I was lucky enough to "replace" my Record Monza with another Abarth.  I bought this car several months ago and have been working a little bit here and there to get it back on the road. I do not have the full story on the car but it always has been a Southern California car that was first purchased by a dentist possibly from Rich Motors. Latter it was owned by a couple other people before it made it's way into the hands of Greg Schmidt. A friend of mine bought it from him shortly before he closed up shop.

I have all of the special parts for the car except for the head and pistons. I had hoped to get the Radiale engine together right away but it is a $10,000 proposition, I am in grad school at  the moment so needless to say it will have to wait a little while. However, I have a PBS 74mm stroker engine and I did purchase one of the last 8 port heads that PBS had along with one of their oil pans and I think I should have the car running in a month or two. Below is a link to some photo of the car that are on Photobucket. I will keep you notified of my progress.

http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f79/kikolemus/Abarth%201000%20OTR/

Mike

 This was Matt Ruiz' car, right? http://www.3jar.com/fiat/fiats.php?p=abarthotr

I remember seeing this car back in the early 1990's parked out in front of Greg's old shop down in San Diego (the one close to Sea World). Every time I'd go there, he'd keep trying to sell the car to me. ;)

-JS.

Hi Mike,

Nice project!  Please post more photos as you go along.  What area of the country are you in?

Eric, San Diego

Jeff,
Yes it was Matt's old car. Do you remember anything about it from when Greg was trying to sell it to you?

Thanks Eric, I am in Whittier, about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

Mike

Hi, Mike,

Will you be at the Best of France and Italy show on Sunday?
I plan to have my 850/1000TC replica there. If you see me by it say Hi!

Jim

Jim,

Yes I will be there. I will stop by and introduce myself.

Thanks,
Mike

What a great find!

I think that motor and head  are much better than the OTR's original motor. I seem to remember that the Radiale was prone to several oiling issues which would cause the distributor drive gear to wear out and most of the oiling in the head on the Radiale was less than adequate which generally made those heads wear out too quickly. That PBS motor should have all of the oiling issues pretty wired.

Did the OTR come with a special ring and pinion?

It would be safe to assume that they did but I am not certain. I am sure the Radiale engine had a different powerband and certainly more power that would require a different final drive.

I have been trying to get myself motivated to work on the car for the past several weeks but have not been successful. It was too hot and now it is too cold and windy! I also thought for certain I would have it ready for the French and Italian Show this year but there is no way now.

Wow what a fun project! I always wanted the OT1300. That OTR engine seems too expensive.

I got the car out of storage and am finally working a bit on the car again.
Here is a before and after of the dash.
Does anybody know a good place to get the orignal steering wheel restored.

I also have made a little progress on the engine as well.

Great car and the youtube movie is working for you!!
Good luck with your project and I hope you will update frequently!!

Regards,
Fred

Good to see you back at work on this car, the dash looks great! Did you take it to "Just Dashes" to have it redone?

Jeff,

Matt had included a very nice dash with the car as well as an Abarth scripted 120mph speedometer. I was able to get a nice instrument cluster front cover with the glass and wood veneer since the one I had fallen apart, so everything came together nicely.

one of  my favorits

Love this one! like to see more pictures if you can?