KEITH GRAHAM and JOE MAUCERI'S CAMS IMPROVED PRODUCTION 124 CC COUPE

Fire Breathing Fiats welcomes the latest addition to the page. Keith Graham and Joe Mauceri send us info and some great shots of their CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motorsport) prepared Improved Production 124 CC Coupe. We take our hats off Australian motorsport. The cars are way cool and there's a class for everything. When it comes to "Improved Production" CAMS got it right. It's refreshing to see an entry level category where one can actually improve the car as opposed to restricting it which is what the class name means here in North America. Having said that though, we were also startled to see just how far this supposedly limited category's rules allows a car to actually improve. The rules allow mods closer to SCCA E-Production with the exception of the Yokohama spec tires. For more info on CAMS you can visit here.

Keith takes us through the nitty gritty of his car and his team's ups and downs which, of course, are all a part of racing...

MAKE:  FIAT

MODEL: 124 SPORTS COUPE

YEAR:  1973

OWNERS BUILDERS: KEITH GRAHAM & JOSEPH MAUCERI

 DRIVER: JOSEPH MAUCERI

 CLASS; IMPROVED PRODUCTION 3J under 2Litre

Project started in 2001 with a very rusted and damaged car, it was stripped to the bare body shell and then seam welded We also replaced the floor and welded half guards in, after which we started preparing the body for paint.

    The interior and engine bay have been painted in silver, the exterior was painted in heron white and the rear painted in bright blue (colour scheme was taken from Joe Clemente’s Fiat 131).  With the body now finished we started on the interior, door trims which had to be made as original ones are not available.  We cut panels out of 5mm MBF and covered them with blue vinyl. We then fitted a blue SPARCO race seat and 3in racing harness.   The car has a six point cage supplied by BOND ROLLBARS.

     The front cross member was then seam welded as were the upper and lower wish bones. Cross member modification also involved fitting longer lower wish bone mount bolts with a 15 mm spacer so as to give more negative camber.  Next came new, larger front stubs (as fitted to the coil over Fiat 131) as the standard 124 sports coupe tend to crack and brake under race conditions. The brake refit included larger (257mm Argenta)

 D B A slotted disc rotors, a master cylinder from Holden Commodore (20mm bore) and EBC pads, greenstuff up front and blackstuff on the rears. New springs made so the car was lowered 50mm, with front spring rate at 275Kg and the rear at 175Kg , the shocks are Koni yellow adjustable. The front sway bar is standard.

     The engine was then stripped and checked; we decided to only modify the engine slightly for greater reliability. The cylinder bore was honed, new 11 to 1 pistons fitted, the oil pump and sump were both modified (more pressure and volume), the flywheel was machined and lightened along with the clutch assembly which is from a Holden one tonne truck. We then sent the crankshaft, conrods, pistons and flywheel/clutch assembly off to Terry Edward’s engine balancing to have the engine balanced.

The head still uses standard valves and springs but ports and chambers have been modified. The camshafts were sent off to Tighe Camshaft  to be modified. The grind is mild (EX: op 78 cl 42 IN: op 44 cl 78 Duration 300 @ 0.50 gross lift .460” ) With the engine assembled, two 40mm Weber carburetors and  a tuned exhaust ( 2 1/2”) were fitted. Once everything was installed we then started to rewire then car from front to back with separate systems for each of the lights. The dash was then modified in order to fit a Tacho, gauges for oil pressure, water temperature and a volt metre. We then wired the dash, fitted separate switches for the lights and wired a new fuse panel below the dash to the floor.

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