>Ooops, Just check and it wasn't a 850 but a early '70s 124 Spyder. But the
>engive WAS at the rear! With the gas tank between the seats and the engine!
>Remember being somewhat scared by that setup but I guess I'm over it now!
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I think you may want to check again. . .All Fiat 124 Spiders (Italian for
convertible) not the Coupe, had a longitudinally mounted twin cam engine in
the front driving the rear wheels. The 850 Spider and Coupe was a (very
small) water cooled straight 4 longitudinally mounted REAR engined car with
the radiator and water pump mounted off the right side of the engine and
the X19 was a mid engined transverse mounted, wedgee-doorstop shaped car
with the radiator in the front -
Of all those, the 850 Spider would be the closest to looking (if you could
say that) like a Spitfire, although it would be even SMALLER if that's
possible :-)
I had a Simca Bertone coupe (French) which was almost an exact mechanical
copy of the fiat in almost every respect except it was a little larger in
every respect. Kind of as if they took an 850 and shoved it into a machine
the made everything come out 10-15% bigger - It featured a transverse
mounted FRONT spring - my first foray into transverse mounted springs -
Barry Schwartz (San Diego) bschwart@pacbell.net
72 PI, V6 Spitfire (daily driver)
70 GT6+ (when I don't drive the Spit)
70 Spitfire (long term project)
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