Santa’s big car hauler is slated to pull up outside our building on Saturday delivering our new tow car from Texas. It is a new, never sold 2015 Fiat Abarth. Quite an engineering achievement and should be a hoot to drive. It is also the smallest, lightest modern car we could find at just under 12’ long and 2500 pounds. It is white with white 17” wheels and 205/40-17 Pirelli P-zero tires, a turbo 1.4L four banger (160 hp and 180pf of torque) with computer controlled everything including intake valve lift, duration and timing, and a beefed up six speed auto trans that provides sub-7 second zero to a ticket times. About the only thing it shares with the standard Fiat 500 is the body shell. All the running gear is larger/upgraded/heavier duty and the interior is black and red leather. It even has a scorpion logo on the roof and Abarth badges everywhere. Oh, ya, there is no muffler and the exhaust sound alone is a captivating Italian aurae.
Just the thing for a couple of old folks to pull behind a motorhome, don’t you think!
Towing, especially with a tow dolly since SHE insisted on an auto trans (secretly my old knees are glad too!), will be a new GMC experience for us. At the suggestion of others on the forum, we purchased a made-in-the-USA Acme tow dolly to do the job. It has disk surge brakes and ST145 R12 load range E tires with sealed hubs so seems to have about the lowest load height and least steep ramp angle available. We found a light weight aluminum trailer dolly (also made in the USA) to make it easier for us to maneuver the unloaded tow dolly while parked. I will also mount a trailer hitch on the Fiat so we can move it around that way, too, if we need to. The way it is designed I can create a loading platform and use it as a small utility trailer for hauling heavy dirty things if/when I need to at home. The tow dolly stores upright so is not as much of a storage issue as the ones that have to remain horizontal while stored.
We will be off on our southerly snow bird jaunt to the SW and Mexico about the middle of January. A most joyous holiday season to all of you and your families! May Santa bless you with modern, self learning EFI for your GMC engine and the super slick propane or gasoline at the flip of one toggle switch conversion kit for Onan the Barbarian. Both will make your 2017 travels all that much more enjoyable. See you on the road.
Jerry
Jerry Work
The Dovetail Joint
Fine furniture designed and hand crafted in the 1907 former Masonic Temple building in historic Kerby, OR
glwork
http://jerrywork.com
Just the thing for a couple of old folks to pull behind a motorhome, don’t you think!
Towing, especially with a tow dolly since SHE insisted on an auto trans (secretly my old knees are glad too!), will be a new GMC experience for us. At the suggestion of others on the forum, we purchased a made-in-the-USA Acme tow dolly to do the job. It has disk surge brakes and ST145 R12 load range E tires with sealed hubs so seems to have about the lowest load height and least steep ramp angle available. We found a light weight aluminum trailer dolly (also made in the USA) to make it easier for us to maneuver the unloaded tow dolly while parked. I will also mount a trailer hitch on the Fiat so we can move it around that way, too, if we need to. The way it is designed I can create a loading platform and use it as a small utility trailer for hauling heavy dirty things if/when I need to at home. The tow dolly stores upright so is not as much of a storage issue as the ones that have to remain horizontal while stored.
We will be off on our southerly snow bird jaunt to the SW and Mexico about the middle of January. A most joyous holiday season to all of you and your families! May Santa bless you with modern, self learning EFI for your GMC engine and the super slick propane or gasoline at the flip of one toggle switch conversion kit for Onan the Barbarian. Both will make your 2017 travels all that much more enjoyable. See you on the road.
Jerry
Jerry Work
The Dovetail Joint
Fine furniture designed and hand crafted in the 1907 former Masonic Temple building in historic Kerby, OR
glwork
http://jerrywork.com
