UKDRN

Anything Nostalgia Related.

Moderators: timetravel, ukdrn

 #2883  by ukdrn
 
I was wondering if anyone has any idea why the Fiat Topolino body came to be used so much in Drag Racing?
The body has always been popular and still looks good today on our NFAA cars.
Below is some information gathered from the forum and websites about some of the cars we have seen in the UK.
I thought it would be good to try and get a history of cars that used the body here.
Was the Hillbillies car the first?
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Picture:Nick Pettitt
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Picture:Bill Taylor (Trackbytes)
The Hillbillies car then became Earslitenloudenboomer.
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Picture:Alan Currans

Alan tells us that the car then became The Ant Hill Mob owned by Pete Lane and Ray Tucker.
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Picture:Alan Currans
What happend to this car next? And what about the rest?

 #2889  by TimeMachine
 
I guess one answer would be that when altereds really were just altered street cars the Fiat 500A was a cheap, plentiful and light car. Just how many of them made it to America I am not sure though (trivia: 'Il Topolino' is Italian for 'little mouse' or 'Mickey Mouse', depending on who you listen to. They may of course both be right.)

I had a quick browse of the internet for more information, and all I managed to turn up was an AA/FA style street rod on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1937-FIA ... dZViewItem

 #2892  by Badger
 
Is there a connection between the Ant Hill Mob car pictured .. and the team of the same name run by Smax and co from the late seventies?
Keith Pearson if I remember rightly ran a yellow topo around 80 under the Ant Hill Mob team banner.

 #2893  by ukdrn
 
Badger wrote:Is there a connection between the Ant Hill Mob car pictured .. and the team of the same name run by Smax and co from the late seventies?
Keith Pearson if I remember rightly ran a yellow topo around 80 under the Ant Hill Mob team banner.
I don't know about Smax Darren,maybe someone will help us with that one.
Looking through The Acceleration Archive ,Alan has way more Topo bodied cars on it than I thought there would be.

 #2896  by ukdrn
 
TimeMachine wrote:
I had a quick browse of the internet for more information, and all I managed to turn up was an AA/FA style street rod on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1937-FIA ... dZViewItem
I couldn't find that much on the net either TM.

 #2902  by jaytee
 
I think Ian Garbutt ran the first Topo in the UK this shot from 68,the hillbillies may have ran the first glass bodied car
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 #2904  by timetravel
 
jaytee wrote:I think Ian Garbutt ran the first Topo in the UK this shot from 68,the hillbillies may have ran the first glass bodied car
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Yes Ian Garbutt did run the first Topo in the UK although the pic you've shown was his second one. The pic below shows his first at a Manchester show in 1966 and a description of it from the 1967 Season Opener report. You're also correct saying the Hillbillies was the first glass Topo. They ran a steel one in 1970 with 283 Chevy power and their Rat powered 1971 car was the first Pat Cuss body made I think from their 1970 body Image Image

 #2906  by jaytee
 
Nick didn't you do a feature on Ian Garbutt in one of your Time Travel videos with footage from inside the car or am I cracking up

 #2907  by timetravel
 
jaytee wrote:Nick didn't you do a feature on Ian Garbutt in one of your Time Travel videos with footage from inside the car or am I cracking up
No you're not cracking up John it was on Time Travel 3 when Ron Fisher straped his cine camera to the roll cage of High Fever at Woodvale 1969 for some in car action and then I did a feature on the car on Time Travel 9 tracing the history of the Topolino from when Ian Garbutt had it to when I had the body fitted to my slingshot in 1997......... Image

 #2908  by tony morris
 
Here is one you all must remember, Dave Gibbons in his Rough Diamond Fiat.

http://www.dragracinghistory.de
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http://www.roughdiamondracing.com/


This picture was taken at Mainz Finthen in 1980, dave sold the car shortly after this to a guy up North. Then the car was never seen again, any idear?

The next two pictures is of Ratfink, the Fiat Topolino with Jaguar power. My dad purchased this car from a guy in Birmingham around the end of 1975, which is when these were taken at his workshop in West Bromwich.

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Thats my dad in the drivers seat, he never drove the car at the track. He ended up takening the body off and started fitting a Falcon kitcar body on it after cutting it down which never was completed.

In 1976 we moved to Germany and the car stood for a year, we then return in the summer of 77 to sell the car to Tony Froom, with the Fiat body.

This was taken just before Tony pick it up.

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Roy Andrea Tony

I wonder if this car is still around and what happen to the Fiat Body?

Chunky Morris
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