1973 Fiat 124 Sport Coupe 1800
Discussion
TL/DR: I bought a red 1970s hotbox Fiat, and I like it.
This car has been busy hi-jacking my Lancia Beta Coupe's thread, which is hardly fair given that the Beta is currently immobilised by a busted clutch.
The long lived Fiat 124 range of the mid 1960s and the 1970s included sensible square looking family saloons, a small estate car, and a Spider, which was IIRC the longest lived of the lot (and had a modern revival in 2016). The saloon range lived on into the 1980s in Polish and other central to east European guises. All but the earliest cars had variants of the famous Aurelio Lampredi four cylinder twin cam engine, as also used with a different head by Lancia, and as used in various configurations by Alfa and even Morgan. Most versions of the Fiat 124 also had five speed gearboxes to drive the rear wheels, and other modern in their day tech included disc brakes all round.
The 124 range included three series of the Sport Coupe, a two door, four seater mini GT car. The first series, a 1400, and arguably the most elegant of the three, is very 1960s (and there is one for sale on eBay right now), whilst the second series received twin headlamps and some tech upgrades. The third series, on sale from 1973 to 1975, was the fastest and most 1970s-looking of the 124 Coupes. It remains a small and pretty car, but has a more aggressive frontal design than its predecessors, and was offered as a 1600 (1592 cc) and an 1800 (1756 cc), with a single Weber downdraught carburettor.
This car would have been competing head to head with its FWD Lancia Beta cousin, to a lesser extent with the BMW 02 series, and also with the (then) cheaper to buy sporty RWD Ford Escorts, which IIRC had twin cams or crossflows, usually the (famously good) Ford four speed, and drum brakes at the back.
I like small GT cars, and I like 70s Italian stuff. I cannot now afford Alfa 105 series cars (I had a 1977 Alfa Spider once, but family politics consumed it). I have owned several Lancia Betas and currently have a good 1978 1600 one. I had missed out on buying a blue RHD Series Two 124 Coupe a few years ago, and all the others that I'd seen coming up for sale had been LHD.
A friend in the north pointed me to the advert for this RHD October 1973 Series Three 1800, and he kindly drove his lovely Porsche 944 Turbo for an hour further north to check out the Fiat. He liked it, and I trust his judgment, so after a pleasant phone call with the pleasant and honest seller, I agreed a price and found a cheerful and simply enormous Polish dude on Shiply who wagoned the car down to south Oxfordshire.
I love it! The car is a well used example, with a lot of patina verging on scruffiness in the interior, a recent ish and not especially fabulous shiny red paint job, some bubbles but no readily apparent rust horrors, and working mechanicals and electrics. It probably has done something like the 115,000 miles showing on the Veglia Borletti speedo.
The car's main issues at present are -
(1) As advertised, it doesn't idle properly, and it cuts out at junctions. It always starts easily. I may fool around with the idle screw on the carb until my mech can get a look at it.
(2) The previous owner but one fitted a set of spectacularly terrible Chinese tyres. These are dire in the dry, and sketchy as all get out in the wet. These will soon be in the bin and replaced by some Pirellis or Uniroyals.
(3) The temperature gauge needle sticks, but responds to flngernail flicking.
(4) The car has jumped out of reverse a couple of times. The forward gears are fine.
(5) The car is missing some minor bits of trim, and one quarterlight and the two rear side windows are held shut by screws because the latches are missing or not working.
The car sounds fab. It has a great 1970s rorty, naughty, sporty sense of grunty urge to it. The steering is light, the brakes are fine, and even with the rubbish tyres I can get an idea that this is a car with great handling. It is over two years since I last drove my Beta (which is on Pirellis), so right now I cannot say which is the better handling of the two, but the 1800 Fiat version of the Lampredi feels a good deal quicker than the 1600 Lancia version of the Lampredi. The Lancia is a bit plusher inside, with head rests, side bolsters, bits of wood, posher switches, posher carpets, and more instruments (nine including the clock, against the Fiat's six). The Fiat's interior is very 70s sporty, with the alloy dashboard being a bit poor man's Series Three Lamborghini Espada (but without the 100 dials and 200 switches that an Espada has).
I think that this car is a bargain. Any old two door Escort of the mid 70s would cost waaaaay more than this Fiat, but would not, in my view, be quite such a good car; but that's markets for you!
This car has been busy hi-jacking my Lancia Beta Coupe's thread, which is hardly fair given that the Beta is currently immobilised by a busted clutch.
