A VINTAGE RACER'S STORY

By Don Tuscany

Background

Fast cars have always fascinated me. I have dabbled into a variety of fast cars, mostly 60’s and 70’s American muscle; Mustang Mach I, Hemi Challengers and 442 convertibles with friends. I had no real interest in cars from Britain, German or Italy. There was one though; my neighbor had an early 70’s Fiat Spider. For some reason it caught my fancy, but that’s my only memory of Fiats.

I start thinking of getting into racing as I finished my MBA studies in 2001. Having gone to Road America for vintage races, the big bore, ground-pounders were the real interest for me. I was sure that I was going to race a V8 vintage Mustang.

The Search

I began visiting the premiere race car sales sites and visiting race tracks to see what was for sale. The true cost of racing a big bore car… from tires to brakes and all the broken parts in between came out. My appetite and ability to spend was severely challenged.

In my search I came upon a Fiat Spider SCCA Rally/ITC racer. Price was very reasonable. I recalled my neighbors Fiat from when I was younger. As luck had it, the car was in Cincinnati near my brother. He checked it out. His voicemail was cryptic though, “lots of parts and the car is essentially all there.” The pause in his voice was telling, “It’s pretty rough, but the engine seems real solid.” I’ve learned one thing; performance minded people always have a mechanically solid car. I traveled to Ohio.

The car was rough and dirty. The bumpers seemed to be barely hanging on. The French Blue and yellow accents were not appealing. When the owner fired it - it purred. Good throttle response, even cold. The owner took no credit saying, “The guy I got it from did all the work. I never missed a race!” The motor was dirty and oily but a compression test was very consistent.

The car had new paint and Bondo. The seller admitted to a nasty shunt at IRP that collapsed the passenger fender and light bucket. In true weekend warrior fashion, he hooked a chain to a basketball pole and rolled the car down his driveway a few times to pull the radiator frame and fender back into place. It was not pretty.

I hummed and hawed but eventually said yes. So, I owned an SCCA Fiat race-car. I never even sat in it. The seller was a gentleman of small stature. The racing seat was very close to the dash. I am over six feet two and tip the scales near 295lbs.

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