Fiat 124 News

Finally — a motor show with cars you can actually buy.

The Fiat 124 has an Italian heart but is made in a Japanese factory. What will enthusiasts make of it?

"I like to say I sell pre-loved cars not second-hand cars. Unfortunately I love too many of them," the 44-year-old Southport dealer principal says. "That's the problem with being a dealer principal; you are in the shop with all these lollies coming in through the front door. You say, 'will I buy it to keep it or sell it?'. What do you do? It's hard when you love cars. You end up with a collection."Dean's collection is mainly made up of cars that have come down from the bedroom walls of his youth into his garage. They include: a 1966 Austin Healey Sprite, a "black, lowered and lovely" 1970 Fiat 124 BC Sport, a 1982 Lancia Beta Coupe which "not surprisingly has rust in all the wrong places", a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III, a 1970 Honda Civic that's only done 20,000km, a 1972 one-owner VW millionth edition Beetle, a 1968 Meyers Manx beach buggy, a 1990s Nissan S-cargo mini van "my wife calls Daisy", a 1988 Corolla hillclimber and a rare 1988 Lancia Delta Integrale HF 4WD eight-valve."I just bought another Integrale from Japan which is basically rust free," he says. "But I'll have to give up some of my other toys like the Beta, Veedub and the Civic."He plans to strip back the second Integrale and make it into a replica white Martini rally car like the ones driven to six World Rally Championships in the 1980s and '90s by drivers such as Juha Kankkunen and Miki Biasion. It's got the 16-valve, two-litre turbo engine but even though it has a smaller turbo than my eight-valve, it doesn't have as much lag. "You can get about 700 horsepower (522kW) out of them which I imagine could be quite scary."He plans to drive the Lancias in historic sprint meetings such as the Tweed on Speed, Leyburn Sprints and recent Cootha Classic. Meanwhile, he seriously campaigns his Corolla in the Queensland hillclimb championships which he won a few weeks ago."I got into it about three years ago through a friend of mine with a little Alfa who kept hounding me and hounding me," he says. "I kept putting it off because you have to be committed, but I did it one day at Mt Cotton and I was hooked. They're a great bunch of blokes. It's not exactly a blood sport."His Corolla has a 4AGE blacktop 20-valve Toyota four-cylinder naturally aspirated improved classified category race engine developing 89kW at the wheels."But it has a lot more torque which is great for hillclimbs," he says. He bought it for $1500 and has turned it into a $28,000 project racer. This is just a car that was supposed to hold me over until I got into the Evo monster," he says. "But you just can't jump in and hit the track with something that has 350kW at the wheels. It's a bit dangerous. I bought the Corolla to step up to the Evo, but I've fallen in love with it and the Evo is still sitting there. And in the interim I've come across the Integrale and now I'm getting another one. It's a sickness."He bought the 134kW Delta from Western Australia for $15,000 after "hunting one down" over several years. "It's got coil-over springs, it's been chipped, I've replaced the manifold and exhaust, and it's had tender loving care...  and about $5000 spent on it. I only use it for special exhibition events, not serious competition. I worry a little bit. I don't want to put it into a wall."

But the 62-year-old Sicilian-born semi-retired school principal says his parents drove an FJ Holden and when he went to buy his first car salesmen tried to sell him something else. He immigrated to Australia at the age of 10 in 1957 and grew up in an Italian environment in the wine growing region of Stanthorpe."But Italians never drove Italian cars," he says. "They drove local cars, mainly Valiants because of all the chrome and the big fins. They wanted to be seen; to be noticed."For Impellizzeri, it was love at first sight when he clapped eyes on a brand-new 1969 Fiat 8590 Coupe. "It was red and sporty. It was different and I fell in love," he says. "Everyone was trying to sell me a Mini or a Torana but this was different." He paid $2350 and kept it three years."The baby came along and it got too small, so I traded it in for a second-hand 1969 125 sedan," he says. "At the time I appreciated the engineering in Fiats. They were way ahead of their time. They had four and five-speed gearboxes, four-wheel discs and belt-driven twin overhead cams. You couldn't get these things even as an option on anything else."He joined the Fiat Car Club of Australia in 1970 and attended several motorkhanas in Dubbo, driving the 850 down on Saturday, competing on Sunday, celebrating Sunday night and driving home on Monday. "We had a heap of fun in it."He kept the coupe five years and traded up to a 1974 132 GLS for $3000. He still owns it and drives it every day. "It's survived the test of time," he says. "It's so underrated. It's got 700,000km on it and you wouldn't keep a car that long if it broke down all the time."Around this time, he also bought his first Fiat restoration project, a 1950 Topolino (little mouse) 500C for which he paid just $50. "It was being used as a chook pen but the car was complete," he says. "The tyres were flat and it had grass grown all around it, but we pulled it out, took it home, cleaned and washed it, replaced the plugs, got the water out of one cylinder, put a battery in it and away it went. And it's still going."He has restored it twice and is considering another, more complete, restoration. "The first restoration was when I was young so it wasn't stripped properly in the first place and it was done on a budget." The car was deregistered in 1978 and got a more thorough restoration in 1984. In 1990, he paid $5500 for a left-hand-drive 1971 124BS Spider Sport which had been imported from the US. "It was pathetic," he says. "The engine was falling out of it because the cross member had come loose. But there wasn't a skerrick of rust on it."Impellizzeri admits that rust was a problem with most Italian cars. "They say they were treated, but if they were it wasn't worth talking about," he says. "Some say the fault was cheap Russian steel. Either way the cars we got here were all rusted. I always take off the door and interior trim and treat them with my own concoction of Killrust and fisholene. At first it smells but that's short lived. You can always spray a bit of your wife's perfume on it."Impellizzeri has spent about $15,000 bringing the Spider back to concours standard over about eight years. "You can hop in it and drive it anywhere," he says. "But the Topolino was never made for 100km/h, so I don't drive it on the open road as it struggles to keep up."His next project is a 1950s Fiat 1400 cabrio which he bought at auction in Adelaide for an undisclosed sum. "They were never sold in Australia. Only seven were imported and only two remain," he says. "When I found out how rare it was, I became interested."When he begins restoration, most of the parts will probably be found somewhere in his shed which is packed to the rafters with everything a Fiat owner would ever need. There are boxes of engine gaskets, nuts and bolts, locks and latches, horn buttons, alternator brushes, window regulators, even windscreens. "You name it, it's here," he says.So much so that even garages contact him for help and parts. Around the back of the shed are several 131 and 124 wrecks used for parts. His son, Danny, also owns some Fiats, including a 124 that he races with his father as head mechanic. The pair hope to run it in the Cootha Classic hillclimb at Mt Coot-tha on May 28-29. The event features more than 250 cars and about 50 motorcycles from the 1920s to today in timed sprints around a 1450m track up and down Sir Samuel Griffith Drive with seven corners and chicanes. Racing starts at 8.30am. Entry is $20 a day, $15 for concession, $30 for a two-day pass and $5 for parking in the J.C. Slaughter Falls carpark.