or how I learned to live with 26hp, straight-cut gears and 4 drum brakes.
Some may remember my other thread from a couple of months back; I had this FIAT 126bis sitting in Italy waiting to be taken to Luxembourg where I would register it and use it during summer. The car was sitting partly disassembled but I had all the parts to do the job. My sister could source a rear bumper for me at a pic-a-part junker and I left the rims at a tyre shop so they could put new tyres on.
10 Days ago, I got my insurance and my license plates; so I booked a flight to Treviso; packed my bag with some wrenches and my soldering iron to address some issues I knew were bad.
Once there, I quickly put the car back together and could drive a bit in our yard where I found out that the brakes were bad; they just would not stop braking. It was the brake cylinders; they were all gone. Got the car towed to a garage where they could rebuild them. When I drove the car home I must have looked like this little guy here:
It's so different from anything I have ever driven until now.
Once home it was time to prepare for the long journey. I planned to cross the Alps on B roads as I feared the trucks on the motorway. This car has a top speed of 112kph but as soon as the road goes slightly uphill there is no way one can keep that speed. So my route for the 1st day was the following: Arba --> Cortina --> Innsbruck; 300kms roughly. During this part of the trip I had magnificent weather, little traffic and one smaller problem: I had to adjust the clutch cable as I forgot to tighten a nut when I put the car back together... In Innsbruck I could stay at a frineds home so accomodation was no problem. Would have stayed a bit longer there, but there were bad weather warnings for friday and going to an altitude of about 1200meters in a car without winter tyres would have been no fun...
Second day route was: Innsbruck --> Ulm --> Stuttgart --> Kaiserslautern --> Trier --> Luxembourg. One hour after driving off in Innsbruck I was slowly but steadily crawling up the 2 passes left before entering Deutschland. There I got really angry because the cars behind me just would not "be cool" and started tailgating so each time I downshifted from 3rd to 2nd they had to brake abruptly; and yet they did not overtake even when I would keep myself on the right side in order for them to pass me. Once on top of the Fernpass, I stopped to let the car cool down a bit and pened the engine cover. There I noticed that the oil dipstick had loosened himself a bit and some oil was thrown around... Filled up the missing oil, waited a bit and continued.
On the way down came my revenge: The car is terribly at ease in turns so that I actually had to slow down because of other cars "blocking" my way
.
The trip continued without complications or whatsoever, I stopped regularly to check the dipstick but it never gave me problems again. It started raining and I thought this could be a problem but fortunatley everything in the car is water-proof; the electrics as well as the window and door "grommets". I was in deepest Bayern when all of a sudden, approaching a roundabout I noticed, in front of a warehouse, a red 959. I took a closer look and realised I was driving along Ruf's headquarters...! I quickly grabbed my cam and shot some pics while driving. When I was in Stuttgart I decided to continue til Luxembourg as the car was going strong and I did not feel tired.
Unfortunately, 35 kms from Home after a longer Uphill section I had a bad, strong oily smell so I stopped ASAP only to discover the missing oil dipstick and of course the whole oil nicely distributed all around the engine bay... Fortunately, I was already in Luxembourg so I called my road assistance which promptly arrived despite being half past 2 in the morning; loaded the car on the truck and took me home. Yesterday I tried to fire it up; it starts but then has difficulties staying on; I will have a mechanic check it for me. I hope it is nothing too bad!
Now, the pics. The cam died on the 2nd day so I have very few pics of the second day, and most were taken by cellphone.
Plates and Insurance:
One of 3 cars I overtook on the whole trip:
Vajont Landslide: More infos . The whiteish part on the left is where the mountain came off and fell into the lake.
The dam:
A classic "Casa Cantoniera" along a B-Road in Italy; they are painted all the same red and were used as hotels a long time ago; nowadays they are used to store signals, salt and everything needed to keep the road in working order.
The 0.703 litre engine.
Uh-oh...!
No parking problem
A military cemetery. Big parts of WW1 were fought on the border between Italy and Austria.
