The year 1999 has been significant for a number of enthusiasts here in Brisbane, for a group from the Fiat Car Club of Queensland pooled resources and helped to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Fiat Marque. This was achieved in a number of ways, but primarily through two major displays at the Brisbane International Motor Show and the Queensland Museum.
The Motor Show display was a first for the club for a number of years, as these events have become increasingly expensive to organise and set up. However, as 1999 was such a special year for Fiat it was decided to make the effort. The theme of the show was Art and the Motorcar, and the club's display was one of the few that took the trouble to continue that theme.
Four cars were on show, against a backdrop of spectacular illustrations depicting the artistic advertising of Fiat cars in the early part of the century. The cars were all rarities, being a 510S, 500F, 850 Sport Spider and Abarth X1/9 Prototipo replica. The cutaway 125 engine was also on display, and attracted considerable interest as usual. There was also a video running continuing the artistic theme, and depicting more of Fiat's attractive advertising from the past. To keep the revheads happy there was also a video compilation of the best car chases and stunts (by Fiats of course).
The major event was the exhibition at the Queensland Museum entitled, "Fiat, A Brilliant Century". This was a coup for all involved as it is the first time that an Australian Museum has held an exhibition dedicated to the motor car. The exhibition was well received and attracted favourable comments from all sides, notable visitors including the Italian Consuls for Queensland and Australia. Despite the lack of new Fiat vehicles for sale on the Australian market, the Fiat Car Club of Queensland continues to prosper and thanks to this dedicated band of enthusiasts keep the Fiat name alive in this country.
One of the highlights of our centenary celebrations has been our display at the Queensland Museum. Opening on 20th May and running until '7th June, the display featured nine vehicles, nearly six hundred scale models and a host of other paraphernalia associated with the history of Fiat and of Fiat in Queensland.
The official opening on 21st May was a gala event, with 96 members and other interested parties gathering for their first look at the display. The opening ceremonies were attended to by the Italian Consul, Antonio Allessandro, with other speeches by our MC Graeme Smith, club Vice-President Danny lmpellizzeri and the Director of the Queensland Museum Dr Peter Jell. In typical FCCQ fashion a delicious supper of antipasto was served along with copious quantities of Yarra Valley wines from de Bortoli - definitely good value and much appreciated by the club's resident wine soaks (no names need be mentioned).
Of course the big attraction of the display had to be the cars. They were chosen to give as broad a selection across the range as was possible (within the limits of nine vehicles) and to illustrate the diversity of Fiat product that has been available over the past century.
Representing
the veteran and vintage era were a 1913 Fiat Zero and a 1925 Fiat
509. These cars were displayed in front of a 4.8 X 2.4 metre mural
depicting Brisbane's Queen Street in the pre WWI years. The 1913
Fiat "Zero' Type 51A has been owned by Tony Le Messurier
and his family for over thirty years. it was restored thirty years
ago, and at that time was a regular competitor in vintage rallies.
It sat idle in storage for many years, but now in the hands of
custodian Geoff Bernhagen it is having a renewed life as a rally
car It was seen at the 1998 National Veteran Rally at Gympie,
and often goes for Sunday drives on club runs. Although this is
an older restoration it is a very good rally car. It has been
known to reach 75 kmh on the open highway, and steers and handles
very well. It is a very powerful car considering its 1913 vintage.
Fred Croucher rescued the 1925 Fiat Tipo 509 from its previous owner in 1974. It was in poor condition and was about to be taken to the local dump. Restoration was a long and sometimes tedious process, as parts were very difficult to locate. However, a trip to the Bendigo swap in the early eighties proved beneficial and progress was finally made. Much assistance and information was also gained by talking to other Fiat enthusiasts and Tipo 509 owners. By 1987 the car was completed in time to compete in the Swan Hill National Rally. It was fully registered and competed in many vintage events until 1998.
Always
the most popular Fiats in any display are of course "the
little ones". These great little cars were represented by
a 1936 500A 'Topolino", a 1970 Fiat 850 Special and a 1971
500L "Bambino'. A street cafe scene courtesy of local coffee
merchants Aromas provided the backdrop.
