Greetings from Portugal!

Hi there!

Some of you might know me from fiatforum or PuntoMK2.co.uk from a long time ago.

My name is Hugo and I live in Portugal, where I have driven Fiat Puntos ever since I've got my license. When I did, the very first car I drove was a Punto MK2a MIA, which belonged to my grandmother and eventually ended up in my hands.

A couple years later, I bought myself a Punto MK2 HLX (1.2 16 valve) which I drove until the engine broke the camshaft key. At that point, not being able to afford the repair, I decided to fix it myself, and it was all downhill from there. Soon I was swapping the engine for an identical one on the backyard, and one year later, I was turboing the Punto.

Well, all things come to an end, and I wanted a dedicated weekend/track day car, so I gave the Punto to my brother, and bought an MX5. Eventually my old Punto MIA found it's way back into my hands, in the worst state possible. The car's registration was about to be put down by the current owner. So I bought it for scrappage money, and fixed it!

After running it daily for a year, engine woes started, mainly due to the awful mechanical treatment it had received in the past. I had it converted to LPG last October, and a week later, the engine mount gave in, and the engine fell to the ground breaking the exhaust, gearbox, transmissions, selector gear, and a few couple dents to the chassis.

At this point, it was either scrappage or find a new running gear for it. I decided to take the leap and hack into the 8 valve Marelli ECU, making it programmable and fitting a 16 valve engine made of random bits from other FIRE engines, to make it work again.

So this is where I'm at... Slowly restoring my old Punto back to it's former glory, and hopefully, trying to make something interesting out of the most basic Punto MK2 version made.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2/DSC_2234.JPG

Cheers!