine example:
viewtopic.php?t=166
However, even before the 125T initiative, the standard 125's raced with great success, even against much larger and more powerful cars. A Fiat 125 won the inaugural Levin 4-hour race outright in 1969, a meeting which was a warm-up for the famous Benson and Hedges 500 saloon car race (New Zealand's equivalent to Bathurst). In the B&H 500 that year, 125's monopolised the 1600cc-2000cc class and performed impressively against the bigger cars too.
(It is very clear from that report that, while our classic racers have made a few gains in horsepower over the years, the real progress has come in tyre technology!)
Here is a Fiat 125 hard on the brakes in the 1969 B&H 500 race at Pukekohe:
My own 125 was stripped, rustproofed, seam welded and caged by the previous owner, and he did a very thorough job of stripping out excess weight wherever possible.
The motor is a 2L 8V with Delorto 45s, ported and flowed head, custom 4/2/1 headers, forged high-compression pistons and lightweigh forged rods, chev V8 bearings, lightweight steel flywheel and Croma Turbo clutch, later 132 5-speed gearbox, and Ford LSD. Brakes are Wilwood 4-pot front on custom race rotors, and stock 124 front brakes at the rear.
I will post some engine bay photos when I have tidied it up. The repair budget only ran to an external paint job so far - the bay is still a mess of primer and sealer! Before the accident it looked like this: