Tech restores 1970s Fiat 127 Abarth as tribute to his racing champ mum

Son lovingly restoring 973cc model which is thought to be the only one of its kind in the UK

Tech restores 1970s Fiat 127 Abarth as tribute to his racing champ mum

A mobile vehicle technician is rebuilding a classic car in memory of his motor racing champion mum.

The late Sandie Cooper was North Wales Ladies Autograss Champion several times with many of those races won at the wheel of her beloved 1970s Fiat 127 Abarth.

Sandie died of cancer in 2015 but son Terry has almost completed a restoration of an identical 973cc model, thought to be the only one of its kind in the UK, after Sandie’s original car was written off in a major shunt.

Terry, who lives in Llangernyw, near Abergele, has already restored an Alfasud, another car his mother raced in.

“A memorial to my mum”

He said: “They’re a memorial to my mum who sadly passed away three years ago because one of our biggest memories of her was her autograss racing.

“I managed to persuade her to have a go because my dad and I were mad keen and once she started there was no stopping her, in the end the other ladies wouldn’t race her.”

The original car was bought for just £85 and was a wreck but Terry and colleagues put it into race condition and Sandie would regularly beat cars that cost thousands on the North Wales Autograss circuit.

“She’d wipe the floor with you”

Terry added: “On the road she was terrible, you really didn’t want to get stuck behind her because she was so slow but on the racetrack you wouldn’t want to tangle with her because she’d wipe the floor with you.

“She’d race against men and one guy said he was going to show her the way home.

“He rammed her on the start and she broke her thumb but she strapped it up and won four races in a row.

“Very few people could beat her.

“She was only five foot tall but she was a very, very determined lady and she lived life in the fast lane.”

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