Here it is...

A 124 BC Coupe yeah? Just get a newer Coupe right?

Well, no. Not quite. Here's another picture from a different angle...

My apologies for the small size but if you look closely at the back of the car you should still be able to see...what's wrong with this picture?

Tail lights... that's right. The back end does not match the front end. Those are AC Coupe tail lights on the back of this BC Coupe. Surprize, surprize... it's not a BC Coupe. It's the same car we started out with. Using another, newer Coupe altogether might have just made sense but really, that AC was already perfectly sorted with the exception of the carb clearance issue. So instead of cutting up the AC hood or building a new car and starting everything all over again, my dad just pulled the AC front end off and mounted a set of BC fenders, facia and hood. This was now the definitive look, the mechante gueule that made my dad's killer 124 instantly recognizable. And with Norm behind the wheel,  the car's development was steady and of enormous value. Norm and my father made this car the one to watch and the one to beat on the West coast and arguably in all of Canada.

At Westwood, this car didn't beat its competitors, it hammered them. The first shot shows typical Norm Matovich style; hard out of the hairpin to start the uphill section with a swank little tail drift. The second picture shows the car under full power at the start of Westwood's esses which were taken flat out. For those familiar with the track, this car hit fifth gear on the climb just at the start/finish overpass. As for lap times, Norm did 1:18 at Westwood in 71-72. Simply unheard of. And let's put that lap time into perspective; by 1990 the fastest and most expensive balls-out full tubeframe GT-3 cars in SCCA were just under 1:14 on that same track...

Thumbs up, waving hands, checkered flag, victory. The event was the Datsun Trophy races, forty car field, sponsored by Datsun dealers, and a Fiat 124 takes home their trophy. It was just the kind of slap in the face those cocky Datsun 510 guys deserved, he-he!

Another shot of our unbeatable 124 Coupe rounding the hairpin at Westwood under yellow, circa May 1972. The symbiosis and success of Franco Clemente's 124 with Norm Matovich at the wheel was unmatched.

Big fish in a small pond? No, I would never brag or kid anyone about how good this car was. Here is a sequence taken at Portland International raceway in 1972. The event was the Trans-am 2.5 Challenge. Now the car was put up against the best B-Sedan competitors on the continent so this would be a major proving ground. The parked car in the picture on the right is the BMW 2002 of another great B-Sedan competitor, Loren St. Lawrence. At Westwood he always came up short against Norm. Here at PIR, his Bimmer had more legs and could outdrag the 124 down the long straight. Unfortunately, as the image demonstrates, it was of no consequence.

In this race, our Coupe only qualified 24th out of 25 cars but typical of Norm, he picked cars off one by one durng the race and got up as high as fifth overall for most of the way. Not bad considering the front runners were Wetson Alfa Romeos, and even more significantly, factory backed BRE Datsun 510s. BRE in particular was a team that had the best of everything down to the smallest fastener. A side note, neither our Fiat nor any Alfa team had any kind of factory support in the Two-Five series. The BRE Datsuns also enjoyed a weight advantage thanks to the rule makers. Think the manufacturer would not have had a hand in that? Think again. That BRE had so much success basically against privateers should, at the very least,  have been expected.  I believe that had either Fiat or Alfa Romeo put even half as much factory support into their competitors' efforts, the history of the Two-Five would be very much different. Notwithstanding the limited resources, according to Norm, the sight of this underdog 124 from "arctic" Canada running right up with these big name teams really ruffled some feathers. Unfortunately Norm picked up some shrapnel from the exploded crankcase of a lapped car which caused a puncture. The Coupe limped home in eleventh place.  That same year, Norm also brought the car down to compete in the 2.5 at Riverside in California.  This time Norm qualified the Coupe 17th out of 32 cars and again ran up into the top five and again as if from some freak déjà vu, the car suffered another puncture, this time in the right rear. The culprit this time was a broken connecting rod that was launched through the block of Bobby Allison's BRE Datsun 510 on lap 11.  The puncture caused Norm to spin off the track. Promptly, he put it in gear and wrestled the Coupe back to the pits gathering cheers and applause from onlookers. I'm told it was quite the show. End result, again just missed a top ten finish. Thirteenth overall. Point made though. By the way, here is a little document I thought I might add to substantiate these claims for the sake of all you sceptics out there.  1972 Portland 2.5

