1966 FIAT 500

THIS ONCE HUMBLE MICRO CAR HAS HAD EVERY EXTRA IMAGINABLE THROWN AT IT

THIS WAS a project I promised myself as a retirement present. I’m a panel-beater and spray-painter by trade, so it probably doesn’t look like much of a retirement! But it was something I wanted to do. I moved to Australia when I was just 23 and wanted to build something that reminded me of the Bambinos I remember from back in Italy.

It needed to be something special and I suppose there isn’t a whole lot of the original car left, other than the body shell.

Originally this was a 500F Bambino, though I’ve taken it out to 695cc with mostly Abarth parts, much of which you could buy as a kit. I also updated a lot of the ancillaries, such as the electric fuel pump and oil cooler kit.

I added a five-speed manual gearbox and it can do 130-135km/h, which is a lot more than standard.

I did the conversion from left to right-hand drive, making a new dash along the way. That was quite a lot of work as it’s now running full instrumentation in a custom-built cluster.

It’s topped off by a steering wheel by Sports Line, plus a set of front seats I imported from Italy.

The suspension has been done, too, with premium Assetto