The long lived Fiat 124 range of the mid 1960s and the 1970s included sensible square looking family saloons, a small estate car, and a Spider, which was IIRC the longest lived of the lot (and had a modern revival in 2016). The saloon range lived on into the 1980s in Polish and other central to east European guises. All but the earliest cars had variants of the famous Aurelio Lampredi four cylinder twin cam engine, as also used with a different head by Lancia, and as used in various configurations by Alfa and even Morgan. Most versions of the Fiat 124 also had five speed gearboxes to drive the rear wheels, and other modern in their day tech included disc brakes all round.
The 124 range included three series of the Sport Coupe, a two door, four seater mini GT car. The first series, a 1400, and arguably the most elegant of the three, is very 1960s (and there is one for sale on eBay right now), whilst the second series received twin headlamps and some tech upgrades. The third series, on sale from 1973 to 1975, was the fastest and most 1970s-looking of the 124 Coupes. It remains a small and pretty car, but has a more aggressive frontal design than its predecessors, and was offered as a 1600 (1592 cc) and an 1800 (1756 cc), with a single Weber downdraught carburettor.
This car would have been competing head to head with its FWD Lancia Beta cousin, to a lesser extent with the BMW 02 series, and also with the (then) cheaper to buy sporty RWD Ford Escorts, which IIRC had twin cams or crossflows, usually the (famously good) Ford four speed, and drum brakes at the back.
I like small GT cars, and I like 70s Italian stuff. I cannot now afford Alfa 105 series cars (I had a 1977 Alfa Spider once, but family politics consumed it). I have owned several Lancia Betas and currently have a good 1978 1600 one. I had missed out on buying a blue RHD Series Two 124 Coupe a few years ago, and all the others that I'd seen coming up for sale had been LHD.
A friend in the north pointed me to the advert for this RHD October 1973 Series Three 1800, and he kindly drove his lovely Porsche 944 Turbo for an hour further north to check out the Fiat. He liked it, and I trust his judgment, so after a pleasant phone call with the pleasant and honest seller, I agreed a price and found a cheerful and simply enormous Polish dude on Shiply who wagoned the car down to south Oxfordshire.
I love it! The car is a well used example, with a lot of patina verging on scruffiness in the interior, a recent ish and not especially fabulous shiny red paint job, some bubbles but no readily apparent rust horrors, and working mechanicals and electrics. It probably has done something like the 115,000 miles showing on the Veglia Borletti speedo.
The car's main issues at present are -
(1) As advertised, it doesn't idle properly, and it cuts out at junctions. It always starts easily. I may fool around with the idle screw on the carb until my mech can get a look at it.
(2) The previous owner but one fitted a set of spectacularly terrible Chinese tyres. These are dire in the dry, and sketchy as all get out in the wet. These will soon be in the bin and replaced by some Pirellis or Uniroyals.
(3) The temperature gauge needle sticks, but responds to flngernail flicking.
(4) The car has jumped out of reverse a couple of times. The forward gears are fine.
(5) The car is missing some minor bits of trim, and one quarterlight and the two rear side windows are held shut by screws because the latches are missing or not working.
The car sounds fab. It has a great 1970s rorty, naughty, sporty sense of grunty urge to it. The steering is light, the brakes are fine, and even with the rubbish tyres I can get an idea that this is a car with great handling. It is over two years since I last drove my Beta (which is on Pirellis), so right now I cannot say which is the better handling of the two, but the 1800 Fiat version of the Lampredi feels a good deal quicker than the 1600 Lancia version of the Lampredi. The Lancia is a bit plusher inside, with head rests, side bolsters, bits of wood, posher switches, posher carpets, and more instruments (nine including the clock, against the Fiat's six). The Fiat's interior is very 70s sporty, with the alloy dashboard being a bit poor man's Series Three Lamborghini Espada (but without the 100 dials and 200 switches that an Espada has).
I think that this car is a bargain. Any old two door Escort of the mid 70s would cost waaaaay more than this Fiat, but would not, in my view, be quite such a good car; but that's markets for you!
Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 4th July 10:44
While googling around your new car I've just found this piece. Three faves of mine and similar cars to the poster I have in my garage from AutoItalia magazine.
https://classicandsportscar.com/features/cut-above...
https://classicandsportscar.com/features/cut-above...
thouse!
gforceg said:
While googling around your new car I've just found this piece. Three faves of mine and similar cars to the poster I have in my garage from AutoItalia magazine.
https://classicandsportscar.com/features/cut-above...