Here's another table: 1972 Riverside 2.5

By far, the best race Norm ever had in this car was the Canadian National B-Sedan championship event at Westwood in 1972. It would have been Canada's B-Sedan equivalent to the SCCA Runoffs, but strictly for the one class. There were cars from as far east as Quebec and the entry list was so big that the main event was run in two 30 minute heats. I am told there were over 60 cars just for the B-Sedan event. Also competing at that event was a highly touted Fiat 124 Coupe from Toronto driven by a certain Giorgio Comachio. This guy was supposedly the best from the east, here to show all these lumberjacks on the west coast how it's done. Backed by Fiat dealers, Comachio's car had the best of everything and with it, he won lots of races at Mosport. Being from Toronto, naturally he would have felt his was the only B-Sedan Fiat of any relevance in Canada and so the expectation was one of an easy victory. He faced a few challenges though: First, as he really had no idea of what our 124 had already accomplished, he foolishly dismissed it as any kind of a possible threat; didn't even give it a second look. Secondly, he wasn't at Mosport anymore.

This was     and anyone who remembers Westwood knows that its combination of tight and fast corners, banking, crests and elevation changes made it second to none as a technically challenging circuit. So being a hotshoe at Mosport or Edmonton or Mont Tremblant or Shannonville meant absolutely nothing when one came out here for the first time. To make matters worse, Comachio's best-of-everything Coupe came to Westwood rather ironically unprepared. The problem was that he did not have adequate brakes to survive even a couple of laps. all he had on the car were stock pads. This fact alone raised a few questions about the team's credibilty but as my dad was a good sport, he graciously offered up a free set of good Ferodo racing pads. After all, it was another Fiat on the track and that was a good thing in his eyes. He genuinely wanted to help a fellow Fiat driver even if he was the competition.

First heat, Norm qualifies on the pole, checks out at the green flag and wins with little fuss. Second heat, now it's raining. Typical Westwood weather but it mattered little as Norm loved the rain. He was on pole again, Comachio's 124 well back in the pack. At the green flag a dice for the lead had Norm going three wide into Westwood's turn 3 with St' Lawrence's BMW and a Datsun 510. Not wanting to give an inch, Norm overcooked it and spun dropping him from first to dead last on the very first lap. He lost a total of 90 seconds from the moment of the spin to when he was finally able to get out of the mud and back on course. Once on track though, he picked off car after car in what was quite possibly the best display of driving ever seen on that track. With each successive lap the corner workers at the hairpin and turn 2 would shake their heads in disbelief at the depth with which Norm was outbreaking other cars. He literally ran a clinic on the field that day. At the checkered flag he ended up third, a mere two seconds off the two leaders. As Norm reflected later; "I just wanted to have one more lap with those two..."  What about that bad-ass 124 Coupe from Toronto? Well, he was lapped...twice.

Norm's explanation for the spin was that he was really pissed off after being protested by Comachio at the end of the first heat. That's right, Comachio protested. It was petty to say the least. Nobody could believe he would do that after being helped out with his brake issues. Needless to say there were a few expletives hurled about that afternoon. Getting protested was nothing new actually. Our Coupe's speed and success also made it a target. The sad thing about this little affair was not that Norm lost the race, it was that after careful scrutiny ( and kudos to them for being officious) the inspectors concluded that my dad's car had no possible technical advantage over Comachio's Fiat. Very poor form indeed.

Franco Clemente next to his Champion Coupe. My dad tells me he had a little ritual with this car. With every race Norm won, he would crack open a bottle of fine scotch in celebration. Each of them would have a little drink to toast their win and the car would get one too. Dad would pour a shot down the barrels of each carb, fire it up and let her snort it down. It was magic! Oh and uh, the car preferred Highland single malt...

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