I've had this magazine since 1999 and it has just sat in my cupboard for years...When thinking of buying a rare fast Coupe earlier this year, this is the article that sent me in the Coupes direction

I liked the "Autocar" independent test of the 20v Turbo... 0-60 in 6 secs dead

Lol Great Read!

Hey is it just me or....


Begbie Last Year around Movember time

Begbie suits a tash

That is a good article, even if I do say so myself

Doesn't look anything like me

ha ha does

this is a good bit: Within 18 months the trusty 4 cylinder engine was replaced by the superior 20V 5 cylinder engine

Is that your Porto in there Dave?

Ah, but later on...

Yes, but they were on about mpg - amazing how Fiat could produce a 220bhp turbo lump that had almost identical fuel consumption to a 140bhp N/A

Well, perhaps a *little* quoting out of context!

No great surprise that the consumption is similar (slightly better on my old 20vt than the 16na, driven the same route at the same speeds) - the car's the same shape and about the same weight, tyre drag is not significantly different, so the power required to cruise at a given speed will be within a few percentage points of each other. The longer gearing of the 20vt means the friction in the engine is lower, and if the torque curve is such that it's near maximum at cruising speed (the 16na is effectively flat from 2500 to 5500) then it's going to have pretty much the same consumption.

The 20vt benefits from that longer gear and probably better combustion chamber design (as you'll know from your own head work).

Fuel economy has little to do with absolute power and everything to do with the power used on the standard economy test... try comparing the fuel economy of a flat out 16na and a flat out 20vt!

Nope, not my car, just my words!

I was commissioned by UCB to write that article back in June/July 1999 through their connection with Phil Ward at AutoItalia, whom I've known since we both owned Fiat 124 Spiders and helped run the Fiat Twin Cam Register back in the early 1980's.

My Coupe was originally P452 CCF, one of Fiat's press cars, and amongst the first batch of 20vt's imported to the UK. Although my car wasn't in the article, I did drive M709 CLM, pictured at Brooklands for an AutoItalia article when the 16v/16vt first came out in the UK (which also featured the Dino 2400 Coupe that I owned at the time).

At the time (only 4 years after the cars started being sold in the UK) there were no real specialists like we have today, and the best I could do was to get a quote from Wimbledon Carriage Co, who sold many used Coupe's in the early years. Dersira parts were as useful then as they are today and gave a great response on parts prices. Also at the time, not too many of the problems that are so well-known now had appeared, eg: the manifold problem was only starting to surface. On the other hand, the cam belt change was still an "engine out" job! Worst of all, there was no FCCUK...

Here's the full article, including some nice period adverts!

Desira in Diss *may* not be as good as the advert claims...