I am just planning a road trip to Bulgaria from France. Checking with Google Maps the total distance is 2500km. My wife will be driving her yellow 1997 20VT with a roof box on!!! Not a great look with the roof box on, but we need the space for luggage. I will be driving our much older 1990 Saab 900i convertible with our 3 dogs on board. We have decided that we are in no rush so will take 10 to 14 days to get there. I was just wondering if I should check the oil or just go for it and loose the coupe paranoia for a couple of weeks? The plan is to leave France around the 13th October and get to Burgas on the Black Sea around the 23rd ish. Looking forward to the trip. We are used to long road trips, but usually not quite this long. The poor old Saab has done several 1000km trips in the last 12 months. Just a clutch to change before we leave, but the Coupe is ready to go now. Probably stop in Chamonix for a couple of days, Verona for a couple of days and several days at a friends place in Rejeka, Croatia. From Croatia it will be a run through Serbia and into Bulgaria for a stop close to Sofia before the final drive to the coast.
There arw very knowledgeable people about the Coupe in Bulgaria, as far as I know. Probably parts won't be so hard to find, but it's better not to find that out the hard way ;D
Well....the good news. The Saab is running well and there are no issues with border crossings due to covid-19. The bad news. We arrived in Croatia but the servo on the coupe gave up the ghost just 1 hour from our friends house. We managed to get there OK. More good news though. The Fiat dealer was up the road from the house and they now have the car in for repair. Looks like we will get the car back on Friday if they can get the parts in time. Touch wood. I am actually not really bothered as we can stay with our friend as long as we need to. Hopefully we will be in Bulgaria next week, but could be the following week.
The trip so far has been good. Chamonix was very nice. Long time since I have been there so good to go back. Also stopped off at Lake Garda in Italy. Would have liked to have stayed longer but could not due to Covid restrictions (Only 36 hours transit time allowed for Italy).
Well done for making the trip, and for getting in some sites as you travelled through
You timed it just about right I think judging from all the on going lock downs occurring through Europe again. Hopefully the issue with the servo will be a quick and easy fix- and you coupe will be up and running in no time ready for the next leg!
Keep us updated on how things progress- and I hope Covid does not stop too many plans.
Thanks MM. The part is a problem at the moment but will keep looking. The Covid situation is getting worse but hopefully we will be there before any lockdown.
Good call on the Barchetta. Unfortunately according to Fiat this servo is unique to to 20VT. No other models share the same part!!!!! Typical.
Hey Frazer, I've been looking on ePer and I don't think the 20vt servo is unique (seeattached). The servo only is 9945763 and servo + master cylinder is 7757603. There is no separate listing for LHD/RHD and the only change shown is change 3908 "2.0 origin servo brake on 1.8 adopted 15-07-1999 chassis 0068434" which I think means that the 1.8 versions got the same servo as the 2.0.
There's some info on the French Coupe forum that may be of some use (I'm not registered, not sure if this Google link will work) https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.fiatcoupe.fr/forum2/viewtopic.php%3Ff%3D2%26t%3D3502&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjZucm-qMXsAhWAThUIHS7EDC04RhAWMAJ6BAgJEAE&usg=AOvVaw3SyNFLNjj1DrxO8Wzuckdz
Bonne chance!
Last edited by DaveG; 21/10/202010:04. Reason: Forgot to add shared part listing
1996 Portofino 20vt & 2000 Pearl White Plus 2008 Ferrari F430 & 2017 Fiat 124 Spider
Dave, I really appreciate the assistance. Very kind of you. I am not sure why the part number is listed as the servo and master cylinder also. Seems strange. We may have found a second hand one in Belgrade, Serbia. We have to go to the bus station to collect it at 0400hrs to collect it from the bus driver!!!! I am not holding my breathe though as it is likely from a different model, but cheap enough to take the risk. The Fiat garage are removing the servo today / tomorrow as we have another lead about 50km away. He has several servos on the shelf but doesnt know what one we require exactly so its a trip there with the old part if the one from Belgrade doesnt fit. Frazer
Makes my failure to start and eventual abandonment coming over the Alps on the way to Turin last year seem trivial by comparison! Seems like it was several years ago now...
I hope you get it sorted, even if it's only a temporary fix to allow you to continue the journey.
1996 Portofino 20vt & 2000 Pearl White Plus 2008 Ferrari F430 & 2017 Fiat 124 Spider
We decided to leave the car in Croatia and continue in the Saab. Good news. We crossed the border to Bulgaria just now and found a hotel. Still a ways to go but at least we are now in Bulgaria
We decided to leave the car in Croatia and continue in the Saab. Good news. We crossed the border to Bulgaria just now and found a hotel. Still a ways to go but at least we are now in Bulgaria
We made it to the final destination yesterday. Just have to sort the Fiat out but no rush for that. 2500km in a 30 year old Saab fully loaded isn’t bad. It was never going to be plain sailing so all in all pretty happy with everything. Surprisingly there was not one restriction at any borders the whole way here. Not what we were led to believe when looking on line. Even better is that there is a bar less than 200 meters from the house. Result.
I've done multiple road trips to Sofia, Bulgaria as I have a girlfriend there. The first was the Winter of 2005/6 in my venerable Punto GT Mk.1, now with another Punto enthusiast, to make a first meeting in person. CHeWie in Grangesises Later a couple or more times in my Alfa 159 Ti. Once early this year on a "Grand Tour" of Europe to visit some of my computer hobby enthusiasts and drop off and collect various monitors and system units. I'd planned staying two weeks in Sofia, and then returning via Athens, the ferry from Igoumenitsa to Bari, and up the leg of Italy for another two week stay in Grangesises, below the Sestriere ski resort, where I had planned on viewing apartments for sale there, for an intended purchase. Sofia Road Trip - Stage 1 Sofia Road Trip - Stage 2 Filthy Beast Grangesises That got rather interrupted during the last few days as Italy went into lockdown!
A word of warning, there is a growing use by foreign EU countries of the reciprocal legislation to enable their authorities to claim speeding and other fines from U.K. motorists (or rather documented Vehicle Keepers), some of which have "delegated" this to the nasty Parking Enforcement companies here.
Last edited by Punto16VT; 01/11/202013:06.
Sprinty Coupe 20VT6 1949 White Abarth Punto Grande SS Stromboli Grey Alfa 159 Ti Abarth 695 Rivale
Finally found a second hand servo. The car should be back on the road this week. Thanks for all the help. Various people on the forum went out o their way to assist. My Croatian friend found the part in a scrap yard about 50km away from his home. Fiat have been very helpful too. They removed the old servo so my friend could take it away for comparison. Once the car is fixed I still have to plan picking the car up. Usually no big problem but with Covid restrictions this could be tricky. We’ll see though.