Bravo Drivers!!!

gorgouspink

Hey peeps,

Was just wondering how may of you uys and gals drive a Fiat Bravo or Brava?!

Thank you

MWAH

Borzoi

gorgouspink wrote:

Hey peeps,

Was just wondering how may of you uys and gals drive a Fiat Bravo or Brava?!

Thank you

MWAH

Moving out of FOR SALE and over to MOTORS

Interceptor

I have had one of each but currently have a Tipo

Have a look here

I think I have a Bravo Abarth rear spoiler somewhere....

'c

gorgouspink

oh come on people someone must drive a modified Fiat Bravo/a

ambro25

Had a 1.6SX Brava. t'was much enjoyable drive, for a lardass hatchback, but sh1test reliability I've ever experienced. Would never dream of modding it - it's an economy family car for chrissake!

dahamsta

Didn't these things come pre-modded for wahs with no imagination? I seem to remember a rake of a plastic-padded monstrosities coming out of Lee Garage in Cork when these were starting to tire (which wasn't long after they were released, truth be told).

adam

clairey

I have a friend who drives a modified bravo .. y??

bazz26

No havn't seen a modified Bravo but I have seen a modified Austin Montago once.. :eek:

gorgouspink

clairey wrote:

I have a friend who drives a modified bravo .. y??

Cool where abouts are you's??

egan007

Just go to Blanchardstown and you will see about 3 modded bravos driving around.

I have had 2 bravos

dahamsta

gorgouspink wrote:

Cool where abouts are you's??

In a mental hospital, one would imagine. (The word is "you" by the way.)

egan007 wrote:

I have had 2 bravos

http://snipurl.com/cg7t

Interceptor

dahamsta wrote:

In a mental hospital, one would imagine. (The word is "you" by the way.)

http://snipurl.com/cg7t

Oh adam, hop back into your diesel Focus with your boyfriend and stop being such a snoberator. People choose to drive Fiats and Saxos - get over it.

'c

dahamsta

"With your boyfriend"? Oh, the wit! Oscar Wilde would applaud were he alive.

God protect us from the Motornet and Maxed-ie muppets.

adam

Interceptor

The witty bit was the 'diesel Focus' reference.

There will always be muppets, learners and that guy who stopped in the fast lane of the M50 every morning to pick up his mate, but you can't engage in flame warfare for the fun of it. Oscar Wilde would have driven a Micra with lots of parking dings and a 'Raging woofter on Board' sign in the rear window.

'c

clairey

gorgouspink wrote:

Cool where abouts are you's??

In dublin

clairey

dahamsta wrote:

In a mental hospital, one would imagine. (The word is "you" by the way.)


http://snipurl.com/cg7t

I wonder are all your 9,388 posts as boring and useless as that... :rolleyes:

dahamsta

Interceptor wrote:

The witty bit was the 'diesel Focus' reference.

Was it? You'd never guess.

There was I thinking my Ignore List was getting packed, and now I have to add a half dozen spastics from Motornet too...

clairey wrote:

I wonder are all your 9,388 posts as boring and useless as that... :rolleyes:

...and a dozen adolescent morons from maxed-ie.

adam

clairey

hahaha you really are sad.....

Anyways back to the topic!!!

gorgouspink

I drive a Silver Bravo she is a dream i was just wondering if anyone was going to the Italiafest this year thats all

528i

dahamsta wrote:

There was I thinking my Ignore List was getting packed, and now I have to add a half dozen spastics from Motornet too...

:eek:

mike65

Adam! Down boy, sit!!

Mike.

dahamsta

I've been very naughty lately alright Mike, sowwy. It's the influx of these <adam waves around> people coming in and ruining what was a perfectly good forum; the only solace in a world of maxed-out muppets and fuddy-duddy fools. Pedants, trolls, tits and morons the lot of 'em. Sad to see it go this way.

I'll go and rant elsewhere for a while.

adam

mike65

Sadly my innate sense of fair play means I really can't ban those who merely drive cruddy cars and ask silly questions...tempting tho! :

Mike.

dahamsta

You've got to learn to abuse that authority Mike! Sure where would Foot.ie be today if I hadn't banned people for disagreeing with me, correcting me, or just plain annoying me?

adam /your friendly authoritarian dictator

egan007

dahamsta wrote:

http://snipurl.com/cg7t

Excuse me for missing your point - what is it?

RicardoSmith

Its the Clarkson school of motoring. Sneer at anything you consider "beneath" you. Maybe hes having a bad day or something.

Bravo's are what they are. A budget hatchback. A mate has one for years hes had no trouble with it, and has a solid rather than sporty handling. Compare that to another mate who has a Mark IV golf. No end of problems, even had an engine swap and loads of lock and electrical porblems. The Golf has handling thats neither solid nor sporting. Rolls more than a ferry. Have to take sea legs before getting a lift in one. An Astra with the lotus suspension is better than either IMO.

