This thread is probably going to be like one of those books/movies where you jump back and forth in time so much it makes your head spin a little.. That's ok, because for me at least ( and maybe for you all ) the car is cool and it's story is worth telling. It's got it all.. from languishing on its deathbed to winning races and maybe even a few Hollywood type moments. It also crosses multiple generations of our families. So without further ado let's get in the wayback machine ( no really, I used the internet way back machine ) set the year to 2004 and get this story started.
After a very successful entry in the 2004 Grassroots Motorsports Challenge there was much talk between Andrew Nelson and I about what car we would bring to the 2005 event. Many ideas where considered, but one stood out. A BMW 6 series that was posted on the message board for sale near us. After some conversation it was found that the car had been sold to none other than Quasi Mofo……. Yeah you read that right… Gotta love screen names!!
The day we had hoped to go and pick up the beemer, my son Aaron and I went junk yard shopping. While at a local yard Aaron came to me and said “Dad, I think I found your challenge car for next year” Keep in mind that my son was only 11 at the time, so I had some doubts, but I went to take a look.
I followed him through the yard, and as I turned the corner and saw the car for the first time I was not sure exactly what it was. The only badging on the whole car was the center of the horn button. Aaron had found a Fiat.
The Fiat was very rusty and was missing its engine. It did still have its factory hard top. It looked like a neat car, but more work
than it was worth. I called Andy to tell him about some Porsche 924s that we had found, but nothing that really excited either of
us. Then I mentioned the Fiat. Andy was Very interested!! Soon after that he had joined us at the yard to look the car over. While talking with the people at the junk yard we learned that the car was a 1964, but we still did not know the model. (Or as it turned out even the year)
Andy looked the car over. Measured the wheel base. Fantastic!!! Its over 90" (92.4" wheelbase to be exact) making it NHRA legal for an engine swap!! Did you ever notice the gleam in Andy's eyes when he thinks about a high horse small block in anything?
A deal was struck and the Fiat was loaded up and brought to my shop for some paint stripping and cleanup. Hard to believe a
car with 34,507 miles could be so rusty. Definitely not 134K miles.
If you want to skip ahead in the story, you can go 
Like butter...
