INTRODUCTION
In the beginning of 1978 Fiat South Africa decided to enter motor
racing for Standard Production Cars.
The series was called Group One racing for standard production cars
with very limited modifications. At that stage the series was
dominated by the Mazda Capella Rotaries with the odd win also from
the 3L Ford XR6 Cortina and 2L Alfa GTV’s.
Gigi Fincati, who was employed at Fiat South Africa Local Motorsport
department, was given the task of developing a racing car to compete
in Group One Racing and so the Fiat 131 Racing was born.
Gigi went to Italy and sourced around in the Abarth spare’s buckets.
At that specific stage spares from the Fiat 124 Spider Abarth’s were
still available. He came back with enough spares to complete 16
cars. The SA rules stipulated that 100 cars were to be produced to
qualify for Group One Racing. An order was placed with Italy for the
remainder of the extra spares but the cargo ship with all the spares
sank at the coast of Kenia and that is the reason why only 16 of
these cars were ever produced.
Three cars campaigned in 1978 and were driven by Pop Diedericks,
Tony Viana and Brian von Hage. They won just about all the races
that
they entered that year. Because of the homologation rules that
stipulated that a 100 cars had to be produced, they were barred from
racing at the end of 1978.
Group
1 racing flourished in South Africa in the late seventies. Fiat made
news in '78 when its 131 Racing homologation special thrashed the
standard production Group 1 opposition. The until-then invincible
Mazda RS - another homologation special - was so thoroughly trounced
that many eyebrows were raised. 
So
convincing was the Fiat's dominance that within a few months it was
excluded on a technicality - the prescribed 100 models for
homologation purposes were deemed not to have been produced in the
required time frame...
familiar
Fiat 131 Mirafiori two door sedan, but with wholesale revision of
the features which made it go, made it handle and made it stop,
principally by Abarth, Italy’s maestro for the quick car. Fiat
wanted to build a car for the race track, they also wanted to give
the enthusiast something to rave about. Many stories were told of
potential customers nearly comes to blows on showroom floors, each
vying to buy the only 131 Racing available on the floor. At the
time all Fiat 131 models available is SA were fitted with either the
1600 pushrod or 1600 D.O.H.C. engines. It was decided to fit Fiat’s
legendary Aurelio Lampredi – designed 2 litre DOHC engine. High
compression pistons with a compression ratio of 10.2 were fitted.
Fuel supply was via twin 40mm Weber IDF carburetors mounted on a
special inlet manifold. Then two road/race Abarth 068 cams were
fitted with a top mount distributor. On the opposite side a special
and intricate full banana branch exhaust looked after the extraction
department. 
marks
on the tar. Changing from first to second indulges a squeal of
burning tyres. Due to wheel spin 80 km/h comes up fractional late
at 5,7 seconds with 100km/h coming up in 8,5 seconds. The one
kilometer sprint was done in 29,8 seconds!
To
quote a motoring magazine who tested the car at the time ”with its
big radials, limited slip diff, close ratio five speed gearbox
(although standard 131) and abundance of power, it rewrote the test
performance record book – particularly as far as four cylinder
production models go!” Maximum speed is approximately 200 km/h.
Even at maximum speed the 131 racing is as steady as a rock with
only a slight window vibration and the air intake roar of the two
Webers as testimony to the extreme speed. The tappets are of course
quite audible but so it has to be for a speed machine.
