Fiat 124 Spider: A Touch Of Dolce Vita

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Fiat 124 Spider: A Touch Of Dolce Vita
Fiat 124 Spider: A Touch Of Dolce Vita

Video: Fiat 124 Spider: A Touch Of Dolce Vita

Video: Fiat 124 Spider: A Touch Of Dolce Vita
Video: Fiat 124 Spider Lusso ---La Dolce Vita--- 2024, March
Anonim

The Fiat 124 Spider is celebrating its birthday. The first model of the Italo roadster was built 50 years ago. The Dolce Vita feeling of the roadster was particularly well received by customers in the USA.

The Fiat 124 was 50 years ago Fiat's answer to the Alfa Spider presented at the same time. Two 2 + 2-seater, both drawn by Pininfarina and yet clearly differentiated. In contrast to the potent Alfa, the Fiat initially had to be content with a 66 kW / 90 PS four-cylinder.

There was no increase in performance and victorious rally versions until the 1970s. And at the latest, the Pininfarina Spidereuropa, which was introduced soon after, secured him the place of honor of the most built Italo Spider of all time, even before the Alfa. 200,000 units left the factory over the years.

The open version of the Fiat 124 was based on the shortened floor pan of the sedan designed as a people's car. With the new Roadster, the Fiat not only inherited its airy predecessor, the Type 1600, but also competed with a dozen open-minded Europeans. However, this almost always lacked the dolce vita feeling that was booming at the time, an Italianita that was particularly in demand in America. This is why the 124 Spider achieved its greatest successes right from the start in this world's largest sports car market.

Elaborate production

Despite the complex production, in which the Fiat factory was also involved, the body builder Pininfarina and the sophisticated 1.4-liter engine with a light alloy cylinder head and toothed belt drive for the two camshafts, the Fiat was affordable from the start. At 10,980 marks, the open 124 cost significantly less than an Alfa Spider or the Triumph TR 4. One of the athletes' secrets to success, who was also amazingly fast. During the first Autostrada test drives, the press certified the Fiat Spider with a top speed of almost 200 km / h, but the factory specification of 174 km / h was more realistic in everyday life.

Which is why Fiat retrofitted with the first facelift and launched a 1.6-liter four-cylinder with 81 kW / 110 hp in 1970, which in turn was followed three years later by a 1.8-liter version with 87 kW / 118 hp. From the end of 1972, a special series for homologation for FIA rally vehicles was even stronger: the 94 kW / 128 hp Fiat 124 Abarth Rally in war paint with matt black hoods, hard top and flared fenders.

In 1975 the era ended

With the new middle class model 131 Mirafiori, the era 124 was shelved in 1975. But the roadster was granted a second life, which began in 1982. At that time, Fiat allowed Pininfarina to continue the production of the sports car now called Pininfarina Spidereuropa on its own. The engine was now the two-liter four-cylinder from the Fiat Argenta with supercharging, which released 99 kW / 135 hp.

1985 was finally over. Sergio Pininfarina later explained, not without sadness, that it had become too complicated to obtain the old rear-wheel drive technology from Fiat, where only front-wheel and all-wheel drive models were now built. This is probably one of the reasons Fiat does not build the newly launched 124 Spider itself, but has it assembled in Japan as an Italian version of the MX-5. (SP-X)

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