GT-3 131 Brava owned and prepared by Clemente European Motors

The 131 Brava is a car that I've always wanted to see on the track. Admittedly, I like rallying but I'm a road racer at heart and to this day I still maintain that the 131 Abarths would have proven even more successful prepared as race cars than as rally cars. That's just me...

Anyway, the following sequence of images documents a bit of our race car's history. Although not a Abarth mechanically, it did make a lot of power and it generated a lot of interest. As a young racer, I was consumed by the car's build up and by the prospect of driving it in competition. I was indeed privileged enough to race the car but unfortunately, due to various circumstances, it suffered the indignity of a rather truncated development. Ironically, it was later turned back into a street car! (Uh, I'll not get into that...)

I don't have a lot of good quality pictures, mostly random shots. Oddly enough, it just never crossed my mind to photograph everything as I went along. What I do have are some decent video caps and even some interesting video footage. Check it out.

		"The start" Take one 1982 131 Brava and commence gutting...
		Once the interior was pulled out, all the wiring, fuel and brake hard lines were removed. The floorboards and tranny tunnel were a real pain in the ass to clean. You'll notice they have a tar-like covering; that's for sound deadening and it adds about 4 or 5 lbs in weight. Nothing a good pneumatic chisel can't take care of. Don't do this by hand, it'll just take forever. If you don't have an air chisel you can cheat by using ice, lots of it. What this does is it freezes the tar causing it to become brittle. To work best, you leave it overnight then just take a hammer to it and give it a few good wacks.
		First fitting. Rob started the transformation from the rear end forward. The body kit is a complete Lester unit from Italy including front and rear fenders, hood, trunk lid with integrated spoiler, front spoiler, roof spoiler, and rear lower valance.
		Here is another angle showing the rear valance. This picture is small but you may be able to note the rather simple (by today's standards) cage design. The single door bar would be insuficient if the car were to race today. However, it was a good design in keeping with the best tubs of the day.
		Completed front end. My compliments to Lester. This kit was well thought out with nice detail. The panels were a clean and perfect fit requiring no modification whatsoever.
		Note the color scheme on the side of the car. This is a throwback to Fiat's rallying glory and a screaming reminder to the Westwood regulars that this was NOT a Datsun 510!
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