Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Bring A Trailer - Morgans & Interesting vehicles

I think that the Fiat TwinCam engine is a beautiful and reliabele engine too! The rust of the body shells of the Fiats was another chapter! The Fiat 124 sport-coupe is/was a beauty. As a child I knew people in the village I lived at that time who both had a 124 Sport-coupe and a spider. I was very impressed by the Sport-coupe, even had some rides in it. I must admit I was also impressed by their BMW 2002Tii, all so different from our Oplel Rekord at that time (and Citroen 2CV). The old man did not care about cars, only practical!

I used to drive a '74 Tii on off road, TSD, rallys. What a great car.

I had a Datsun 1200 back in the day. It was pretty much a copy of the FIAT without the rust

It was a fantastic car, handled well, even on the forest roads near my mother's house on the NSW North Coast (thank goodness I never met a logging truck coming the other way).

Before the days of expressways and radar traps on every corner I would leave Sydney at midnight and arrive 400km later at 4:15 in the morning allowing for a coffee break at the mid point. Comfortable cruise speed on the reasonably good unpopulated sections was about 150 kph.



(not my car, but essentially the same)

Sorry Peter, but the Datsuns rusted as badly in my climate as did the Fiats and usual Brit offerings, however at least it seems the Japanese improved their thinking on corrosion prevention unlike others who fell by the wayside... ?

Did you see Fiats in Australia, at that time, Peter? Australia is large, so I don't know whether you lived in a dry area? "Greater Amsterdam" was certainly wet!

About FIAT:

60 years ago when I was 7years old (or so) my Father owned a independent Workshop in Hamburg.
One day he took me with him to a paintschop. There he pointed to some Fiats and said: This cars are brand new and just came from the factory. Now the need soom work from the paintshop because of rust.

In that times I did no understand completely - but I never bought a FIAT in my life.

Thinking along more positive lines, were it not for general build quality in the sixties and seventies I might never have required to learn to weld and spray paint...
Those early Datsuns were quite special, My good lady was very fond of her 120Y coupe, that followed the 1200, the engineering was tight, just that the corrosion protection and gauge of metal seemed even worse than Brit offerings...?

In the climate where I live, Western Pennsylvania, USA, all cars in the 1960s and 1970s quickly became one with the road. The old saying was if you went into your garage at night, you could hear them rusting. My father bought a Fiat 128 in 1971 and by late 1972 it was completely rusted out. I will never forget going to look at a one owner, very low mileage (less than 7000 miles) 1967 MGB roadster in the late 1990's that was beautiful, with original paint and interior looking like it had not even been sat in, but with both outer sills completely gone. The owner bought it new, for his daughter, who drove it for a year before putting it away. It still had the studded snow tires on the rear. I bought a one owner, 30,000 mile 1965 MGB in 1980 and watched the highway through the huge hole in the driver's floor when I drove it home. Oh, the good old days!

Bid to US$58,000.00 but NO Sale......