Caldo: ’71 Fiat Abarth 1300 Tribute
Frequent readers will know that we like Tribute car builds. If you can accomplish almost the same experience by building a car that performs and looks like the real thing, why not? Just don’t try to pawn it off on someone as the real deal. Tributes are somewhat different from Replicas. At least they are to us. A Replica is like a Volkswagen chassis with a fiberglass body. Ditto for Cobras. A recreation is a bit more rarefied than both. To us, a recreation is building a car to the exact specifications as the original and pretty much starting from scratch. No hard fast rules for any of these interpretations. Today’s neat Fiat Coupe is a Tribute to a Fiat Abarth 1300. This one forgoes the screaming little 1300cc engine for an even screamier engine from a 124 at almost 1600cc. The engine was built with mild performance modifications and attached to a rebuilt transmission with reinforced mounts. The rear suspension was modified with limiting straps and all 4 corners ride on Koni adjustables. There’s more in the listing. The body was stripped to bare metal and refinished. Bumpers re-chromed too. This one has been for sale for some time. We spotted auction end results around $8500.00 and no sale. Probably right to hold on for a better deal, but not much more. Click here for the eBay listing.