Sadly, the ten-year run of the Fiat Barchetta coincided with a period when Fiat was notably absent from the U.S., once Turin’s primary market for sporty droptops. When Fiat Auto boss Paolo Cantarella first proposed…
Posts tagged Fiat
Fiat 124 Coupe: Europe’s First Pony Car
In the USA, at least, the Fiat 124 Coupe dwells in the long shadow of its Spider sister, but globally, the closed car may have been the more important vehicle. It was also the better…
Fiat 127: The Birth of the Supermini
In the 1970s, the Supermini was king of European car dealerships, and the Fiat 127 was arguably the first of the breed. The new wave of space-efficient front-drive small cars traced back to the Mini…
Fiat 132: Familiar but Forgotten
It wasn’t originally meant to be a “flagship.” When the Fiat 132 was new, it was just the latest iteration of Fiat’s large family car – descended from the old Fiat 1400/1500 and its immediate…
VAZ-2106: The People’s Favorite Lada
The definitive version in Soviet times was the VAZ-2106, but there were many iterations of the basic Lada package. What else would you expect from a car with such a long lifespan? The first Ladas…
Fiat Brava: Could’ve Been a Contender
A trip to the film archives takes us back today to OldMotors’ very own 1981 Fiat Brava, then just an unloved old car from a largely forgotten make. Better known as the 131, Fiat changed…
Moretti 850 Sportiva: Dino in Miniature
Moretti as a manufacturer came to an end thirty years ago this month, after 64 years of producing motorcycles, sports cars, and what it was best known for by 1989 – Fiat based specials. The…
Postmodern Italian: Fiat Ritmo/Strada
Long forgotten by most in America, the Fiat Strada – called the Fiat Ritmo in Europe – was delightfully strange and very familiar at the same time. Sometimes accused of being a copy of the…
The First Peugeot-born Citroën: LN/LNA
No doubt President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, having eked out an election win over labor favorite Francois Mitterrand only months earlier, breathed a sigh of relief on December 4, 1974. Ailing Citroën, for months in very…
Last Call for the Maserati Brothers: OSCA 1600 GT2
There were seven Maserati Brothers in all – Carlo, Bindo, Alfieri (I), Alfieri (II), Mario, Ettore, and Ernesto. Carlo, the eldest, died in 1910 but worked for Fiat and Isotta-Fraschini. The third Brother, Alfieri (I)…
Arachnophobia: Fiat 850 Spider
Fiat intentionally designed the 850 Spider to be a “first” sports car for buyers who wanted something cooler than a 600 or 850 sedan, but were still on a tight budget. Being tiny and cheap…
The First Italian Supercar: the F.I.A.T. 60HP
It would be unusual for Fiat to take aim at Mercedes with a supercar today, but 1905 was a very different time. The mighty Fiat 60HP was aimed directly at Daimler and was one of…