This re-issue of Tamiya’s 1/20 scale Fiat 131 Abarth rally car in the yellow and blue Olio Fiat scheme brings back memories of my first exposure to Tamiya car kits.
Originally released in 1979, there are some typical Tamiya expectations met in this kit, like crisp molding and minimal flash. There are also some things that might make modern modelers scratch their heads, such as the unused parts for a battery holder and motor mount that are throwbacks to its original design. New to the kit are self-adhesive masks and Olio Fiat decals.
This is a full-detail model, so you get to build a Fiat fuel-injected, double-overhead cam, 2-liter, four-cylinder engine with Abarth upgrades. If you take a little care adding the wires to the distributor, you can make them come out of the cap in the correct firing order, and there’s enough material to add a coil wire if you like. I used a bit of leftover tubing to make the boot on the coil. I like how the headers and intake manifold seat securely in the block. This was a revelation to me back in the early ‘80s when I first encountered Tamiya kits.
The hood and trunk open, so there are several detail parts up front and in back. In the trunk, a part specifically fills a hole in the left rear wheel well, probably where the motor gears went in the original kit. After installing some parts under the hood — mostly fluid containers — it’s on to the suspension.
The front end is constructed of 13 parts, five of which are metal. The formed-steel tie rod looks almost scale and is plenty sturdy. The connection to the steering arm is a bit clunky though. The steel springs offer an extra bit of detail, and you can see the shock absorbers inside the struts. The spring retainers at the top of the strut mean these are solely for appearance though. With a bit of ingenuity, you could make this suspension operate, but you’d need to create movable control arms and trailing links. On the model, the steering rack, lower control arms, and front crossmember are molded as one piece. This isn’t noticeable on the finished model because a skid plate covers most of it.
Another baker’s dozen makes up the rear end, and if you’re handy with a soldering iron, brass tubing could make an operating suspension here, too. You’d have to find a workaround for the half shafts. The driveshaft, exhaust system, and some chassis-stiffening crossmembers round out the rest of the chassis parts.
The interior was where I ran into the most work correcting flaws. There are a few ejector-pin marks along with round protrusions that cap the locating holes for some of those crossmembers. I took them out with a drill bit chucked in a rotary tool. The driver and copilot needed a bit of scraping to remove mold seams, but that’s not a problem because it just adds folds and creases to the racing suits.
Securing the figures to the seats was a little frustrating; there isn’t much area to glue the parts together. It would’ve been wise on my part to carve flat spots on the back and bottom of the figures to better fit them to the seats. The instructions say to use the figures to determine the exact placement of the seats, so the figures’ feet fall naturally on the pedals or footboards.
There’s more than the usual detail for painting the body. You have to cut out the self-adhesive masks, but a sharp knife and a piece of plate glass make this relatively painless. I installed the masks in alphabetical order, which seemed to take me through progressively more complex cuts. That helped build my confidence that I could do a decent job of it. The masks have enough flexibility to curve around the parts of the body as they should. Once the masks are in place, I filled in the rest of the area with blue masking tape.
Tamiya’s color recommendations result in a very dark blue. I mixed some Tamiya blue (TS-15) with the dark blue (TS-55) called out in the instructions to lighten the color a bit so it better matched photos I could find of the real car.
One other issue was the fit of the rear package shelf. It’s attached to the body shell to retain the trunk hinges and appeared to be correctly placed. Not until I fitted the chassis to the body did I see a sizable gap between the shelf and the rear bulkhead at the back of the passenger compartment. I’m not sure how to get a better fit, as the parts are inaccessible once the model is together. Another indicator of the age of this kit is the one-piece windshield and side window. Because of the narrow roof pillars on this car, it isn’t too noticeable.
Getting the chassis into the body is a tight squeeze and takes a bit of intestinal fortitude. Believe it or not, the front of the car will stretch enough to allow the chassis to snap into place.
I deviated from the instruction order by installing many of the body detail parts before placing the body on the chassis. This allowed me to apply cement from the inside for a secure fit.
Overall, this was a fun kit to build. There’s room for some serious superdetailing if you’re so inclined, and there is at least one set of photo-etched metal details available, as well as alternative sponsorship decals. This little Fiat will look great on the shelf next to those Tamiya 1/20 scale Formula One survivors from my youth.