First Love

 

My first love is a 7th generation Fiat 131 Supermirafiori 1.6 T/C. Fate had it I bought the last CKD unit in Malaysia car gets to own it. My competitor came all the way from Kuala Lumpur with a Rafter a dispute between the respective salesman. The JB Sales Manager decided he who can first settle the financial payment of theM1K deposit receipt but I had an approved government loan so I won hands down.

My job requires me to do much interstate travels. At first, I was ignorant about motor mechanics so decided to buy and read a page daily from the AA Book of the Car. It then dawn on me minor modification could extract better efficiency. It started with a change in favour of 10mm spark plug cables. The response was so dramatic I was addicted to car modifications.

After 4 yrs, the car's kilometer turned back to zero and required a top overall. My mechanic showed piston 1 and 3 were still tight but a cardboard could slide in-between piston 2, 4 and the engine block. As I had spare money, I took the advice of my mechanic and bought 2 new pistons then had all pistons-cum-piston rods weighed separately at Tractors Malaysia, Petaling Jaya and balanced by drilling the required amount of weight in the piston rods so that all weighed the same. This was called basic blue-printing. After the overhaul, engine vibration that appeared at 4000rpm was totally gone. I could thrash the engine all the way into the red zone with no engine vibration at all. But my mechanic advised and I have never stayed in the red zone for 3+ secs for fear the engine might literally explode.

Staying at Johor Bahru, weekends for bachelor me were spent acquiring car accessories and I brought back to Petaling Jaya where my mechanic resides. The modifications include:

1. Bayless Racing filter (imported from USA)

2. Custom air filter box

3. Twin Weber 40 DCOE for 1600cc engine

4. Abarth in manifold

5. Cromodora 4-1 extractor

6. Mid + rear Cromodora exhaust system

7. Bosch racing ignition coil

8. Nissan electric fuel pump

9. Custom accelerator linkage

10. Vitolani air scoop

11. Koni Sports adjustables

12. Cromodora magnesium 5 prong rims

13. Fiat 131 Racing grille

14. Fiat 131 Racing headlights

15. Fiat 131 Racing front air ram

16. ICI Primary Red 2K paint

17. Glasurit clear 2K laquer

18. H4 headlight wiring accessories 

19. Heavy duty cloth dark blue upholstery

20. Custom red decals for Speedometer + RPM meter markings

21.  Custom realignment of headrest so my nape rest firmly on headrest.

22. Abarth hub caps

This really changed the personality of the car inside out:

The clear passage from the air filter to extractor now gave a deep growl like a lion's roar when I floored the accelerator pedal but the rear exhaust was rather quiet so much so I love to ride with all windows down when I drove interstate often in the night to enjoy the cool rural night air and car headlights make it easy to pinpoint on-coming vehicles.

On the advice of the paint wholesaler, I bought the reddest-red you'd ever seen, you could see my car in the hot afternoon sun a "mile" away. It wasn't the popular orangeish-red but bright reddest-red, better than Ferrari red.

The twisty trunk road was her domain where regular cars take corners at 70kmh but I dive into corners at 80kmh in 3rd gear without braking then on the turn out, accelerate in 4th gear to 90kmh and if the trunk road ahead was straight, I would floor the accelerator pedal changing to 5th gear and see the car sprint like a cheetah. The right-hand drive cars found it difficult to mimic my style of driving coz they behind me always end up braking around the corner whereas my ride had rear wheel drive. This meant a totally different style of driving.

Competitors often include Honda and Datsun 1600. They would always prod me to challenge me so I made them follow close behind myself following another car. When I saw an oncoming car, I timed it so that I signaled, overtook the car in front with little gap for the rear competitor to follow suit. Only after that earlier car had passed him, did he overtake but by that time I'd already overtaken another car in front of me. On the old trunk road, driving fast was an art.

However, I found straight highways terribly boring so will often ended up 120-130kmh and let cars overtake me. My custom car was like a bat out of hell on the twisty trunk road. There wasn't I car I couldn't overtake if I wanted to.

I once proved to 2 friends who made fun of my old car then 7+ yr old by speeding along the KL-Seremban highway after Port Dickson passed the speedometer dial of 160kmh I assumed I was doing 180kmh in 5th gear at 6000rpm. They never dared to hop a ride with me again. The thing I noticed the Konis were worth every cent at that speed, ride was firm.

I left the car with a relative for 3 yrs as I studied abroad and told him to replace the old brittle petrol hose which he didn't do. One day, the engine bay caught fire and the car was a right-off so that ends the legend of JAN6900: my ride.