32 times Fiat got it right

Fantastic Fiats

As of July 2024, Fiat will have been in the motor industry for a century and a quarter.

Survival over such a long period is the result of many things, one of which is, of course, an ability to produce cars that people want to buy.

Inevitably, there have been a few misses, but we’ll be sidestepping those here and concentrating instead on 32 of the hits.

All were on sale before the end of the 20th century, and are being presented here in chronological order.

1. Fiat 3.5hp (1899)

Fiat’s first good move was to enter the motoring business with a car it hadn’t designed.

Giovanni Ceirano built bicycles and sold them under the very un-Italian name of Welleyes, which he also used for a small car with a rear-mounted 657cc flat-twin engine.

It was introduced in 1899, but Ceirano almost immediately sold the rights to a consortium called the Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (‘Italian automobile factory of Turin’), shortened first to F.I.A.T. and then, in 1907, to Fiat.

The car formerly known as Welleyes became the Fiat 3.5hp, the first car ever manufactured by the future automotive giant.

2. Fiat 12hp (1901)

The 12hp shows how far Fiat progressed in the two years after it took over production of the Welleyes.

A decision to switch to front-mounted engines with vertical cylinders had already led to the creation of a 1082cc twin for the 8hp, but this was dwarfed by the 3.8-litre ‘four’ fitted to the 12hp.

Far more powerful than its predecessors, the new car attracted interest outside Italy for the first time in Fiat’s history, and was at the start of the company’s motorsport tradition.

In October 1902, a 12hp driven by Giuseppe Bordino, but owned by the King of Portugal’s brother, won the first car race ever held on the Iberian peninsula, on a coastal route from Figueira da Foz to Lisbon.

3. The Grand Prix winner (1907)

Just eight years after its foundation, Fiat became the dominant manufacturer in European motorsport, winning the Targa Florio in Sicily, the Kaiserpreis in the Taunus region of Germany and the French Grand Prix on roads near Dieppe.

This formidable hat-trick was due partly to the brilliance of Fiat’s star driver, the 26-year-old Felice Nazzaro, but also to Fiat’s ability to design and build different engines for each event.

Unthinkable as this might seem today (though it was common at the time), there was a maximum permitted cylinder bore for the Targa Florio, an 8-litre capacity limit and a minimum weight of 1175kg (2590lb) for the Kaiserpreis, and a fuel-consumption limit of 30 litres per 100 kilometres for the Grand Prix.

Fiat responded by building engines of similar designs but wildly different capacities, ranging from 6.4 to 16.3 litres, all of them good enough to let Nazzaro show what he could do at the wheel.

4. The Beast of Turin (1910)

This is the nickname of the S76, a model developed for record breaking during the period from 1909 to 1911 when there was no serious Grand Prix racing.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, the 28.4-litre Beast was measured at 132.37mph at Ostend in Belgium, a speed which would have given it the Land Speed Record until May 1922.

However, the rules required that two runs should take place over the same course in opposite directions within an hour, and since this did not happen the speed was not official.

A reconstruction of the Beast, using as many parts as possible from the two S76s built, has become a feature of historic motorsport in the UK, most notably at Goodwood.

5. Fiat 501 (1919)

The 501 was Fiat’s first new model to go on sale after the Great War, and the first subject to a new naming system whereby passenger cars would be identified by a three-figure number starting with ‘5’.

Powered by a 1460cc engine, the 501 was criticised for some aspects of its design, and for its low gearing (“first is a joke, and would be even if one crammed the car with professional fat men,” according to one salty reviewer).

On the other hand, it was praised for its quality, which made it reliable over very high mileages.

Of the more than 70,000 examples believed to have been built, more than half were exported – a significant piece of good news in a country which, though not at war with anyone during this period, was not at peace with itself.

6. Mephistopheles (1923)

One of the most famous of all the racing Fiats started out as a Grand Prix-like racer commissioned for a competition at Brooklands in 1908 (which it won, partly because it was very good, and partly because it was driven by Felice Nazzaro).

In other hands, it was campaigned in the UK for several more years, until two of its pistons made a simultaneous escape through the bonnet in 1922.

After this, it was bought by Ernest Eldridge, who lengthened the chassis so that it could accommodate a 21.7-litre, war-surplus Fiat aero engine.

