Fiat Spiders

Here is the story of one of my favourite "youngtimers", the Fiat Barchetta.






Yes, you can say that it is a bit of a hairdressers-car, but just think about it, this car is almost 20 years old and it still looks good!

That there where some rumours from Turin in the early 90's about a genuine new spider was not a real suprise. Fiat has a great history with convertible models in the 50's and 60's with the Dino Spider (FERRARI!!) V6 (1966-73) as the most exclusive.

They don't make 'em this pretty anymore sadly.

After the sporty 2-seater X1/9 with the targa roof (1972-88), it became a bit quiet.

Now that's some advertising!

The Fiat Barchetta was created to revive the Fiat convertible spirit and was launched in 1995.

The Barchetta had a 1.8 and was the first engine from a whole new range  that had the absolutely wonderful sounding five-cylinder from the Lancia Kappa as top of the range.

The 1.8 four-cylinder in the Barchetta delivered 130hp which was more then enough for the nimble 1.060kg car.

while doing some research on this subject I found a very interesting story about a Barchetta coupé!

Fiat Barchetta Coupe by Maggiora 1997
After Andrea Zapatanis, drew the convertible Barchetta, he proposed to the boses a coupe version. This idea was immediately rejected because Fiat already had a coupe in range.
Later Maggiora that built the Barchetta with Fiat developed this prototype but Fiat rejected this second proposal again.

 

(source: http://www.all-car-brands.com/fiat/concepts-and-prototypes/1997-fiat-barchetta-coupe-by-maggiora/)