Barchetta 595 - Fiat 126 based Kit Car. (Fiat 500 speedster).

[Marky]

Hi All! I'm new to the forum and have always been a fan of the 126. I had one for my very first car at 17 and loved it ever since! I have noticed a few posts from the past regarding the Barchetta 595. Appeared in the which kit? magazine in December 1993. As a few of you are aware, the original moulds were made by the DOVE company in Norfolk and enjoyed a limited run from December 1993 to 1995, then promptly disappeared. I understand these moulds changed hands several times over the years but were never used and always remained in the UK. After a very long time searching and chasing individuals from across the UK, I managed to track down these originals at the bubble car museum in Lincolnshire. The original moulds and car was never designed to have opening doors. These came about after someone purchased a body and modified it to have doors and then made a mould from that. They are not factory moulds but a facsimile of the original car and as such, suffered serious structural issues and required heavy reinforcement. I am also aware that bodies have been offered in Malta and around Europe that were also copies made from a body shipped to the relevant people. Everyone who purchased a copy version of the kit would have certainly had fitting issues with almost every aspect of the build and as such, these producers stopped offering the bodies in the wake of a long line of disgruntled European buyer/builders. Well. The good news is.... Not only was I able to track these original blue factory made moulds down.... I was also able to purchase them! I have owned these moulds for about a year and due to other commitments, I was unable to do anything with them at the time. I can tell you however, I have now produced a full kit from these very complex moulds (the first since 1995!), and will be offering people the opportunity to purchase the real thing. The bonnet and boot are so exact, the will fit the original fiat 500. The lights are directly from a fiat 500 and there are several companies on the net offering original lighting for £169. That includes front and rear lights, chrome surrounds and wiring loom. To build a car, all you would need is a cut down 126, the ability to reinforce the floor pan, fabricated roll over hoops and good attention to detail. The kit includes all panels. Shell, Floorpan (bonds directly to the 126 floorpan), bonnet, middle boot lid, rear engine cover/boot and fully moulded untrimed seats. Everything else will come directly from the fiat 126.  The donor car must be aged between 1976 to 1987. It will fit later vehicles with some modification. total vehicle weight would be around 470kg depending on extras a builder may add. an original vehicle can be found on you tube by searching 'barchetta 595'. I am more than happy to answer any questions by any interested parties. More information and my contact details can be found on my website www.595s.org

Just of note, I am also tinkering with the idea of a trip to Poland as a friend of mine tells me there are a glut of 126s out there and can be acquired cheaply. I would only be worth it to bring back several at once on an articulated vehicle transporter. It is possible to get 16 vehicles on one double deck articulated trailer with the vehicles driven on in line and side by side on both decks. Anyone interested in this, please contact me through my website.

Kind regards, to you all! Mark Hill.   

[Marky]

First body fresh out of the mould!

[poxxxy]

Wow, impressed! .

I'd love to come and check out the body, not far from Telford myself . Just down the A5.

[Pete126]

Good luck with the new venture Mark, my only concern would be the rigidity of the fiberglass body, once you cut the body off a 126 you loose the strength and rigidity of the chassis, is there a space frame molded into the fiberglass body to compensate for this? I looked on you website but can't find any quality images to evaluate the kit,   

[Marky]

Hi Pete. If you look at the images above, you can see the body shell is an upper and a lower tub. The two are bonded together to create a monocoque body shell. This is a very complex body to produce. The 126 floorpan would require strengthening plates in places and rigid sills welded in. I will post new, more detailed pictures on Friday as I am off to see the GRP company producing the kits for me. I will also post an image of a cut down floorpan that shows the sills welded in place. I did not do the work on the floorpan. It was done by someone who built a car back in the 90s but if gives the general gist of how its done. The floor of the new body, sits directly on top of the pan and fits like a glove. I do have images on my phone so I'll sign in on my phone and post the floorpan image now. It is basically a rolling chassis.  Marky.

[Marky]

Cut down and reinforced 126 floorpan.

[Marky]

I would just like to clarify something about the above image.... The 595 body you see to the right of the rolling floorpan, is NOT an original body. It was a copy taken from original body that was produced from my moulds. This was before I owned them. The copy bodies were ALL flawed and suffered serious stress cracks. As you can see from the body shell, it is only the UPPER shell and is far from a complete kit. The quality is also awful! The copied body dimensions were wrong and very slightly too big. This was caused by taking a mould from a mould. The original car was designed by Peter Stevens (he also designed the then new lotus elan in 1989 and also the Mclaren F1).  This was a complex body and very very expensive to develop. That is why the kits were so expensive back in 1993. Peter Stevens designed these as a toy for his well connected friends in the motorsport industry and 10 of the original cars belong to some very high up people in the motoring world. He was also a massive fan of the fiat 500. As you can imagine with a pedigree like that, these bodies are as good as they get. The company producing these bodies on my behalf also has a long history in motorsport and building vehicle bodies for a long list of clients. Its my intention to re launch the car and make sure its right the first time. I understand people will believe I or anyone else would always speak highly of their own product. I admit this could be true but I didn't make the original moulds. The Dove company did. I am not producing the bodies myself. A highly rated car body builder is. I am just going to make sure anyone purchasing a kit, gets the best available. Simple as that.

And again for the record.... The original car was NEVER designed to have doors. I have received 4 phone calls from people so far asking for a body with opening doors. The opening door version of the kit being sold back in the day was a modified copy of an original body and again, was incomplete. This lead to serious build issues and major workings for the chassis and required a spaceframe to support the upper body. ALL of those vehicles suffered stress cracks.

The companies in Holland, Malta and a couple of companies in the UK selling 'cool 500s' and any other incarnations of the vehicle were all flawed copies. Everyone who ever built one of these copy cars almost certainly had problems with the build.   

Those companies had a crazy notion they could allow someone like the dove company to hemorrhage 10s of thousands of pounds designing and developing the original car body and moulds, and could just nip in and make a cheeky little copy were misguided at best and foolish at worst. The companies were not even selling a full kit! They were all doomed to failure. The Dove Company stopped producing the kits due to its complex moulds and very high costs back in 1993 to 1995. A body from them in today's money was £5400! A body of that sort of money would have to be very very good. And it is!   

Before attempting to resurrect this car, I conducted considerable research into the build quailty and background of its makers. In my opinion, it is one of, if not the best body I have ever seen produced from a mould. Considering, the images you see above are exactly as it came out of the mould. No fettling has been done at all and has only been trimmed to remove excess GRP from over laying. It has not been buffed or dressed in any way. In my opinion, its as good as it gets. Marky.