For the 1st edition of the Garda Punto meeting in 2002, I wrote it was probably the biggest meeting for Fiat Punto in the world. For the 2nd edition, the 2003 edition, I have no doubt: it was the biggest meeting of Fiat Punto ever organized in the world and it was a great success!
The Punto Racing Club, hosted at Garda (VR), a beautiful town on Garda lake, received 105 cars and more than 200 passionated fans. Cars started coming at 10AM near the gazebo of the club and several models never seen by the attendees who were present also at the previous edition of the Garda meeting and other official meetings of Punto Racing Club.
The covered sky in the morning and the sunny landscape of the afternoon were panorama with the endless column of Fiat Punto reaching the town. Several curious German tourists observed carefully the Italian passion for tuning.
The prizes
The Punto Racing Club (PRC) board decided to have five kind of prizes:
- the best aesthetic tuning for Punto Mk1
- the best aesthetic tuning for Punto Mk2
- the best perfomance tuning for Punto Mk1
- the best performance tuning for Punto Mk2
- the farthest user at the meeting
The prize for the best bodykit for Punto Mk1 went to Beco, with 17 points. Second place for the green-and-blue Punto GT owned by Furious (15 points), and third place for Evoluzione (9 points).
The best bodykit for Punto Mk2 was a really matter, because of the huge amount of Punto sold after 1999. The prize went to Mary and Andy's car which won the prize with 11 points. Second place went to Enzoextreme's car (10 points), and the black Nazgul's Punto Sporting with big 215/40 R17 tyres (9 points).
Mechanic tuning is a completely different subject, where Punto GT are on different level, with respect Punto Mk2, because of the adoption of the turbo and several nifty gadgets easily mutable. However the prize went to the Punto 75 of Rasoterra, thanks to the Fiat Seicento K/0 engine which pushes his carbon grey car to incredible performance. Rasoterra's car is powered by an atmospheric engine capable of more than 130 HP at the wheels, which let the car make 0-400m in just 15.0"! Second prize of performance tuning for Punto Mk1 was assigned to Sjuda (12 points), and third place at Stellino with 7 points.
The decision of electors for best performance of Punto Mk2 was very difficult, because there were not powerful Punto Mk2 in the club choice. The prize went to Braccio's Punto Sporting, because of his endless attempts to empower the car, several remappings to the Motronic 7.3, bad adoption of camshafts, and some tryouts with various kinds of exhaust collectors: it was a prize given for the his ability, skill and passion for performance tuning. Second and third places went respectively to NOS (9 points) and Maxrinaldi (8 points), who is known to own a Punto HGT with shifted limiter ECU.
The last friendly prize was given to Mala, because of the farther club member, from Florence, although there was a nearer user from Switzerland.
The pictures
- The Punto Racing Club
- discuss or read the forum of Punto Racing Club
- all the meetings in Puntopower.com