ROBERT CATANIA'S HISTORY

My name is Robert Catania. I have owed and loved Fiats since I was 16. I grew up in Vancouver B.C., Canada. The following information summarizes much of my history and doubles as a tech write up for my 1972 124 Coupe. In addition to this, I have documented the car's complete restoration in a step-by-step feature in our Tech Talk section.

My experience with Fiats started in the early eighties, shortly after I received my driver's license. Admittedly, the thought of owning a Datsun 510 as a first car appealed to me. But that only lasted until I came across my first Fiat, a 72 128. Encouraged by my father's endorsements - "datsa de very gooda car"- I picked it up for $150. It was in need of some TLC but as I was young and enthusiastic, I thought it would be a good initiation into the world of Fiats (or possibly the start of a nightmare). I drove the car for about a year and then one day learned that my friend Dave had also recently purchased a Fiat. I went over to take a look and that was the first time I had ever seen a 124 Coupe. It was a yellow 71 and I immediately fell in love with the car. I had to have one. After a bit of research I finally bought one. That was back in 1983 and I've had it ever since. The car was a yellow 72 with a black vinyl roof and aluminum slot wheels. It looked a bit "disco" but I liked it and more importantly, the car had a sweet little 1608 under the hood.

One of the first things I did was repair some of the rust it had and paint it a brighter yellow. I also looked at improving the car's performance but it was difficult to find high performance parts at the time. After some time I finally came across a well-known father and son fiat service called Clemente European Motors. I was very particular about the things I wanted to do to my car but I soon found that they had everything I was looking for: high end parts, accessories, know how, and lots of experience, especially with performance modifications and tuning. The other thing that I appreciated was the fact that they were straightforward and told me exactly what I needed to do and how to do it whether on my own or through them. When I went there for the first time I was quite surprised to learn that the owner's son, who was head mechanic, just happened to own my coupe back in 73 when he was 18 years old.

So we hit it off great and eventually I actually got hired as a mechanic and worked there for many years until starting my own business and eventually moving to Italy. This is my connection to Clemente European Motors and the Clemente family. All that I know about Fiats I learned through them. Of course it was at Clemente's where I also met the youngest member of the family and my best friend Joey. We were both teenagers at the time and we both shared the same grandiose plans for our 124s. We used to taunt each other mercilessly about who had the faster Fiat (we still do to this day!) About his Spider I used to say stuff like "You're never gonna go fast driving that woman's car!" To which Joe would typically retort, "Is that the best you can do? To beat me you're going to need your man's car and the second coming of Christ…" It made for a lot of laughs and a good friendship.

Anyway, back to the car. My first modifications were to the suspension. I had lower, stiffer springs installed along with Koni gas shocks all the way around and front and rear sway bars. I replaced the aluminum slot wheels with 13X7" Caroll Shelby Libres and Pirelli 205-60-13 tires. This completely transformed the car's handling abilities giving it nice and tight turn-in response, improved directional stability, higher cornering speed and even better braking.

NEXT PAGE >>