Here we go again.

http://www.pistonheads.com

I want that car sooooo much. I lurve Energy green.

No, wait.

It's an Inky.

No ta.

(I jest).

It's lush.

What an excellent write-up.

Spot on

Yeah, apart from the cambelt change interval being wrong for 20v/20vt, and is it really that bad for clutches? I don't think so. As for fragile rear springs and crumbling rear pads being the cause of seized calipers, I think they have made that stuff up!

And it's not energy green either

"the crank is the forged unit from the Integrale" ?

Not on the 20vt, it's not...

And it's not Energy green either [/quote]

Dream over ( Sorry. In. Spoons after a sh!t day at work , half way down a barrel of Doombar )

Apart from the above, good write up,

Ha

Daft statement "300bhp must be a nightmare through the front wheels" in the comments... Can you imagine nailing a 300bhp RWD car in a corner? It would just go backwards into a hedge. Why do some people think you should you expect to be able to nail any FWD car in any situation?

In my experience the amount of control you have ‘nailing it’ through corners is entirely down to the car’s mechanical grip. The chassis, the suspension geometry – the engineering, pure and simple.

My last ‘fun’ car was a Porsche 944 Turbo, with near-as-dammit the same bhp as my 20VT has … but it could put that power down safely and controllably in a way the Coupé just can’t. Part of that was the mechanical grip of the chassis. Part of it was the inherent advantage of RWD.

(Frankly, my Coupé torque steers off to the right if I plant my right foot in a straight line, let alone on a bend. And it rolls too much in corners to give me confidence in what grip level it actually has. It’s still lots of fun though …)

Have you got a strut brace fitted?

Not yet. That’s on the list … (although I don’t want to go too far with mods on what is meant to be a relatively cheap runaround).

Honestly though, I do realise that comparing the two cars isn’t fair. Different leagues. The Coupé’s a great wee thing in its own right.

In an ideal world, it’d have more stability, less understeer, a tighter turning circle, and a bigger turbo. But for the price, it’s a hell of a lot better than it should be!

A decent 20VT can be made to handle as well as a 944 with just a few choice mods, but it would require spending about half what you paid for your car, so I see your point about modding it not being viable

However, my very first mod was a strut brace, and the effect was so noticeable that it got me wondering what else could be done. Fifteen years, three 20VTs and a few quid later, I'm still trying to improve on what was already a pretty decent base

Having driven a few bog-standard cars recently, I sometimes wonder if I should have left it alone....

That’s exactly what Graham said when out in my car … (I doubt he really entertained the notion for more than a minute though!)

I have no doubt that your modded Coupé is faster than any of my old 944s. I appreciate that a lot can be done to tighten up and improve a Coupé, but I think there’s a limit to what you can do with any car – unless you’re prepared to build a new chassis from scratch and just put the shell on top of that.

There’s no way you’re going to get the 944’s weight balance and steering feel out of what is fundamentally a different layout. A FWD car has a different character from RWD. A 944 corners differently from a 911. 4WD can pull you from a standing start quicker than 2WD. And so on. Can’t defeat physics.

I was particularly impressed with the lack of droning from the exhaust and the ride quality on the original 16" wheels, compared to mine on 17's and with a straight through stainless exhaust.

Having said that, your exhaust was too quiet, you really could hardly hear it at all, so as far as performance upgrades go I'd fit a bigger exhaust from cat back (although still retaining a middle expansion box in some form) and a strut brace and then leave it at that. Any further funds can be directed at cosmetics and suspension refresh when necessary.

My coupe is back in one piece now so you can give it a try to compare the handling on 17's, with a strut brace + new wishbones.

How's your coolant level doing now BTW?

I put a bottle of Radweld through the system ‘just in case’ and it hasn’t lost a drop. Weirdly, the engine hasn’t used any oil either – over 1.5k miles so far! The clutch/brake fluid is all staying where it should be. The strange squeak from the brake pedal has disappeared.

Basically, the engine is running like a dream. If I find any spare money this year it will go on handling first. I’m finding myself braking a lot more on corner entry than I’d like.

The squeaking front brakes are a bit of a pain, and I’m having ‘issues’ with the car’s Toad alarm system, but otherwise things are good.

I’m off work for a while from tomorrow, if you fancy a day of messing about with the cars soon.

Always good to hear this, especially when this car was originally bought in for breaking - we instantly knew it was too good to pull apart, even though we would probably have made more money on it.

Great to hear you're enjoying it, along with its little foibles....

Yep, it was definitely worth the trip down to buy it from you. I reckon the extra cost of travelling to collect has more than repaid itself in reliability of the car.

I'm one for leaving a car intrinsically standard but the strut brace really stiffens up the body at the front and makes the car feel like it is much better built than how it left the factory. Well worth the cost! Should have been a standard fit.

I’ve had a strut brace on for a month or so now, and it does feel a lot better. I think I would need stiff ARBs on the front and back of the car before I start to really feel some cornering confidence though.

The strut brace definitely makes a big difference for a small cost. Well worth doing.

Here's the actual link

http://www.pistonheads.com/regulars/ph-spottedykywt/fiat-coupe-you-didnt-know-you-want-to/31931