Upper Middle Petrol Head:

This is the first article of my  Upper Middle Petrol Head Drives  ... series.  However, I suspect that it could also be my last, given that the owner of the featured car, Phil Blake, is a man of unequalled generosity and trust. If I were Phil, I would not have offered me a drive of his hand-built,  Targa Tasmania  class-winning Fiat-Abarth OT 1600 replica.  But that's exactly how I found myself behind the wheel of his diminutive yellow rocket: one day I was chatting  to Phil about the car when he said, quite unexpectedly, "you'll have to have a drive!"  Clearly, it was an offer that I was never going to refuse! Not totally on top of your early- to mid-1960s high-performance Fiats?  According to an ubiquitous on-line source, who describe the OT 1600 as an "extreme variant" of the Fiat 850 Berlina, only four were ever made.  I'm putting my money on Phil, though ; he reckons there were five and I have no reason to doubt him.  He also