Fiat It Again Tobias: 1969 Fiat 850 Sport Spider
This next car is a Fiat 850 Sport Spider that would have had a 843cc inline-4 that would have pushed a dismal 49 horsepower into the rear mounted transaxle. Today’s example, however, has been given an injection of speed and power in the form of the legendary tweetle-tweetle-Beetle engine. That’s right, a 1600cc dual port motor with a single carb and (to quote the seller) “twice the displacement, 10x the simplicity, and 100x the reliability!” I’ve never considered a VW engine to be an upgrade…but I guess this is the exception that proves the rule in cases not excepted. Find this 1969 Fiat 850 Sport Spider offered for $7,500 in Torrance, CA via craigslist.
From the seller:
1969 Fiat 850 Sport Spyder
condition: excellent
cylinders: 4 cylinders
delivery available
drive: rwd
fuel: gas
odometer: 1160
paint color: red
size: sub-compact
title status: clean
transmission: manual
type: convertible
This cute little car has been painted, new brakes, suspension, seats, filters, belt, and so much more.
Most importantly, the 850cc motor that as infamous for being unreliable, has been replaced with a VW 1600cc dual port motor with a single carb for twice the displacement, 10x the simplicity, and 100x the reliability!The car start, runs, and drives wonderfully. Clean title, current California registration, ready to go!
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Nice optional seat covers!
https://images.craigslist.org/00a0a_am8Fpa9etRjz_0CI0pO_600x450.jpg
That manages to look like the engine came that way from the factory, at least from the only picture provided of the swap. It’s a pretty clever swap idea; there aren’t many cars where an air cooled VW engine swap makes sense.
Wow
So is the transmission swapped too?
I always thought a VW engine would not fit, the doghouse would be too tall etc.
I suppose that if you flipped the trans upside down and flipped the ring gear that would lower the engine, and there are cc joint that can take pretty extreme angles so that you could move the trans and engine forward. Still I’m curious how this was done.
Every 850 spyder engine swap I have read about has been insanely complicated. There is a Mazda rotary swap that comes to mind.
A built VW engine could put this into the gray area between enough power to be crazy fun and enough to be crazy dead. Wonder what the weight distribution is?
I just when down a very deep rabbit hole regarding 850 engine swaps. Seems that people have been stuffing all sorts of engines in the behinds of 850s.
https://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/850-engine-swap.39605/ Is a good overview
While it looks gorgeous, I’m always skeptical. I’d go over this lovely machine with a paint thickness gauge looking for bondo. This could be a bondo queen knowing how prone they are to rust.
If no bondo it’s an astonishing deal.
As the owner of a 850 spider, I can state that the engine, much like with a jag, is the most reliable part of the car. It also makes the most wonderful noises, esp. compared to a vw. The non-stop rust is the big battle with these cars.