My special thanks to the Matovich family who were kind enough to provide some of these long lost pictures.

It soon became apparent that the 1438, as good a little motor as it was, could not long cope with the type of competition it would face in B-Sedan. It just so happened that Fiat produced a new motor at the time, the sweet little 1608. This motor would be a key ingredient in the car's future success. More on that shortly.

The images above were taken at Victoria. Significantly, this was a time when Vancouver Island actually had a "race track" and not just a ridiculous paved oval in a parking lot you see today. Gone are those days man...  Anyway, as you can see the Coupe mixed it up with an interesting array of small sedans, and it won, first time on the track.

It would be completely wrong to lay the laurels just on the car itself. The history of Frank Clemente's championship winning 124 Coupe is also and very significantly the history of Norm Matovich. Norm simply made our car famous. He could pretty much drive anything on wheels and his success with our Applebox 124 was indicative of this. But where winning in the Applebox was a matter of will and driving the car by the scruff of the neck, with the Coupe it was a function of perfect symbiosis. Certainly the car provided Norm with a much better platform from which to demonstrate his remarkable driving abilities but to see him in action with this car, as my dad puts it, really seemed as if Norm was wired to it.  He could not lose. Importantly, there were other guys racing 124 Coupes at the time but I can tell you with unmitigated confidence and from the benefit of actual history, that none of them even came close to matching this combination. I'll give a couple of examples later on.

I still love listening to my dad recount those glory days and I believe he loves talking about them just as much. I was fortunate enough to catch up with Norm in late 2003 when I wanted to try to find out more about this car from another perspective. Growing up I had heard so much about him and the car and I would hang on every word and detail recounted by my dad. So ultimately I felt compelled to try to reconnect. When I finally managed to do so it was a real treat to converse with Norm and hear the stories he had to tell. It was a fabulous history lesson; one I shall never forget.

As I mentioned earlier, the car started off with a 1438 but being competitors, my dad and Norm were always looking for an edge. So very early on, the car received a transplant; they swapped the 1438 for a super high revving 1608. Now the car became a fire breathing dragon. The bolt-on equipment included 40mm Weber IDFs with larger chokes, Breda racing cams which measured over 11mm of lift and 300 degrees duration, Asso 11:1 pistons, and Conti racing headers. Incidentally, these headers were probably the best ever made for a Fiat twin cam. Regrettably, Conti equipment is no longer available. The valve diameters were standard but the backs, seats and throats were carefully machined for better flow along with the intake ports. The rotating assembly was thoroughly lightened and balanced from front pulley to flywheel. There were a few other tricks that my dad did on the motor but he would prefer not to give out too much information. In any case, whatever it was that he did, it really worked well because on racing fuel that little 1608 put out over 170 hp. Unless you were talking about the factory Datsun and Alfa teams, this kind of grunt out of a little motor was unheard of back then.

As for gearing, the stock 124 tranny and rear end were all they had. Better equipment than that was just not available at the time but Norm's driving more than made up for that deficiency. The brakes were also stock with the exception of Ferodo racing pads. They were very good pads even by todays standards and Norm made the most of them. Actually, his two major strengths were driving in the rain and his ability to outbreak almost any car on the track.

Have a closer look at this picture on the right. Notice the hood line? The hood (that would be the bonnet for all you Aussies and Brits) isn't closed properly. That's because the clearance between the carbs and the bottom of the hood is insufficient on AC Coupes. So if one wanted to run carbs, one would either have to use DCOEs or, for IDFs, modify the hood by cutting it open, or propping it as shown here. My dad had his own solution to this problem.

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