For all of you Fiat, Abarth and Lancia freaks who were not lucky enough to be subscribed to Ciao News which was laboriously produced at the Obert garage in Santa Cruz, California, you are now invited to share what your brethren had for a brief shiny moment in time.
For those who did receive the Obert's newsletter, this is a chance to obtain the best of it in one package.
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Available from Amazon.com, $34.95 plus shipping.
To order
VelocePress.com [click here]
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Dedicated to, and for the most part written by the late Genevieve Obert, Obert's Fiat Guide, 10 years of Ciao! News, takes the best of the Ciao! News and put it between two covers with 295 pages. It is divided into two parts, articles written by Genny pertaining to a wonderful variety of Fiats, and Chris Obert's Tech Tips.
An Introduction by Chris Obert explains how Genny tackled the huge subject of Fiat, and her plans to create an Online version of Ciao! News . Her untimely death dashed those plans, as well as heralded the end of Ciao! News altogether. While Chris is himself an excellent writer, between running his business (once called Fiat Plus, it is now C. Obert & Co.) and raising two children, he has little time to carry on the newsletter.
That's a double whammy for Fiat owners. Genny wrote accurately and artfully about almost every Fiat model built from the Balilla to the Fiat Stilo, and what she didn't cover would have eventually been written about. Thankfully, Genny also wrote a history of Fiat, also included in the book, which is arguably the best short history of Fiat ever written.
Chris must have helped thousands of frustrated Fiat owners with his Tech Tips, complete with meaningful and helpful diagrams. Chris knows a lot about Fiats, and was able to impart some of his knowledge via the Tech Tips. Alas, this will be no more either.
Obert decided to include a history of Fiat Plus, which is much more than a business brief. He writes about his childhood, how he became interested in Fiats and his first Fiat, a 600. Genny entered his life and talked her college professor into giving her credit for an independent study of the Trans-Alaskan pipeline, and in a heartbeat they were off to Alaska driving a Fiat Multipla. Their northern adventures are recalled with both humor and a sense of sadness. Establishing their business was no easy task either, but often both heartbreaking and hilarious.
Having taken all that in, the reader is invited to delve into Genny's history of the Fiat car company, a story full of interesting insights and asides, deftly woven into the text. "The great Barney Oldfield," she wrote, "driving in his first major road race…took Bruce Brown's place behind the wheel of the big Fiat S74." On the name Balilla, she found that rather than being named after Mussolini’s youth group, "in reality the name belonged to a small Genoese boy who roused his neighbors to expel 19th century Austrian invaders.." Genny's Fiat history is full of such gems.
Following the Fiat history, there are over thirty chapters, each detailing out a particular model, and includes (but not limited to) the Topolino, 1100, 8v, 600, 500, 1500, 1600, 850, quite a few Abarths, the 124 series,the X1/9, the Fiat Lancias, the 131 sedan and brings it all home with the Punto and Stilo. Missing is the 2300 series, but no doubt that too, was on the agenda. Along the way there are chapters on Carlo Abarth, John Rich, a rare Fiat Moretti, and even "the cousin from the East", the Yugo.
Obert's Tech Tips as found in the book are clear and helpful. In this image he has explained the timing dual point distributor timing.
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The Tech Tips comprise the last part of the book, covering brakes, electrics, cooling, valve adjustment for the SOHC and DOHCs, installing covertible tops, ball joints, differentials, carbs, and suspension. In all, thirty seven tech tips on a variety of models and ailments, written clearly by those who know.
Admittedly, since yrstrly edited the book and wrote the Forward, we can be held suspicious in our praise. But don’t be, the Obert Fiat Guide is a wonderful book for all Fiat owners and enthusiasts, including Abarth nuts.
About the only thing the book needed insofar as editing was to figure out how to arrange the chapters, which were originally placed in chronological order as printed in Ciao! News. We decided to shift them around, and arrange the chapters by car type in order of the years built. While not perfect, since many models overlapped each other, it does allow one to quickly find the particular model of choice.
As with most other books electronically printed, the quality of the photos is not the greatest, but nonetheless, serve the purpose and are an aid to the text.
Chris Obert will be at the Monterey Concorso, and his book will be available for sale at his tent. Find him, buy the book.