Driving up to the Brennerpass:
Brenner (border between Italy and Austria):
On the way down:
Ruf:
Modified by Lupo TDI at 3:14 PM 10-19-2008
Some may remember my other thread from a couple of months back; I had this FIAT 126bis sitting in Italy waiting to be taken to Luxembourg where I would register it and use it during summer. The car was sitting partly disassembled but I had all the parts to do the job. My sister could source a rear bumper for me at a pic-a-part junker and I left the rims at a tyre shop so they could put new tyres on.
10 Days ago, I got my insurance and my license plates; so I booked a flight to Treviso; packed my bag with some wrenches and my soldering iron to address some issues I knew were bad.
Once there, I quickly put the car back together and could drive a bit in our yard where I found out that the brakes were bad; they just would not stop braking. It was the brake cylinders; they were all gone. Got the car towed to a garage where they could rebuild them. When I drove the car home I must have looked like this little guy here:
Once home it was time to prepare for the long journey. I planned to cross the Alps on B roads as I feared the trucks on the motorway. This car has a top speed of 112kph but as soon as the road goes slightly uphill there is no way one can keep that speed. So my route for the 1st day was the following: Arba --> Cortina --> Innsbruck; 300kms roughly. During this part of the trip I had magnificent weather, little traffic and one smaller problem: I had to adjust the clutch cable as I forgot to tighten a nut when I put the car back together... In Innsbruck I could stay at a frineds home so accomodation was no problem. Would have stayed a bit longer there, but there were bad weather warnings for friday and going to an altitude of about 1200meters in a car without winter tyres would have been no fun...
Second day route was: Innsbruck --> Ulm --> Stuttgart --> Kaiserslautern --> Trier --> Luxembourg. One hour after driving off in Innsbruck I was slowly but steadily crawling up the 2 passes left before entering Deutschland. There I got really angry because the cars behind me just would not "be cool" and started tailgating so each time I downshifted from 3rd to 2nd they had to brake abruptly; and yet they did not overtake even when I would keep myself on the right side in order for them to pass me. Once on top of the Fernpass, I stopped to let the car cool down a bit and pened the engine cover. There I noticed that the oil dipstick had loosened himself a bit and some oil was thrown around... Filled up the missing oil, waited a bit and continued.
On the way down came my revenge: The car is terribly at ease in turns so that I actually had to slow down because of other cars "blocking" my way
The trip continued without complications or whatsoever, I stopped regularly to check the dipstick but it never gave me problems again. It started raining and I thought this could be a problem but fortunatley everything in the car is water-proof; the electrics as well as the window and door "grommets". I was in deepest Bayern when all of a sudden, approaching a roundabout I noticed, in front of a warehouse, a red 959. I took a closer look and realised I was driving along Ruf's headquarters...! I quickly grabbed my cam and shot some pics while driving. When I was in Stuttgart I decided to continue til Luxembourg as the car was going strong and I did not feel tired.
Unfortunately, 35 kms from Home after a longer Uphill section I had a bad, strong oily smell so I stopped ASAP only to discover the missing oil dipstick and of course the whole oil nicely distributed all around the engine bay... Fortunately, I was already in Luxembourg so I called my road assistance which promptly arrived despite being half past 2 in the morning; loaded the car on the truck and took me home. Yesterday I tried to fire it up; it starts but then has difficulties staying on; I will have a mechanic check it for me. I hope it is nothing too bad!
Now, the pics. The cam died on the 2nd day so I have very few pics of the second day, and most were taken by cellphone.
Plates and Insurance:
One of 3 cars I overtook on the whole trip:
Vajont Landslide: More infos . The whiteish part on the left is where the mountain came off and fell into the lake.
The dam:
A classic "Casa Cantoniera" along a B-Road in Italy; they are painted all the same red and were used as hotels a long time ago; nowadays they are used to store signals, salt and everything needed to keep the road in working order.
The 0.703 litre engine.
Uh-oh...!
No parking problem
A military cemetery. Big parts of WW1 were fought on the border between Italy and Austria.
Driving up to the Brennerpass:
Brenner (border between Italy and Austria):
On the way down:
Ruf:
Modified by Lupo TDI at 3:14 PM 10-19-2008