Good lord, do I love the sound of a triple. If you do, too, then you absolutely need to strap in, give yourself 13 or so minutes, and watch this video. I know I've told you to break out the good headphones in the past, and I'm going to do so again here. You well and truly need to hear this through the best possible means that you can, because it sounds absolutely unreal.
What is the 'it' that I'm referring to? It started life as an unloved and unlovely old Fiat 126, which its current rescuer, transformer, and owner described as coming in 'baby sick yellow.' There are still photos shown as slides in this video of a very similarly colored car, though apparently not of the actual car in question (or the Facebook Marketplace listing where he initially found it). I'd say that's a pretty accurate description of that colorway; it's pretty disgusting, and I can't imagine that it looked much better when it was new.
In any case, that's clearly not what you now see before you. What you now see before you is the result of a ton of effort put in by the owner, as well as friends like his apparent mate that he lowkey notes "used to build roll cages for Subaru, ProDrive and that." SIR. COME ON. That's who he had build his rollcage for this little Fiat build, and I mean, if it's good enough for ProDrive, it should certainly be good enough for a sub-500 kilogram (so he says) Fiat.
The triple-cylinder K 75 engine sits in the back, and is mated to a sequential gearbox up front. Other bits and bobs include individual throttle bodies, supporting mods including the building of a custom subframe and engine mounts (I mean, you'd kind of have to, wouldn't you?), and a whole bunch of bespoke work you might not immediately clock at first.
Those wide wheel arches, for example? Those aren't some off-the-shelf solution. While the owner did try to source an off-the-shelf thing, he ended up not being happy with what was out there. So instead, he ended up crafting his own out of aluminum, then decided to make them bolt-on rather than welding them in case any of them get damaged and he has to replace them. He figures it'll be an easier job if he can just unbolt any damaged ones and replace them, and hopefully it won't end up damaging a whole body panel that way, too. The door cards have a similar origin story, too, and he hand-rolled the aluminum there to get the effect that he wanted.
One of my favorite bits about this video, other than the sound of that K 75 howling in anger as he opens it up going down the road, is the sight of the two ear protector/boom mic headsets just hanging on the roll cage for dear life as they tear down the road. They're not on the heads of the driver and his passenger; they're just along for the ride. And, I mean, while I'm all in favor of ear protection, that triple sounds fantastic. If I have to go deaf, there are surely worse ways to go, is what I'm thinking.
If you, like me, are a recovering classic Mini nerd, those are not Minilite wheels. In fact, they are apparently 13-inch Superlite wheels, which look absolutely spot-on perfect in this application, in my opinion. There is nothing I don't love about this build, and it's honestly probably my favorite bike-engined car thing I've seen in a very long time.
What's next for it? Apparently, a tiny, tasteful Garrett turbo. Here's hoping they go back and do another video once it's pssh pssh time. If you've got petrolhead folks in your family, I'd save this video to your YouTube queue for some strong holiday viewing that isn't sportsball or shopping. Have fun!
