Javier Costas
Given that classic cars are an endangered species, it is always good news when one is rescued and is once again roadworthy. We have just learned of the case of an old SEAT Ibiza first generation, with a 1.5 System Porsche engine, which has been abandoned for about 10 years in a ship. Almost, we can almost consider it a barn find, although there is neither straw nor grain.
Un youtuber British, who maintains the channel Old Skull Garage (*) received a tip about a car abandoned somewhere in Hungary, and went to see him. The owner, who worked as a teacher in the area, was using it for about 20 years until she bought another car and she was able to leave it stored in a friends warehouse. There he was dying of laughter, until they tried to tear him away again.
Is a SEAT Ibiza three doors with a 1.5 carbureted engine, a relatively exotic model in Hungary. And the country was under the yoke of the USSR until 1989, so there were not many imports of cars from the capitalist bloc. Possibly it was already registered as a used car around 1995, given the first letter of the plate. The car is quite intact, with no visible dents, but with several signs of deterioration prior to its abandonment.
The VIDEO OF THE ABANDONED SEAT IBIZA
In a video of more than half an hour, we can see the process by which you try to start the car. There are multiple reasons why an old car will refuse to start, but after a long time of messing around, the engine turns over again. Starting a carbureted engine is not very easy for someone without experience, but this is not the case for our protagonist.
Although it has a sticker on the rocker cover that says 90 HP, it should rather have 86 HP. This is the power that these engines gave with the Bressel-Weber 32 DSTA 151 carburetor. More powerful versions of the engine were equipped with Bosch Jetronic injection. The old engine managed to start and maintain idle with difficulty. One of the cylinders has problems, but it was enough to take a short walk around the farm where he has been waiting for people to remember him.
Although we cannot see it in the video, we have known through Motor1 which the owner's son took the car after filming and is going to put it back into circulation. You have a lot of cleaning and tuning work ahead of you, as well as replacing all the components that have deteriorated over time. In other words, it's a good project. Maybe after a few months we can talk about him again, and he looks better. In the end, although More than 1,34 million units of the first generation were manufactured, is still a piece of European automotive history. And it has a little Spanish, a little German, a little Italian...
* NOTE: Old Skull is a play on words, since the pronunciation of “Old Skull” in English is very close to “Old School.” Of course you can sense what the content of his channel is.