Eldridge raced the car several times, but most famously set a new Land Speed Record of 146mph at Arpajon in northern France in July 1924 – the last time the LSR was ever achieved on a public road.

Fiat itself had nothing to do with the attempt, but the fact remains that for a few months, until Malcolm Campbell’s Sunbeam went faster still in September, a Fiat was officially the fastest car in the world.

7. Fiat 508 Balilla (1932)

As it would several times in later years, Fiat had great success in the 1930s with a small, uncomplicated, clever car which was cheap both to buy and to run.

The 995cc four-cylinder 508 was available with quite a variety of body styles, from utilitarian to sporty, and soon proved to be very effective in small-capacity classes in top-level motorsport.

As well as Italy, it was manufactured in France, Germany, Poland and the then Czechoslovakia, and was exported to several other countries where it was not built locally.

Production lasted for only five years, but the 508 made a big impact in that short period.

8. Fiat 1500 (1935)

Not to be confused with a later model of the same name, the original 1500 was the first Fiat named (approximately) after the capacity of its engine, a new straight-six with overhead valves.

The outstanding feature of the 1500 was its aerodynamic body style, similar to but less alarming than that of the previous year’s Chrysler Airflow, and right at the forefront of mid-1930s automotive design.

Since Fiat was still using body-on-frame construction, independent coachbuilders could come up with their own interpretations of what the 1500 should look like, and in these cases streamlining wasn’t always a priority.

Fiat itself backed off from its initial idea in 1940, giving the car more prominent headlights and in the process making it look more old-fashioned than it had been five years earlier.

9. Fiat 500 Topolino (1936)

The ‘little mouse’ was a tiny car whose 569cc engine was even smaller than that of the late-19th-century 3.5hp.

However, as motoring historian Michael Sedgwick once wrote, the 500 was ‘a true big car in miniature, with no short cuts’.

The miniature engine was water-cooled and had four cylinders (in contrast to the less refined air-cooled twin it might have been), the gearbox had four gears, all with synchromesh, and the brakes were hydraulic, yet the car was so competitively priced that almost anyone could afford it.

The formula was so successful that the Topolino remained in production until 1955, helped by a radical facelift in 1949.

10. Fiat 1100 (1937)

The Topolino spelled the end for the 508 Balilla, whose sales collapsed almost as soon as the smaller car arrived.

It was replaced by a model known initially as the 508 C, which was praised for its straight-line performance and handling, but criticised for its 1089cc engine’s lack of low-revs urgency.

The 1100, as it was renamed in 1940, was available as an everyday saloon, a smart convertible, a van, a pick-up or even, in the case of the Mille Miglia version, a remarkably aerodynamic coupé.

With different badging, the 1100 was also built and sold in France, where it was known as the Simca 8.

11. Fiat 1400 (1950)

Although its reputation is not all it might be (very high gearing and large amounts of body roll have been mentioned, accompanied by a good deal of frowning and tutting), the 1400 was nevertheless an important and significant car, not least because it was the first Fiat with unibody construction.

The original 1.4-litre petrol engine was joined by a 1.9-litre diesel, though the car was still known as a 1400.

The structurally identical 1900 had a much more powerful 1.9-litre petrol unit which was matched, extremely unusually for the time, with a five-speed gearbox.

Versions of the 1400 built in Spain and the then Yugoslavia were the first passenger cars produced by Seat and Zastava (later Yugo) respectively.

12. Fiat 8V (1952)

In more than 120 years, Fiat has devised only one production model with a V8 engine.

This was the 8V sports car, manufactured in small numbers from 1952 to 1954 and fitted with a 1996cc unit of this layout, capable of mustering around 110bhp.

Fiat built its own bodies (as pictured here), but the 8V was also taken on by the great Italian coachbuilders Ghia, Vignale and Zagato.

Of the 16 Ghia versions, 15 were fitted with bodies to Giovanni Savonuzzi’s Supersonic design, later reused for the company’s interpretations of the Jaguar XK120 and Aston Martin DB2/4.

13. Fiat 1100 (1953)

Although it was launched only 16 years later, the second 1100 was almost unrecognisable from the first, with its unibody construction, integral headlights and lack of running boards.

Modern though they were, the saloon and estate versions also looked quite conventional, even though there were several updates before production ended in 1969.

