This Fiat, owned by Tero Komulainen, has made a long journey from a childhood's field car to a HiFi contest trophy magnet. It's not fast, but it more than makes up for that by being rude and loud.
Tero's father, ”Vimo”, dragged this car to the family's summer cottage, that was on an island in Kuhmo. This can be done easily during the winter. This was in the early 80s, and the Fiat was pretty rusty even back then. Tero's brother learned to drive on this Fiat, and so did Tero himself. After ravaging the local fields the car was left to rest and rust in piece. Tero's father passed away in the early 2000s, and sometime after that Tero decided to name this Fiat in his father's tribute, which makes it a Fiat Vimo. And the Dragster part? It's a demo car for the Dragster car audio brand. See that front emblem? That's a speaker.
The car was dragged inland from the island in 2009, when Tero was thinking about building an Abarth replica to haunt the streets of Mikkeli. The Abarth plan was scrapped, even though this car now has an Abarth rear spoiler and fender flares. The years passed on, as they do, and at some point Tero was plotting evil plans with Ilja Itkonen, who is the CEO of Fanatic Audio. Ilja had decided to bring the Dragster audio brand to the Finnish markets, and Tero immediately offered this Fiat to work as the demo car. An Italian brand and an Italian car, sounds like a match made in heaven. Ilja was not impressed, but he was persuaded.
The original ”smoking windows” have found their new purpose in life, as they were replaced with speakers. The theme seen on the midbasses was copied from the tweeters. The grilles and the surroundings were just measured and enlargened for the mids. There was a reason to do this: the original grilles were plastic and just ridiculous. These are just one example of laser cut products seen on this car: the guys had 3D modelling software singing day and night and the cut pieces were sent directly to the painter.
The removal of the stock side windows caused some synapses to go amiss in this mad professor's brain, and soon Tero found himself installing a subwoofer in the middle of the windshield, which is a world's first. The rollcage not only stiffens the body, but also has cables running inside the tubes. There's literally hundreds of meters of cable in this car. The year 2014 was so busy, that pretty much every friend and namesake's cousin was called to help. The last few months of the installation was done with three or four hours of sleep per night. This just might be the rare case, where sleep deprivation increases the level of quality.
This is where the magic happens, as in this is where the five batteries live. Race engineer Joonas created these distribution blocks and fuse holders from aluminium, and finishing them to perfection took three days. All these changes mean that the body had to be altered ”a little”: the whole front end of the car sits 40mm lower than stock, and the front bumper is 50mm lower than stock. The car was painted in 2014, and it was supposed to be shiny red at first. In the rush of things, and after painting it with a black primer, they noticed that the matte black look actually worked perfectly.
Since the theme is ”dragster”, the seats were manufactured to look like Kirkey drag seats. The interior has an insane amount of small details, and the more you look, the more one is in awe of the ridiculous amount of work done. Amplifiers for all the subwoofers and speakers are on the floor, for which the floor had to be dropped significantly. The subwoofer casing behind the seats is a 450 liter relfex box, and the pressure should be enough to deafen you in a millisecond. In 2014 this car grabbed a total of 22 trophies, and 2015 was also a very succesful year. The car also saw its share of shows in 2016, but for now this Fiat Vimo has been put to rest. For how long, it remains to be seen.
SPECS:
CAR:
Dragster Fiat Vimo (Fiat 600 1972)
ENGINE:
15 years of erosion and corrosion tuning in pouring water, power air filter and a Honda CBR muffler
POWERTRAIN:
Stock transmission without oils, custom drive shafts
SUSPENSION:
140mm lowering, which required comprehensive chassis and body modifications, such as a custom Abarth front axle and raising the engine (and friends) by 80 millimeters.
BRAKES:
Front: removed altogether
Rear: stock
WHEELS:
BBS RS, 3.5x15” in the front and 8x15” in the rear
TIRES:
115/70/15 in the front, Michelin slicks' in the rear
EXTERIOR:
Floors are lowered by 40mm, the skirts sit 40mm lower, the front end is lowered by 40mm and the front bumper sits about 100mm lower than stock, the engine is raised by 80mm, Abarth wider flares, Abarth racing rear spoiler, headlights replaced with speakers, etc. What's left intact are hinges and door handles.
INTERIOR:
Too much to write. Everything has been made with own two hands. There is a fire extuingisher.
AUDIO:
Alpina IVA-D511RB DVD-player (head unit)
Helix DSP (digital signal processor)
Dragster DAD604 (front speaker amplifier)
Dragster DAD951 (front subwoofer amplifier)
Dragster DAD951 x 8 (rear subwoofer amplifiers)
Dragster Academy AMW 6 + AT 32 (front speakers)
Dragster AW10 (front subwoofer)
Dragster DWY-15 x 2 (rear subwoofers)
Dragster DC-602.2 and DC-462.2 (exterior speakers)
PowerSafe 65Ah x 5 (batteries)
Dragster cables
Custom power distribution block
NUMBERS:
15hp and 25Nm (stock 32hp and 52Nm)
PREVIOUS PROJECTS:
FWD turbo-Corollas
NEXT:
All kinds of things have been planned: there's a CBR600F engine waiting in the garage, and a new front axle for an adjustable suspension. So something like that, or then the future might be about eating chips and drinking long drinks.
THANK YOU:
Biggest thanks go to our team: Race Engineer Joonas Innanen, Miika Partti, Jirsi Markkanen, Simo Sairanen, Jarno Venäläinen, Jani Paavilainen, Veli-Matti Peltola, Rietu.
Special thanks go to: Harto Viljamaa, Mikko Virta.
Thanks to all my associates: Fanatic Audio / Ilja, PE-Laser, Marskin Pultti, Industria Center Mikkeli / Olli, Pitkäjärven Auto-osat Oy Mikkeli, Eteläsavon Paloturva / Jukka, Tarvikeshop.fi / Janne, Ruoste-Estokeskus / Samppa, Itä-Suomen Moniteippi / Tomi, Autojuliste / Tony Nyström, Lasi-Saranki / Antti.
Of course a big thank you to Vimo, mom, Komppi and Ellu, and everyone else I forgot to mention
