Four months after the introduction of the FIAT Ritmo / Strada 105TC, in May 1981, FIAT upped it’s hot hatch stakes with the left hand drive only Ritmo Abarth 125 TC powered by a 125hp two litre twin cam 8 valve motor with a single carburetor that could reach 62 mph in 8.7 seconds and had a top speed of 120mph.

A second generation Ritmo / Strada was introduced in October 1982 which featured a considerably reworked nose featuring twinned head lights, and the following year a Ritmo / Strada Abarth 130 TC was introduced featuring twin carburetors, when all the hot hatch competitors were using fuel injection, which boosted the power to 130hp and the performance 0-62mph down to 7.8 seconds and top speed to 121mph making the car briefly the hottest hatchback until the arrival of the 137hp 16 valve Golf GTI in 1986.

Today’s featured Abarth 130TC is seen in the paddock at Brands Hatch in September 1985 prior to being raced by Performance Car editor Jesse Crosse in a Uniroyal Production saloon car race.

Earlier in the season the car was raced by Jesse, fellow scribe Jeremy Walton and rally driver Simon, brother of actor Rupert, Everett in the Willhire 24 hour race, it broke two gearboxes when qualifying second in class 15th overall and only made it to the start after the second gearbox change was completed with minuets to spare.

The unfortunate Jesse was an early visitor to the pits for repairs to a broken gear lever and the car retired before the 12 hour mark with a broken half shaft while Simon was at the wheel.

Thanks for joining me on this “Portello Caldo Numero Uno” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the Trenberth Vincent.