By contrast, the Trasformabile two-seat roadster was rather pretty, while the cab-over-engine 1100T commercial looked as functional as might be expected.

The 1100 was built in Germany, where it was known as the Neckar Europa, and in India, where it started out with the usual name but had become known as the Premier Padmini by the time its tremendously long run finally came to an end around the turn of the century.

14. Fiat 600 (1955)

By placing its engine behind the rear axle, where it couldn’t intrude on space needed for passengers, Fiat managed to make a four-seater out of the 600, even though it was only about the same size overall as the resolutely two-seat Topolino.

In fact, without extending the body by very much, Fiat was even able to create the Multipla derivative, which had six seats arranged in three rows, though this was not a car in which to have a front-end collision with anything sturdier than a blade of grass.

Depending on personal preference and requirements, customers could also opt for the 600T van, various high-performance Abarth derivatives and the Ghia Jolly beach car.

600s built outside Italy included those produced by Seat, which have been credited with playing an important part in Spain’s post-war economic revival.

15. Fiat Nuova 500 (1957)

From 1957 to 1975, Fiat produced what is possibly still its most famous, most easily recognised and best-loved car.

Unlike the Topolino, but like the 600, its engine was mounted at the rear, in order to maximise passenger space.

Along with Fiat’s own saloon, estate and van, other versions were produced by Abarth, Steyr-Puch (which used its own engine) and Zastava, though not, on this occasion, by Seat.

The little car’s extraordinarily cute appearance was largely transferred to the otherwise completely different 500 introduced in 2007, and was a significant factor in that car’s sales success.

16. Fiat 1800 (1959)

The new small Fiats of the 1950s were all very well, but the company still had to attend to customers who wanted something larger.

We’re using 1800 here as a general term, but it in fact covers both the car of that name and the almost identical 2100, which were powered by six-cylinder engines of 1.8 and 2.1 litres respectively.

The latter was replaced in 1961, but the 1800 remained in production for nearly a decade before being discontinued in 1968.

Another variant, added to the range in 1963, was the 1500L (the L standing for ​lunga, or ‘long’) which used the same 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine fitted to the smaller 1500.

17. Fiat 2300 (1961)

The replacement for the 2100 was named 2300 after the 2.3-litre derivative of the six-cylinder engine mounted under its bonnet.

This was the first Fiat available with an automatic transmission (made by Borg Warner), though customers could order the more usual manual and, if they chose, pay extra for an overdrive system designed by Laycock de Normanville and manufactured by Autobianchi.

The saloon and estate looked quite conventional in a 1960s sort of way, their most dramatic visual feature being quad headlights, but the coupé version was considerably more elegant.

The 2300S, available only as a coupé, had a much more powerful twin-carburettor version of the same engine, and was capable of 120mph.

18. Fiat 1300 and 1500 (1961)

For most of the 1960s, Fiat enthusiasts who wanted something larger than the 500 or 600, but smaller than the 1800 and its derivatives, had a choice of two models identical in almost every respect other than the sizes of their engines.

As their names implied, the 1300 and 1500 were powered by closely related 1295cc and 1481cc units, both with four cylinders.

While all versions were mechanically similar, there was a choice of conventional saloon and estate body styles on the one hand, and the significantly more dashing coupé and cabriolet on the other.

The Seat 1500 of this period might be assumed to be the Spanish-built version of the same car, but it was actually based on the larger 1500L mentioned previously.

19. Fiat 850 (1964)

Small, rear-engined European cars had been all the rage since just after the Second World War, but for an industrial giant like Fiat to launch a new one as late as 1964 seemed almost anachronistic.

In fact, the Turin company introduced its front-wheel-drive model that year through the back door, so to speak, in the form of the Autobianchi Primula, but kept the old layout for its own-brand 850.

Following what had by now become almost standard practice, the 850 was offered as a charmingly dumpy two-door saloon, the more obviously beautiful Spider (pictured) and Coupé, and an almost cuboid van – plus, if you lived in Spain, a four-door saloon developed by Seat.

The 850 survived until 1973, by which time it had been overtaken not only by other Fiats, but by most of the motor industry in general.

20. Fiat 124 (1966)

Far less famous today than the 500, the 124 was nevertheless a very significant car.

