Isabella - The 6 Million Dollar possessed FIat

[texanbrit]

I had a pretty decent build thread going on the FT forum. Going to try to recreate it here in a more abridged fashion I guess.

So using the BrokenFiat time machine let me take you back to February 2014.......<wobbly screen effects>

After a single test drive of an 2013 Abarth I knew I had to have one. Unfortunately the ear to ear grin didn't help with aggressive price negotiation.

I did get an ex-demo Abarth 500c. The owner of the dealership had been driving it so it had a few extra miles on it, but it came with the full warranty. It also came with some aggressive tint and a set of Neu-f springs and some nice vinyl stripes. The price was good too and I was a very happy boy.

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I'd been out of the car community since moving to the US in 1999, so hadn't really planned to modify it. Then chatting with the dealer he mentioned that he had a Magnetti Marelli piggyback tuner for some extra power if I wanted it. "It was made by Fiat" so they wouldn't invalidate my warranty so I did that.

The mods began......

[MadFiat]

So about that warranty ...

[texanbrit]

Warranty Schmarranty.

So skip forward a little bit to June 2014: I stumbled across a video on Youtube of the RRM at Jay Leno's garage. That got me very excited and I called Mr Talleni to see where to get started. That conversation didn't go terribly well; it didn't feel like he could understand the handling changes that I wanted. I was clearly just driving the car wrong. I also didn't want a new piggyback or intake, I wanted the car to feel less squirrely under heavy braking and for it to quit tram-lining on the freeway.

Here's the Youtube link for those feeling nostalgic: https://youtu.be/tJbQ-MDVDuA

Undeterred I hit Google, and found 500Madness. Yay!!! After speaking to Carlos we decided that the Neu-F front anti-roll bar would help the car feel more stable under braking. I also added a Shraeder rear seat delete and a Platypus license plate holder (which to this day I have never installed). Then while waiting I bought a SILA short ram intake and a PTP turbo blanket.

Obviously, the front bar didn't have the desired effect, the rear seat delete was really good but now the car was extra bouncy in the rear.

The SILA intake did give the car a little extra kick and sounded nice. So what if it needed to be tightened down every couple of weeks. Also it was red when I really wanted a black one, but who sees the intake anyway.

At this time I started being pretty active on the 500madness forum.

[texanbrit]

It's funny going back through my records and seeing how we got to this point.

In October of 2014 I ordered a PTP turbo blanket and the Cravenspeed shortshift kit from 500madness. I installed the turbo blanket myself, but got nervous about the installing the shifter. Had this fear that I was going to mess it up and not be able to drive anywhere to get it fixed. That mod got put aside for a little while.

I got myself some new tires as well, a nice set of Falken Azenis rt615k+. The tires cured a lot of instablity I felt in the car, wish I had known that sooner. Things were still a bit bouncy though, but I didn't care because I was having fun.

In November a new company showed up AbarthOnly.com. They were offering the GFB DV+ at a discount price, which all the cool kids were installing, so I ordered one and after 2 months it showed up. The owner gave me a $25 credit toward my next purchase to apologize for the delay. I still have that today if anybody wants it.

Over the 2014 holidays I found a local company who said they would help me with that pesky shifter install, I think this really is the true end to my warranty period

[doverosx]

Or... call up Fat Cat Motorsports, spend the money once and get exactly what you want.

[operamatt]

enjoyable read

[texanbrit]

So it was a cold, dark night in January 2015 that I first met Bryan from NGEN Customs & Performance. It's amazing to me that I went almost a whole year before realizing that everything I had bought from 500Madness I could have purchased from a company just a few miles away from me.

Like all good stories that night also contained foreshadowing of the future to come.

I think the first words out of Bryan's mouth were "Hi, I have a used Neu-F torsion bar that would help you. I can let you have it at a great price". Okay, that's probably not true but it was probably the second thing he said.

This was also followed by a discussion of the GFB DV+ and the now infamous, "while we're there" which meant we added a Forge BOV as well.

There was also the first clues that the car was possessed by an evil spirit. The stock shifter did not want to come out of the car. We tried for hours using our combined strength, hammers, screwdrivers and my entire vocabulary of cuss words. Bryan eventually won, I think he used holy water, and the all the work got done.

Cravenspeed Short Shifter

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Like all good crack dealers Bryan charged me a very minimal amount for all the work. The changes were also all very positive to the car.

[operamatt]

keep the stories coming

[NGEN]

keep the stories coming

He has a long way to go... lol

[texanbrit]

So also around the same time I found the blue forum and I discovered group buys.....I like the idea of group buys.

First there was the group buy for the Scara73 Assetto Corsa grill.
Then ATM ran a group buy for their FMIC
Then I bought an ATM Fenderwell intake in a group buy.
Then there was a group buy for a VEI boost gauge with the ATM bezel.

Then I realized the problem with group buys, well more specifically the problem with me, I hate waiting. It was clear that the ATM stuff would take a little while, but it looked like the grill would be fairly quick, even though it came from Europe via Canada. While waiting I started to see these horror stories of the grills arriving bent out of shape, folded in half and also the horror stories of trying to install them. My grill arrived in February in perfect condition, but I could very quickly see the problem with the install. Firstly the grill arrives completely flat, and the front of the car requires a nice graduated bend to make it look right. The major issue though was the mounting points line up with nothing on the front of the car. I fought with this for a weekend, and invented several new cuss words, before admitting defeat. If I'd persisted any longer my grill would have ended up folded in half as well.

I talked to Bryan about the install and he agreed to take a look at it and see if he could make it work. Somehow I also bought:
- MPX Throttle Body
- Cravenspeed Throttle Body Spacer
- and a J&J Racing Short Throw Shift Adapter

I guess those were all "close to the grill", so "while we are there".

Anyway. Bryan managed to get the grill on and it has stayed on for 3 1/2 years now!!! I'm not really sure how, I never asked. I suspect ritual sacrifice was required. He also plastidipped with black behind it which I think helps give it a cleaner look.

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Lots of folks had issues with the J&J shift adapter, fortunately it never caused me any grief. Combined with the Cravenspeed short-shift it made the motion extremely short, and also pretty heavy. My wife needed both hands to make the shift, which didn't bother me since it stopped her borrowing my car.

We're now up to February 2015.

It's probably worth mentioning that this is a completely true story; only the facts have been altered to protect the innocent.