My life and FIATs - part three

Tony Andrews

(The story so far: Our hero has demonstrated through his inclination to own either British cars or FlATs (or both at once ... ) a strange passion for oil-stained driveways. In this final episode he teeters towards his inevitable manifestation as one of those old blokes with cars.)

The FIAT 125 was a marvellous car - stylish, fast and packed with features (for 1968). It transformed our regular trips between Bendigo and Adelaide. I really thought that my Bambino days were behind me for good.

Back in Adelaide in 1970 and with plans for another child we traded the 125 in for a 124 station wagon from Pisano Motors. This was another typical FIAT. It was huge fun in the hills and the long gear lever was a delight. It swallowed up all that we needed to carry including many dozens of wine from the staff bottling club. After we sold it we often saw it around the place and noticed another typical FIAT trait from those days - a rust hole in the back door that grew larger and larger until at last there was more hole than door.

And then there followed more than 20 years of Rovers and Land Rovers and a Jag and an Audi and (shame) a Toyota and a Subaru. A Subaru? There it was, the abyss, and I was being pulled perilously to within an inch of the edge. Would I buy a flat cap and forever after drive in the right-hand lane of the Anzac Highway at fifty kilometres per hour? Would I buy a sun-visor for the windscreen and venetian blinds for the rear window and one of those driver's-window weather shields (even though arm signals went out when Menzies and Playford were still around) and dinky little chrome bits to protect the edge of the doors and the bits behind the door-handles and little round convex mirrors to stick to the wing-mirrors and ... ? Phew!

Well of course I wouldn't. Who needs a reliable car and a smooth engine and a quiet engine and a reliable engine and a clean driveway and folding picnic sets and thermoses? So of course I bought another Land Rover and another FIAT and then another FIAT. (Well ok, I did buy the picnic set and the thermos. And a rug. )

The dreaded curse of the Bambino re-entered my life in 1995 when I bought a 500F for Meredith to drive to work. It test-drove well but then it stopped mysteriously on the way home after I took delivery . The cause was a world first - a complete set of feeler gauges, one of them still measuring a tappet clearance, and the rest wedged under the rocker cover which had somehow been tightened over them. Oh how the man from the RAA laughed.

Meredith's 500F

Still, the Bambino gradually began to exert its magic upon me once again after a gap of 27 years. True, the 500F is an advance upon our earlier Ds. True, there were no more family trips interstate. But the Bambino essence remained and part of me re-awakened, perhaps. What a great car they are to drive. Roundabouts were never so much fun. And 40 years after my first Bambino the car has suddenly become chic and trendy. Teenage girls smile and wave, 40 years too late.

Tony Potter has wrought his magic upon the car which mechanically is now a modern vehicle. The extra power and driveability are important if the car is to be used every day in modern traffic. And the essential driving character and fun remain, slightly altered perhaps, but not detrimentally. This car is here to stay.

The other FIAT 500 that recently entered our lives is an A model and rather a special one. It is one of about 100 which were given local bodies by Flood coach-builders in Melbourne just before and during the Second World War. The body is a tourer which is ash-framed aft of the windscreen, itself a folding affair. Another one was restored in Queensland a few years ago, there are two or three in Victoria, and ours is believed to be one of only two restorable ones left. If any reader knows otherwise I would be delighted to hear from them. Tony Potter has again done a marvelous job on this car, while I have done a certain amount of donkey work and a bit of straightforward trim work. Among other things the engine has been totally rebuilt and the car is now running on the road. With the addition of carpet and hood the car will be in the Bay to Birdwood this year (unless it rains).

The Flood-bodied Topolino in the Bay to Birdwood - 2000

That's me, then - an old bloke with cars. And that's my FlATs.
Those FlATs. They never leave you alone.
The end (but who has ever heard of stopping at only seven FIATs?)

(Postscript: the car did get its carpet but not yet a hood. We did run in the Bay to Birdwood in 2000 and it threatened to rain but stayed fine.)