6/11/13

Damn and blast!  Like a dumb ass, I went to Craigslist this morning to look at “my” Mini.  One ad up from that was… wait for it… a 1965 Fiat 600!  It looks to be in… well, a shape.  I mean, it doesn’t look BAD, per se, but it is kinda rough, although probably not as rough as the Mini… but it is the right year!  There was no price in the ad so I sent a text.  Yeah, here’s where it might all fall down.  He wants $3,500.00 or best offer for it.  I'm going to have to talk to John about that.  I sent John the link to the C-list ad and am waiting to hear back.  Of course I've shut off the intergoogles on the work computer, and thus my e-mail, so I'm not going to hear unless I text him.  Oh, I also texted the Fiat guy asking if he had any interest in a 1965 Spitfire.  Waiting to hear back.  I have no illusions that the Spit’ is worth even a tenth of what he’s asking though.  It would get it out of the shop though and maybe sweeten the Fiat deal.  Yeah, right!  His ad says he has no time for the Fiat and is going off to school soon.  I'm sure the Spit’ will stay in my possession.  We’ll see.  Well, John has replied.  The first e-mail I sent was just the link and a short note saying, “Screw the Mini!  There’s a Fiat 500 on Craigslist!”  His reply was, “Price?”  My second e-mail to him, after receiving the price text from the dude, was a verification e-mail with said price and correction from “Fiat 500” to “Fiat 600.”  John's reply to that was, “Hmm.”  I'm not sure if I'm ready to pay $3,500.00 for it though.  Psh, what am I saying?  Of course I'd pay that for it… I'm dumb, remember?  So, since I AM dumb, we’re going to start playing the “I wonder if we could…” game.  Looking at the pictures of the engine bay, there is a ton of room on the zorst side of the head.  One of those wee little turbochargers would have cavernous space around it.  I figure we might be able to get up to fifty horsepower out of that guy!  Ok, so what about shoe-horning an A-12 in there?  That, if at all possible, would get us 68 horsepower right off the bat!  Carburetor, header, and zorst otter bump us up to 72 or 73 horsepower pretty easily.  I'd think that would be some spritely performance.  Oh, have I mentioned another fact about the Fiat which puts it ahead of the Mini?  It is NOT a “Pull Toy!”  Fiat 600s were rear wheel drive!  Oh crap, I just thought of a way to make the thing ultra-STUPID fast… Subaru flat four and transaxle!  I wonder if Dan Andrijeski still has any of those old Scooby drive trains lying around.  No, I think if I were to start down the flat-four road, I'd go VW since I believe I have an air-cooled VW transaxle in the storage unit.  This is retarded.  I should finish the cars I already have and not start thinking about other projects.  As for the fiftieth birthday thing, if I'm going to stick with the “Fifty Year Old Car for my Fifty Year Old Ass” plan, I otter just build the Spitfire… which we already have!  Putting an A-series engine in that would be infinitely easier than trying to get one to work in a Fiat 600.  I just don’t know what to think right now.  John and I will disgust it at length I'm sure.  Speaking of John, he sent me an update on the 610 earlier.  The fuel tank is totally clogged.  He’s going to try and find someplace to get it cleaned out today.  We have a 510 tank at the shop but apparently the sending units are wrong… or something.  He also fingered out what was causing the brakes to drag so bad.  Hopefully he’s got them sorted.  Once those two things are fixed, he otter be able to get it inspected.  That will be cool.  Well, I think I'm out of stuff to say today so…