The 1936 Fiat 500 (Topolino or "Little Mouse') is one of 46,000 produced, and was originally registered in Malta. It had been owned from new by a pharmacist, Edgar Laferla, and was in daily use until 1962. He stored it until 1978, when he sold it to Tony Buttigieg for 250 Maltese Pounds. Tony, along with his wife and daughter emigrated to Australia in 1982 and brought the car with them. It has taken 20 years of restoration to get the car into its current condition. Many parts were unavailable and had to be specially made.
It has never been registered in Australia, and is only taken out for club displays and other special occasions. It was also used in the film "The Thorn Birds' for a Roman scene. This was filmed at Warner Brothers Studio on the Gold Coast. The rest of the time it keeps its sister car (a 1949 Fiat 500) company in the family garage. It is believed to be the oldest Fiat 500 of its kind in Australia.
The "Aromas Fiat Bambino" is a late model 500L and was originally purchased in Sydney over twenty years ago as a run around car for one of the original owners of Aromas. It is not difficult to see the similarity between a coffee bean and the Bambino! It has been extensively used by the company as a run-around car for deliveries - after all you can park it anywhere and it is cheap to run! The Bambino has also been used extensively for company promotions, one of which was the opening of their franchise store at Brisbane Airport where the Bambino was fitted with wings! It has also been used as a horse jump by the Doonan Equestrian Group.
Chris Bryant, now the sole owner of Aromas, has had many pats on the head whilst driving around town, as being a tall man, could see better through the sunroof than through the windscreen! The Aromas Bambino was last extensively worked on in 1994 when it received a new coat of gold paint and some major mechanical work. Unfortunately, the Bambino is now in temporary retirement as it requires some mechanical attention. But the legend is far from over, just hold on for time being.
The Fiat 850 Special was purchased at the Brisbane Motor Show in 1970 by Alf and Veronica Korn of Redcliffe. Three years later Alf was hospitalised and the car was only used for the occasional visit to Chermside and for shopping trips. Its use as a "shopping trolley" continued until late 1994, by which time it had only covered 19,600 miles. Peter Gardener was Secretary of the Fiat Car Club of Queensland when Veronica wrote seeking technical advice following a service at her local mechanical workshop. They kept in touch and when the car came on the market in January 1995, Peter and his wife Jocelyn purchased it. It has been driven sparingly since then, and was de-registered mid 1996. Peter and Jocelyn proudly display the car at Fiat Club events and annual shows such as Auto Moto ltalia at Southbank and the sports car display at the Maclean Bridge. To date it has still only covered 22,500 miles in its 29 year life.
Competition
cars have always been an important part of the Fiat fleet, and
these were appropriately represented by a Fiat 501 Boat-tailed
racer from 1926 and a Fiat 124 Abarth Rally. Agip Lubricants provided
paraphernalia to aid their display in front of another mural depicting
a forest and rally road. The Fiat 501C Boat Tail Racer was built
from a car originally sold to Mr William (Cappy) Woods by a Fortitude
Valley Fiat dealer in early 1926. Mr Woods had been a Captain
in the Australian Army in the First World War. Although most of
the Cappy Woods race cars are long gone and forgotten, his exploits
around Queensland race tracks are legendary as was his wrecking
yard at Mt Gravatt before it was resumed to make way for shopping
centres. The car was raced extensively until the early fifties,
and was also used on the road during this time. It stayed in the
Woods family until 1962 when it was sold to Fred Payne in Grafton.
Its history over the following years would take a book to record,
but suffice to say that it transferred ownership between many
well known vintage car exponents such as Graham Fitzgerald, Les
Dove, Ron Burns and, Charlie Purdue to name a few.
The 501 crisscrossed the QLD-NSW border several times during this period, until in 1986 it was eventually purchased by Bob Bate of Nanango and returned to its native Queensland. By this time it was quite dilapidated and had been stripped of many parts to feed other Fiat restoration projects. Bob then embarked on a three year restoration project to return the car to its former glory. Since completion the 501 has given him great pleasure and is a regular visitor to many shows and historic racing venues, including a couple of visits to the Lakeside Historic Race Meetings to run in the Grand Parade.