It hit the ground running, easily brushing aside opposition from the BMW 1600 and Jensen FF to win Fiat’s first Car of the Year award in 1967.

Available as a saloon or an estate (two-seater derivatives will be considered separately), it was offered in many states of tune, from a humble 1.2-litre model to the very much more powerful Special versions.

Production ended in 1974, but by that time the design had been modified to suit Russian conditions, and in this guise the 124 had a very long life as the series of models known internationally as Lada Classic.

21. Fiat 124 Sport Spider and Coupé (1966)

Designed by Tom Tjaarda while he was working at Pininfarina, the beautiful Spider version of the Fiat 124 was introduced in 1966, and followed a year later by the Coupé.

The latter was revised twice before being discontinued in 1975, but the Spider, which received only minimal updates, lasted a full decade longer.

Abarth’s high-performance version was a memorable road car in standard form, and also performed exceptionally well when upgraded for rallying.

In 1973, the first year of the World Rally Championship, the Abarth 124 Rally, as it was known, couldn’t keep up with the Alpine A110 because nothing could, but it was quick enough to take second place ahead of Ford, which had at its disposal the now legendary Escort RS 1600.

22. Fiat Dino (1966)

The main reason for the Dino’s existence was to provide a home for Ferrari’s new V6 engine, which had to be used in more road cars than Ferrari itself could possibly build in order to be homologated for Formula Two racing.

For the race cars, the V6 could have a capacity of no more than 1.6 litres, but it was perfectly acceptable for it to measure 1987cc both in the Fiat and in Ferrari’s own limited-production Dino 206GT.

Fiat produced two versions – the first, a Spider designed by Pininfarina, was launched in 1966, and was followed a year later by a Coupé (pictured) whose shape was the work of Bertone.

In 1969, the V6 was enlarged to 2418cc, in which form it would later be fitted to the Lancia Stratos.

23. Fiat 128 (1969)

A decade after the launch of the Mini, and five years since that of the Autobianchi Primula, Fiat finally adopted front-wheel drive and a transverse engine for a car bearing its name.

Unlike the Mini, the 128 had its gearbox mounted alongside the engine rather than underneath it, an arrangement which quickly became universal for front-wheel-drive cars and is still used now.

Indeed, this particular Fiat has been described in retrospect as ‘the true pioneer of the small cars we drive today’, and might therefore be the most influential model, if no longer the most famous, the company has ever produced.

In 1970, it was named Car of the Year, with the related A112 from Fiat-owned Autobianchi a distant second on 96 votes to the 128’s 235, and the Renault 12 (also front-wheel drive, but with the engine mounted longitudinally) third on 76.

24. Fiat 127 (1971)

While Fiat had cautiously kept the rear-engine set-up going for another generation (perhaps, in retrospect, one too many) with the 850, its successor was completely up to date.

The 127 used the same layout as the slightly larger 128, but in one respect it represented a further step forward.

While the 128 was offered as a saloon, an estate or a coupé, the 127’s body styles included Fiat’s first hatchback.

European journalists were so captivated that they named the 127 Car of the Year in 1972, making it the third Fiat to win the award, which had been established less than a decade earlier.

25. Fiat 126 (1972)

Front-wheel drive was on its way to becoming standard practice for what we now call superminis in 1972, but Fiat wasn’t quite ready yet to adopt it for the successor to the 500.

In some ways, in fact, the 126 was the child of an earlier age, with a two-cylinder engine mounted behind the rear axle.

Regarded at the time as less attractive than the Nuova 500 (though that could be said of almost any car ever built), the 126 nevertheless found many buyers, especially in eastern Europe.

This was especially the case in Poland, where the car – nicknamed maluch, or ‘baby’ – remained in production right the way through to 2000.

26. Fiat X1/9 (1972)

Visitors to the 1969 Turin show might have assumed that Bertone’s Runabout, based on the Autobianchi A112, was just another wedge-shaped concept (like the Ferrari 512S Speciale by Pininfarina parked a few yards away) which they probably wouldn’t see again.

In fact, they would have been able to buy a production version just three years later.

The X1/9, the only Fiat whose prototype code became its official name, was mid-engined, which would have been a technical challenge not long before, but could now be achieved simply by mounting the 128’s engine and gearbox between the rear wheels rather than the fronts.