IrishRover

Interceptor wrote:

Oscar Wilde would have driven a Micra with lots of parking dings and a 'Raging woofter on Board' sign in the rear window.

Sorry I just had to post. I totally PMSL at that!

Adam, I guess when you get to a certain age you realise there are certain things you just can't change and you either let them stress you out all the time or else you learn to accept these things and try to take them in good humour. Not that I've quite learnt yet mind you.

gorgouspink wrote:

I drive a Silver Bravo she is a dream i was just wondering if anyone was going to the Italiafest this year thats all

You could have put that in your first post.

Do you know the Fiat Ritmo (aka Strada)? I'm curious to know what people who like Puntos or Bravos/Bravas would think of it today.

Here's a pic I took of the "GTi" version of the Ritmo - the Abarth.

Interceptor

Hey there IrishRover - you've been absent/lurking for a while. Thanks for posting a pic of one of Fiats more nutty creations, I had a memorable spin in one years ago and it took days for my eyeballs to realign. Sadly the 130TC was rare in Ireland but we had plenty of the 105 version and apart from bady panels which were made from an alloy of sugar and butter they were a brilliant car.

The bulk of the Bravo and the engine choice means they don't handle or drive like their predecessors but they are a good place to start if you want a nice looking hot hatch. I'll be watching for a cheap Stilo 2.3 Abarth in a year or two - but I have no taste.

'c

PS I have a '93 800 Vitesse for cheap if you know anyone looking....

egan007

RicardoSmith wrote:

Its the Clarkson school of motoring. Sneer at anything you consider "beneath" you. Maybe hes having a bad day or something.

Bravo's are what they are. A budget hatchback. A mate has one for years hes had no trouble with it, and has a solid rather than sporty handling. Compare that to another mate who has a Mark IV golf. No end of problems, even had an engine swap and loads of lock and electrical porblems. The Golf has handling thats neither solid nor sporting. Rolls more than a ferry. Have to take sea legs before getting a lift in one. An Astra with the lotus suspension is better than either IMO.

Actually come to think of it dahamsta was porbably just having his period - i can understand DA bitch now

gorgouspink

i hope when u say DA bitch u werent talking about me

LegacyUser

Ah feck, I thought this thread was praising motorists

Interceptor

Buckfast wrote:

Ah feck, I thought this thread was praising motorists

When did that ever happen in this country?

Does anyone remember the French police campaign to award fuel vouchers to motorists who were seen driving exceptionally well? In the early eighties the French Government brought in this scheme but the police were unable to identify any suitable motorists and ended up giving the vouchers to anyone not breaking the law... The scheme fizzled out with little success.

'c

CJhaughey

IrishRover wrote:

S
Do you know the Fiat Ritmo (aka Strada)? I'm curious to know what people who like Puntos or Bravos/Bravas would think of it today.
Here's a pic I took of the "GTi" version of the Ritmo - the Abarth.

They were nice and punchy in their day, and probably still fast compared to todays "Lardabeests" but the major fault they had which explains their rarity is that they would rust if you put salt on your chips inside them.
They must be made of poor quality mild steel with absolutely no rust proofing at all.
apart from that, a lovely automobile

Gatster

Great cars the 130 Abarth, they were even cheap insurance in the UK in the very early 90's. I wanted to buy one, and found a good one but as as a 17 year old living at home my Dad wouldn't let me as he (quite rightly) thought I would end up spending a fortune on it...

For one of the few proper Fiats, see here - there is one in Dublin somewhere, in black.

IrishRover

Hi Interceptor, sorry for taking so long to get back to this.

I never had a go in an Abarth, but I remember seeing one or two on the autostrada in Italy a few years ago now. We used to have a Ritmo Targa 75 in the same colour back around '81. It looked really good, and actually it never suffered from rust. I do know that most of these cars were stored in a field in Rosslare for months on end before being sold so that didn't give them the best start in life as far as the bodywork went. It was a really smart looking car though and I have fond memories of it. It had the typical "pudding bowl" gearstick too that all the Fiats of the time seemed to have!

That's a bit of a fly looking 131 there alright too. It looks like a bodykit, but that's how it looked as standard, isn't it? I used to call all of them the Mirafiori but I'm not sure now if that name referred to all the 131 models. One thing I didn't know until recently was that the 131 was called the Brava in the states! So that puts a new slant on the current day Brava for me.

It seems like only the other day though that the old Mirafiori was a common sight on Irish roads. They used to have a reputation for spontaneously combusting I remember! The Croma I don't think was really anywhere near as succesful here as the Mirafiori was. I suppose Fiat's bad reputation for reliability meant that anyone in the market for a larger saloon like that felt that they should spend their money on a better badge. I used to really admire the Croma's sister car though, the Lancia Thema. I really wanted one of those. Actually, I may go looking for one some day...

HashSlinging

I have the best pic of a modded tipo at home i'll upload it later.