Good article, thanks! I have driven a 1971 Alfa GT 1300 Junior and it was possibly the most perfectly balanced and most delightful car that I have ever driven. I have never tried a Fulvia. I like the looks of the AC (first) series of Fiat, but I rate the middle phase BC as the best looking of the three, and the end of the line CC, whilst less pretty, has the perfectly square 1600 or the grunty 1800 to enhance it. https://classicandsportscar.com/features/cut-above...
and the brakes were not the best...This car does have a fair chunk of boy racer to it.
This American dude is smoooooooooth, however.
You have to read the next bit in your best Ron Swanson voice.
Ron cannot officially approve, because Fiats are from Europe, and, moreover, an internal combustion propulsion unit that has fewer than eight cylinders cannot be a motor, but Ron approves.
This American dude is smoooooooooth, however.
You have to read the next bit in your best Ron Swanson voice.
Ron cannot officially approve, because Fiats are from Europe, and, moreover, an internal combustion propulsion unit that has fewer than eight cylinders cannot be a motor, but Ron approves.
We had load of Fiats in the 60s/70s as my Dad had a Fiat dealer as a client.
I loved the 124 sports and my Dad had one of the early ones with single headlights and smaller engine.
Unfortunately an argument with a Viva put an end to it.
There has been one for sale, like yours, in Dublin for ages.
I loved the 124 sports and my Dad had one of the early ones with single headlights and smaller engine.
Unfortunately an argument with a Viva put an end to it.
There has been one for sale, like yours, in Dublin for ages.
Breadvan72 said:
This car would have been competing head to head with its FWD Lancia Beta cousin, to a lesser extent with the BMW 02 series, and also with the (then) cheaper to buy sporty RWD Ford Escorts, which IIRC had twin cams or crossflows, usually the (famously good) Ford four speed, and drum brakes at the back.
Nice primer! Let me play devil's advocate, though. The'02, the Fulvia, the 124 series and the 105 series cars all had steering boxes, whereas the Escort had a steering rack. Not only it is much more precise, but its accuracy does not degrade so much over time, as it happens with the others. I tried an otherwise very nice Fulvia whose steering had not been properly fettled and it was an absolute letdown. My partner's '78 Spider has very nice steering, but again, it is not a rack.
Interestingly I read once a long and involved post by some French Alfa Romeo guru which explained that the 105 series' steering setup is nigh-on perfect while in perfect condition, whereas the 116 series, which has a rack, did not behave so consistently under max loads...
In the late 70s the lack of a steering rack was fixed by Seat on some homologation-special Seat 124s (first with 1.8, then with 1.9 Lampredi engines). They successfully adapted the 131 Mirafiori one. I have always wondered whether the VFTS took advantage of Seat's steering rack fitment or kept the worm and roller.
The other point in the Escort's favour was the overall robustness of the body. The rear of the Giulia GTs and 124 saloons flexed while going really, really hard; in rallies it was not uncommon for the rear screen to pop out. So much so that in the 70s some 124 saloons had welded rear doors – a practice later outlawed by the CSI/FISA, I think.
Nice to see the wee Fiat has its own thread - as for the interior it looks pretty damned good for its age and maybe better than you've described it. What a great find though, good 124s don't come out of the woodwork that often, especially in RHD form. It's always surprised me how in its shortish lifespan it went through three facelifts, with two different front ends, two different rear quarterlight styles and three different rear ends.
The question is - will it be a keeper....?
Last night I was watching a cheesy '70s Italian 'Politzia' thriller starring Maurizio Merli with the obligatory car chases thrown in, it was filmed in Rome in '76 and besides the hoards of 500s and Alfas there were several 124s Coupes in amongst the traffic, they looked pretty cool on screen whilst being driven with considerable panache.
The question is - will it be a keeper....?
Last night I was watching a cheesy '70s Italian 'Politzia' thriller starring Maurizio Merli with the obligatory car chases thrown in, it was filmed in Rome in '76 and besides the hoards of 500s and Alfas there were several 124s Coupes in amongst the traffic, they looked pretty cool on screen whilst being driven with considerable panache.
Edited by P5BNij on Saturday 4th July 12:57
Breadvan72 said:
[
A friend in the north pointed me to the advert for this RHD October 1973 Series Three 1800, and he kindly drove his lovely Porsche 944 Turbo for an hour further north to check out the Fiat. He liked it]
I did indeed like it and am very glad to see it properly embarned and scheduled for sympathetic improvement. A friend in the north pointed me to the advert for this RHD October 1973 Series Three 1800, and he kindly drove his lovely Porsche 944 Turbo for an hour further north to check out the Fiat. He liked it]
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