MATCHBOX custom: 74E Fiat 131 Abarth Rally

Customising a Lesney Matchbox No. 74E Fiat Abarth, in the Matchbox range from 1982 until 1985.

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This is the story of the Fiat 131 Abarth Rally. It was a homologated car for the purposes of entering the World Rally Championship in 1976. 400 road cars were built and the 131 Rally was unleashed to the world. It won in just its second works outing when Markku Alén took victory at his home rally in Finland. Fiat stormed to the Manufacturers Championship the following year with five overall rally victories, pipping Ford to the title. They dominated in 1978 in their new Alitalia livery, winning both the Manufacturers title again while Alén took the Drivers' Cup. After just one win in 1979, the team took the 1980 campaign by storm when Walter Röhrl won four rallies outright, earning him the Drivers' Championship and the Manufacturers trophy for Fiat. With the 131 being less competitive in 1981 achieving just one rally win, Fiat withdrew from the Championship at the end of the year. The car won 20 WRC events, collecting three Manufacturers Championships and two Drivers' titles.

For my effort this week, I recreate the 1978 Rallye de Portugal entry of Sandro Munari. These decals came from Rally Models and were teamed with a set of wheels sourced from Diecast Details. While Munari retired from the rally, teammate Markku Alén went on to take victory for Fiat in the event.

While Matchbox offered an Alitalia liveried model in 1984 and 1985 based on the 1978 and 1979 entries, they weren't quite accurate enough and so I decided to create my own version. I used one of the final Lesney models to be released with the orange and red striped model from 1982. The following year, Lesney went bust and production moved from England to Macau. My example had muddy markings drawn all over it using brown marker pens!

Decal source:
https://rally-models.co.uk/

Wheel source:
  / diecastdetailsshop  

Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
Hackers
   • 80s Retrowave / Synthwave Music - Hackers ...  

Outro
HOME - We're Finally Landing
  / home-before-the-night-01-were  

Fiat 131 Abarth Rally image credit:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...

Outro footage:
   • Rally legend:FIAT 131 ABARTH  

#Matchbox #Diecast #Custom