Re: Punto HGT's
Due to lockdown Practical Performance Car magazine has asked for home updates as getting about, writing and photoing so in case it doesn't get published...
I joked that having given up alcohol for Lent I ended up with three Fiat Punto HGT's but the truth is, it goes a bit further back than that.
"Twas a few weeks before Christmas and for some daft reason I was optimistic about the 2020 track day season".
I was looking for an MX5 (to drop a 13B engine in) or later model MR2 being Winter you wouldn't normally have the Vitamin D tax but due to it being one of the mildest Winter's ever prices weren't dropping as much as usual. After four bottles of Thatchers Cider I noticed a yellow Fiat Punto HGT for sale at £200 on everyone's favorite auction site. I thought I would bid just to get the ball rolling as the wheels were worth more than starting price and valued the whole car at around £500.
A few days later I was notified I had won the car. Thanks to my mate Tom he did the leg work to Preston and back to recover the car for £300
For my sins I was driving a VW Beetle (Golf in a frock) at the time and just sitting in another Punto HGT (I've owned a few before) was enough for me to start looking for one for the road. First off though I wanted to make the yellow HGT into a van. This is something I have always wanted to do. In the past whenever you see "This is what >insert manufacturer here< should have made" it was generally terrible. Ye Olde Max Power daze it would be something with more filler than the complete back catalog of Limp Bizkit, weighed down with so many speakers the tyres would rub and an undeclared engine swap for "Cheep insurwans innit". I digress this time I wanted to make a Punto HGT-Van. I used to have a Fiesta XRV and small vans are basically cool. A cheap (because it was completely knackered) Punto van turned up on an anti-social media market place and the plan was hatched. Stripped the donor van, painted the rear quarters, added a stripe and chevron. Ta-daaa! Punto HGT Van. Now I have to replace the gearbox and basically fabricate and weld in a new floor.
In the mean time I found a Punto HGT rally car near Glasgow but due to my cider fueled frolics I needed to save a couple of weeks to get it. I sent a message to the seller to see if they could hold it for me but they were going to relist it in the New Year. The next day a near perfect low mileage, low owner, blue HGT was listed. I bought the car, got the train and drove her home.
The Beetle was advertised and sold the next day. The blue HGT was a couple of little jobs shy of being a show car. So as well as the track day season I was contemplating standing in a field getting sunburned/rained on with a load of other people with nice looking cars. Maybe not.
Track day season was weeks away. The blue car is too nice and original to thrash around a circuit I did that with my green HGT.
I didn't want to take my standard HGT and the yellow car needed too much welding to get done in time. Luckily the HGT rally car was relisted so I made an offer asked Tom to collect the car again.
The old girl needed "E" marked tyres, a catalytic converter and some other bits and bobs for the MOT. Tyres thanks to Elite Motorsport for a set of scrubbed Michelin Pilotsport 3's from a Ginetta Jnr race car. The van project
donated its cat' to replace the pigeon crap welded de-cat' thing. A week before the first Charity track day at Blyton she passed, but the Sceneocide oval back box was a tad too loud. My Uno project
donated the 595 Abarth back box. The tailpipes fill the gaps in the bumper almost perfectly. It's as if Fiat wanted a five year old back box to fit a twenty year old car. As well as being a good fit according to the decibelometer app' on my phone the volume was reduced from a potential black flag inciting racket to a squirrel fart.
So my car was ready, I was ready, but I was called into the office two days before we were due to hit the track and told I would be out of work until the Covid19 situation is resolved. Not knowing when I was going to be earning money again I could not afford to spend £100 on petrol driving to the track, round about ten dozen times and back. The nature of the event and testimony of the character of my friends. Several offered a Jerry can of fuel for me to use. A humbling gesture but I wouldn't want to impose.
I did drive to work the next day to let everyone else know it had been canceled. What's the point of having a road legal rally car if you don't take the car out to keep the brakes clean and so on periodically?
Pre-Covid19 plans.
Finish the yellow van and use as my daily driver. Do the little jobs to the blue car so she's to a show standard and keep the old girl standard. The rally car however has got me thinking. The Punto HGT has a hybrid engine. Alfa 1747cc Twinspark block with a Fiat/Lancia derived cylinder head. None of this pretend to be saving the planet hybrid nonsense a proper hybrid. The 130hp the car comes with as standard is okay but...
Plan a/ Apparently the turbo exhaust manifold from the 1.9 JTD fits or making an after market Coupe' 16V turbo manifold fit is a day and bit welding and plumbing. Sadly this falls on its face due to the unique self healing ECU that resets back to standard when you try to remap or piggyback it. Stand alone ECU is an option but fitting a turbo to a standard compression engine would be futile or unreliable. By the time I've found forged low compression pistons to run more than 5psi boost it would cost more than finding a turbo engine to swap.
Plan b/ Find a Fiat Coupe' 16V turbo and do the swap. Both Tipo 2 platforms (so should be easier to do than the Mk1 176 Punto conversions I have seen). A few 20V turbo conversions have been done but I would prefer the 16V due to ease of fitment and no compromising the turning circle. Also the 20V is a lot of weight over the nose of a short wheel base. Made worse when you consider my rally has been completely stripped out for the cage. This idea falls on its arse as finding a 16V turbo Fiat Coupe' is as much of a faff as finding tuning parts and accessories. All of a sudden one of the best engines ever to don a Fiat badge is obsolete.
Plan c/ With the Fiat Alfa lineage I could raid the parts bin for something up to date. The 1750tbi as found in the 4C and Giulietta is a pretty safe bet. Based roughly on the Fiat SuperFIRE t-jet engine 235bhp standard and companies are getting 300+bhp out of them reliably (most offer 280bhp with standard parts and remap).
So I was looking into plan c. Sadly the Giulietta is well beyond budget even if I were to find one that needed the M32 gearbox bearing rebuild (as most do). The 159 had the 1742cc TBi engine as well but only made 200bhp so it wasn't as quick as the 3.2 V6. I was pretty sure the 159 TBi would be would be a remap away from the 235bhp the Giulietta had. A quick check on a few websites confirmed this. 235bhp in a car that was supposed to have 130bhp standard would be enough to start and going from 1747cc to 1742cc shouldn't set alarm bells off in Swansea. One of the tuning companies I looked into was using a manual 159 TBi as a test mule for 4C and Giulietta parts. This car was collision damaged, unable to be put back on the road and once development was finished surplus. I was about to ask if they were willing to sell as a complete donor when Covid19 hit the proverbial fan.
Post Covid19 plans? Scuppered.
I think all of us will just have to wait and see.
...but apart from what I had in mind you all knew that already. :devil:
I can't afford to spend £60-100 on fuel, food and stuff when that money could be all that's keeping my head up in the next few weeks. 