The Fiat 124 Abarth Rally displayed was originally sold in Italy. Its history during that time is unknown, but it obviously shows evidence of enthusiastic use. The car came to Australia in late 1985 through a Sydney specialist importer and was purchased by Paul McInally. He converted it to right hand drive in 1986 and it has been registered and in use since then. Its first outing was to a club lap dash at the Amberley dirt circuit, and Paul has used the car since then at every opportunity at club events, drag racing and club displays. He often drives it on long country work trips and it attracts attention wherever it goes. He has been pulled over by the police on many occasions, only to find that they just wanted to have a look and see if it was a genuine Abarth!
Finally,
the modern classics were ably represented by a 1971 Fiat 125 Special
and a 1970 Fiat Dino Spider. This area was decorated with our
custom made Stratconian columns and illuminated by the huge seventies
era Fiat sign courtesy of Italia Spares. Originally purchased
in Rome, the Fiat Dino Spider came to Australia with its first
owner in 1970. When he returned to Italy in 1972, he sold the
car to Vic Torrisi. It was converted to right hand drive by John
McLean Motors in 1973, and is still owned and regularly driven
by Vic.
On 15th September 1972 Mrs Rita Lanskey of Gin Gin purchased a Fiat 125 Special from Bundaberg Fiat dealer B.P. Tourist. She was aged fifty at that time, and bought the car for her own use. Rita's husband passed away in 1997 and she decided to sell her farm and make the move to a retirement village in Brisbane. The car was stored for a few months as she had serious reservations about tackling city traffic in her beloved Fiat at her grand age of seventy six. In February 1998 she made the decision to sell the car. Around this time Greg Wharton and his father Tony Wharton were looking at the possibility of buying a 125 to restore. Greg had put out feelers for a suitable car with a number of people, and in late February 1998 he had a call from James Robinson at Italia Spares to say that Rita's Fiat was for sale. It was bought on first inspection and the deal sealed with a whiskey on Rita's insistence.
Since then it has had some mechanical work done, but all cosmetics are original. Rita had preserved every item that came with the car. It still has the original owners and service manuals (all correctly filled out of course); the unused spare key complete with cardboard tag and dealer stock number signed by Mario from B.P. Tourist, the tag that hung on the clock with operating instructions in four languages and even the spare inserts for the radio dial giving station locations for all states. The spare tyre has only been used twice and is as new. Since 1998 the car has been displayed at many club events as well as the annual shows at Maclean Bridge and Auto Moto Italia at South Bank. It also had the honour of being the first ever Fiat to park in John Brigg's new Alfa Romeo showroom in Fortitude Valley! The car is a credit to Rita's dedication and has now just ticked over 87OOO miles. It drives and feels remarkably well, especially considering that the warranty ran out eight months before Greg was born in 1973.
While
the cars were the undoubted star attraction, the supporting cast
was pretty impressive as well. The display cabinets were stocked
to the brim with 585 scale models of Fiats, ranging from the huge
1:5 scale Turbina down to a tiny 1:160 scale 1500. Many of these
models were very rare and some of only a handful in this country.
These included the Turbina which is a factory promotional model
and the only one in Australia, the 1:8 scale Pocher Fiat 130HP
Grand Prix car, and the Protar 1:12 scale Fiat 806 and Mephistofele.
Other rarities included the large selection of Pocher 1:13 scale
promotional models and also promotional models of tractors and
the original 3 1/2HP model.
Accompanying these exhibits were large quantities of other Fiat paraphernalia including posters, calendars, advertising, books, brochures, keyrings, badges, pens, diaries and so on. There were also displays of photographs depicting Fiats and their owners at work and play in Queensland over the past century. One cabinet was dedicated to marine items, with a large scale model of the Fiat powered training vessel the South Passage, and photos of Ken Brown's Margaret C which is also Fiat powered. The cutaway Fiat 125 motor and gearbox was featured in another display, along with representative models of Ferrari and Lancia competition cars depicting Fiat's continuing participation in world motor sport.
Overall the museum display was a pretty impressive affair, and has had very positive comments from all who attended. It was a first for both the Cento Committee of the Fiat Car Club and for the Queensland Museum, as they had never had a display by a car club or of cars and associated paraphernalia to date. The museum staff and curators were very happy with the result and we are sure that we have set a high standard and a tough act to follow!
