My First Classic Meet in the Daihatsu (pic dump)

"Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell." (oppisitelock)
06/17/2018 at 12:34 • Filed to: None

An awesome varied show today. Click through for some of my highlights (didn’t want to burden kinja with all 200 of my photos...) There’s Bowler Wildcat, Fiat 126, Trabant, Clio v6, various fast Fords and more.

DISCUSSION (12)

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
06/17/2018 at 12:51

YAY! Trabant, 126 and classic FIAT 500!

Would love to have that Trabant! That 126 is very nice as well - it’s one of the first few, from before the facelifts as it has the older FIAT 500 rims/bolt pattern and older interior...probably the same engine as the 500R did as well!

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
06/17/2018 at 12:57

There was another Trabant too, which was for sale. The 126 appeared to be freshly restored.

duurtlang > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
06/17/2018 at 13:23

Is that the difference between the Italian Fiat 126 and the Polish (soviet bloc) one?

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > duurtlang
06/17/2018 at 13:41

Nope, all 126s, whether the Polish-built or Italian built ones all started with the 500R’s 595cc engine before it got bored out to 652cc in the late 70s. They all also started using the 500's odd rim / bolt pattern which was later changed to 4x98 in the late 70s or early 80s or so. The 126 pretty much directly shared the 500's drivetrain / underpinnings, other than a synchro transmission (on all but 1st and reverse) while the 500 had a crash gearbox, so the 126 started production using the older 500-style parts such as the rims, for example.

The aircooled 126p went through 4 generations...the ST (similar to the one Twingo posted) was the first generation that was most closely related to the older 500 - it had an older style interior, the smaller 595cc engine, the larger bolt pattern rims, etc. The FT followed in 1984 with a redesigned interior and some body / trim changes - fun fact was that many FLs from the first few years of their production in Poland had random parts because they were often built using leftover ST parts to use them up....so you could wind up, say, with an FL model that had an ST interior, or a FL model that had an older ST 595cc drivetrain, or an FL that had ST front and rear bumpers, or an FL with ST rear boot lid (they differed slightly from FL lids) etc....very amusing!

The EL generation appeared in 1994 with a slight redesign to the exterior body (no more indented side body lines, for example) and a new interior that shared a lot of parts with the Cinquecento such as gauge cluster, steering wheel, etc (the Cinquecento was also built at the Polish FIAT plants, so this was an easy way to save money by not having to continue to produce 126-specific parts). The EL also had electronic ignition and a ‘smart’ carb that could cut out when coasting to save fuel. The last gen was the ELX which was basically just an EL with almost no other changes aside from the addition of a catalytic converter.

:)

duurtlang > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
06/17/2018 at 13:50

Looking at the Netherlands we got the 126 until 1980 or 1981, around the time the Italian one was discontinued. So all of those were of the ST generation then I guess? I doubt we ever got the communist 126 versions.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > duurtlang
06/17/2018 at 14:02

I’m not sure if the first two generation thing (ST / FL) applies to the Italian-built cars, I only know it applies to the Polish built ones for certain. If memory serves, part of the deal from FIAT with FSM for FSM to be able to produce the cars in Poland for the Polish masses was that they would do drivetrain production for some number of the Italian cars as well, so it’s possible the drivetrains in some of the cars sold in the Netherlands were actually of Polish origin. 126ps were exported out of Poland, but if the Netherlands only got them officially until ‘80/’81 then it sounds to me like those would’ve been Italian cars, so similar to the Polish ST generation I would think. They had more basic classic 500-esque (especially the gauge cluster) interiors than the later FL. FL interiors were sortof original Panda-esque in their design:

ST interior:

Kinja'd!!!