anyone owned a fiat 1.3-4 turbo?
 

thinking about getting one of these,any opinions?better or worse than the renault GTturbo?other options im thinkning about is:-
pug 205 GTi 1.6-1.9
golf GTi 8V
posibbly a fiesta RS1800?

That'd be an UNO then......
A mate had one.

Drivetrain wise they're proper modern compared to the Renault.
Seem scarce on autotrader when I looked for one a while ago.
Brakes aren't the best and 13" wheels makes upgrading difficult.

ISTR they were detuned for the GB market to 105BHP (initially anyways). The continental ones were around 130BHP. Dunno if the UNO is fully galvanised, so check for rust etc.

Vindaloo.

Had a 98S punto GT for 2 years 30k miles

Totally reliable, ran 160bhp for 25k of those miles, v quick and handled well (for a punto)

:D

My dad had an E reg and then a G reg 1.3 Uno Turbo (MK1 shape) from what I remember they were fast enough and handled fairly well - easy to tune aswell. He had a few problems with the second Turbo i.e. - the clutch got contaminated with oil (think the car was still in warranty) and the head gasket went at 30k (only took him a saturday morning and a few quid for the gasket to sort though). You dont see many around now and to be honest I expect most of them will be full of rust unless you can find a good MK2 1.4.
Before I got my Impreza I had a Punto GT3 (97 R reg) I bought it at 25k and sold it at 60k, the only problems I had with it was the rear trailing arm bushes went at about 50k - cost about £80 a side (you have to buy the full arm) from Fiat and take a couple of hours to do, the later GT3's had uprated bushes on them from the factory though IIRC. The GT was really reliable and never let me down once in 2.5 years. If you look at Punto's make sure you get 2 x blue keys and 1 x red key and if it has an alarm the alarm disabling key:)

Had a Mk I 1.3 Uno (G Reg) for a first car (bought it 8 years ago for £1150, then traded it in 18months later for £1,250 against a R5 GT Turbo!! ...bargain!!). Great fun car, which I had no problems with. However, a couple of my mates had them, and the things just rusted to pieces. I think they are getting on a bit too much now to find a good one (mine was mint, but still had some rust coming in places ....and think how much worse that has gotten in the last 6 years!).

I have also had 2 Punto GT's. an L Reg which was fine, but being one of the first it had a few electrical problems and also had to be run on SUL. The second was a P Reg in Black with the full Abarth kit on, lowered, with 15" TSW Imolas, a de-cat Scorpion Exhaust, and on lowered springs..... It got more looks of appreciation than the GTI-R or Imprezza have ever got. It also had a few minors (again rear trailing arms, drive shafts (apparently due to being too low), a split pipe to the actuator causing overboost, and a leaky radiator)

A P Reg Punto GT must be cheap as chips by now, and they are great fun .... they are also a lot less dated than any of the Uno/R5/205 brigade.

i picked a punto GT up for £1600 on a R plate last march,bodywork was a little shabbie,but it ran like a dream,no major problems and cheap as chips to repair if the worst does happen,but as mentioned before,make sure you get that bloody red key.

I had an H-reg MK2 Uno with 160 BHP and it used to be neck and neck with standard cosworths, it was very fast and felt even faster, wouldent like to crash one, saying that it was 5 years ago I had one and havent seen any going about for at least 2, mine was starting to rust away back then so id hate to think what they are like now.

Not thought of looking at a HF Turbo or an 8v integrale?

Get the Golf, it isnt quite as quick but it handles, parts are cheap and they go for ever.

Uno's, R5 GT's and even the Pug 205 are nowhere nears are resilient, I have ben through all of them at some point and the Golf is the best if a little predictable.