Bertone not only completed the project under Fiat’s instruction, but continued building and selling the car under its own name after Fiat withdrew.

27. Fiat 131 (1974)

While the 124 was gradually transitioning into a Lada, Fiat developed its successor, officially called the 131 but also known as the Mirafiori, after the factory where it was built.

The company was by now very familiar with front-wheel drive, but not ready to use it in a medium-sized family car, and avoided taking that step until the 131 was replaced by the Regata in 1984.

Conventional though the range was as a whole, competition-prepared versions of the Abarth homologation special were used for Fiat’s rally programme, replacing the far more exciting Lancia Stratos.

This apparently odd decision led to great success. Walter Röhrl became the World Rally Champion driver in 1980 due to his performances in a 131 (Markku Alén had done much the same thing two years earlier when the equivalent title was the FIA Cup for Drivers), while the car earned Fiat the WRC manufacturers’ title in 1977, 1978 and 1980.

28. Fiat Panda (1980)

As the Nuova 500 and several other models demonstrate, Fiat has a long history producing small cars which are cheap, uncomplicated and very popular.

It did so again in 1980 when it launched the Panda, an extraordinarily basic car even for its time, but one that did the job for customers who needed the job in question to be done.

Most versions were front-wheel drive, but there was also a Panda 4x4, which provided a remarkable amount of off-road ability for very little cost.

The Panda is now in its third generation, but it says a great deal for the original model that its production run of 23 years is, at the time of writing, longer than those of the other two put together.

29. Fiat Uno (1983)

The Fiat Uno replaced the 127 in 1983, and quickly became one of Fiat’s most popular and longest-running models.

Unos were generally inexpensive and economical, but from 1985 it was also available as a turbocharged hot hatch, in which form it was exciting to drive, if not exactly restful.

By the time the Turbo (pictured) came along, the Uno had already been named Car of the Year, beating the Peugeot 205 by a whisker – 346 votes to 325 – but well ahead of the third-placed second-generation Volkswagen Golf, which scored 156.

Italian production came to an end in 1995, but Unos continued to be built under licence elsewhere in Europe, as well as in Asia and Africa, until 2014.

There are several estimates of how many were made, but Fiat’s own estimate is ‘about 9.5 million’, not including the unrelated model of the same name introduced in South America in 2010.

30. Fiat Punto (1993)

Although, as we’ve seen, production of the Uno lasted for a very long time, it was officially replaced as Fiat’s small hatchback by the Punto.

11 years after the Uno, and six after the larger Tipo, it was named Car of the Year, a title which was by now starting to seem destined for Italy almost every time Fiat released a new model.

Petrol engines ranged in size from 1.1 to 1.6 litres (though the most powerful was a 1.4 turbo), and diesels were also available, as was the Selecta CVT automatic transmission.

As with the Uno, more than nine million Puntos were built (the last leaving the factory in 2018), though in this case Fiat required three generations to reach that figure.

31. Fiat Coupé (1994)

Designed by a team led by Chris Bangle, who would go on to become more famous for his work at BMW, the Coupé was beyond question one of the two most dramatic-looking Fiats sold in the 1990s.

The smallest engine (not available in all markets) measured 1.8 litres, but more power was available from a 2.0, offered either with or without a turbo.

In 1996, it was replaced by a five-cylinder unit of the same capacity, again either naturally aspirated or with a turbo.

All 72,762 examples were built, not by Fiat, but by Pininfarina, before the car was discontinued in 2000.

From 1994 to 1997, Pininfarina manufactured more Fiat Coupés than anything else (it was overtaken in 1998 by the Peugeot 406 Coupé and 306 Cabriolet), and in the first two of those years it accounted for more than half the company’s entire production.

32. Fiat Multipla (1998)

Long after the 600 Multipla had faded into history, Fiat used the name again for another six-seater introduced near the end of the 20th century.

In an ingenious move which the rest of the motor industry paid no attention to, the seats were arranged in two rows of three rather than three rows of two, and everyone on board was incomparably better protected from a frontal impact than the unfortunate souls in the car’s distant predecessor had been.

The Multipla was very practical, but is best known for its appearance, which was once described, among other critical comments, as being like a ‘psychotic cartoon duck’.

Fiat backed down considerably with a 2004 facelift which left the Multipla as useful as it had been before, but far less distinctive.