Have you ever been on a classic road trip of a lifetime?
One of our Figaro Shop technicians, Matt, has just returned from exactly that. He spent 21 days driving over 4,500 miles through 14 European countries with 7 friends. And the car they used to undertake this epic adventure? A classic Fiat 126… so not exactly spacious!
Matt’s love of his little Fiat, combined with his technical expertise, has allowed him to modify his car himself. This included conversion to right hand drive, a refurbished gearbox, new steering and a brake disc conversion. The brake disc conversion proved particularly essential when climbing to over 2,000m above sea level in the Alps, crossing from Switzerland to Italy…. but still involved a lot of second gear and a quick pit stop to let the cars cool down! His group of friends are all Fiat 126 owners and enthusiasts and have met via various Fiat car meets and groups – so they cut quite a stylish swathe moving in a convoy of 6 matching cars around the narrow European roads.
The trip was over a year in the planning and took them to Malta and back via France, Switzerland, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia amongst others. Matt found Albania to be a particularly surprising highlight, with beautiful scenery, friendly people and, perhaps most importantly, delicious 4 Euro pizzas! We’re glad to have him back safely and he’s already started planning next year’s trip…..which we’re hoping will be in a Figaro!
