motor &tran.

[ghosttownboy]

dose anyone know if fiat made a bigger motor than a 903cc to go into my 850 sport spider 1972. or a 5 speed for the 903cc motor.

[Daniel]

try posting this on http://www.fiatcenter.com they have a 850 section or maybe mf.com most of the folks here
are 124 spider owners might get a reply or 2 some have owned or still do 850 spiders but not much is
mentioned about them here . Have you thought of fitting a TC in that car ? i bet it would scream with
a 1608 !

[adrians]

I haven't heard of a easy transplants for the 903cc however a friend on mine is turbocharging a 903cc with F.I. as well, using a WRX turbo. Also I know you can modify a Niki transmission to run 5 speed I've seen the results - a Niki that does 110Km down the freeway instead of 85Km ( max speed ).

[kmead]

There are some things you can do.

Modify the 903 to @ a 982 using stroker crank and bore it for larger pistons. This is the route that Abarth went with the OT1000.

You can acquire a Autobianchi A112 Abarth 1050cc engine, replace the cam with an 850 performance cam (the 850 is a reverse rotation engine trans combo so you have to make this change).

You could go the twin cam Fiat route using Abarth mountings or PBS mountings along with reverse rotation cams. There are quite a few of these around. Abarth made many coupes to this specification. If you want to see an excellent example of one contact Merkel Weiss of the Rear Engine Fiat Club, his 68 is a beauty.

Some have completely butchered an 850 with VW Beetle engines and transmissions.

Transaxles are another matter. There are not many alternatives without lots of money or lots of money and major modifications the the 850. (VW/Audi transaxles can be installed with CV jointed axles and other mods to the body to make room.) Abarth made several different 5 speed transaxles but they are very rare and extremely expensive, the last one I saw for sale was over 10k.

There is a mid engine 850 Spider with a Rotary and a Hewland Box (I think) that was on Ebay not long ago and is owned by a person on this forum.

To learn more about what can be done get a copy of Fiat and Abarth Tricks by Greg Schmidt. Its hard to come by but it good reading.

There aren't a lot of good alternatives. You tend to have to live with what the character of the car is. Its a slow car that is fun to drive fast.