We had a whole month of ‘60s in March, yet nothing from Italy? For shame! Let’s remedy that with two weeks of the loveliest cars of that blessed decades. Though I’m sure we can all agree that there were plenty of big ugly cars made throughout automotive history, larger front-engined chassis are less of a challenge than tiny rear-engines two-seaters. Getting the proportions right on those is tricky business, but if anyone could do it, the legendary trio of Fiat, Bertone and Giugiaro would be the winning ticket.
Some called it “the baby Ferrari” or the “miniature Miura,” though it came out a year before the groundbreaking Lambo: the Fiat Spider appeared at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1965.
It all started with the 850 berlina, launched in May 1964 with a view to replace the near-decade-old 600. In the end, the 850’s slightly larger engine and more luxurious presentation enabled it to live side by side with the old 600, albeit with more ambitions. And a lot of one-off / small series coachbuilt variants.
I researched said coachbuilt variants and found a lot of stuff, but I would rather use them to illustrate a post about the plain-Jane 850 berlina, which will happen at some juncture (the photos are already in the can). I’ll just single out this one; the Miura vibes are overwhelming, down to the louvres on the back window, even though this 850-based one-off was made in 1969 by Vignale, not Bertone.
The Spider was not a one-off, far from it. Fiat sold over 130k of these little things between 1965 and 1973, including a few Spanish-built SEAT versions. Our featured car is an early model with the delicate glass-covered headlamps.
The 850 Spider’s distinctive nose owes nothing to the Miura, obviously. However, there is a connection to the Corvair – to be precise, Bertone’s 1963 Corvair Testudo show car, also authored by Giorgetto Giugiaro.
The squared-off rear end, on the other hand, was entirely exclusive to the Fiat, espousing the novel Kamm-tail philosophy. This brought the Fiat 850 Spider bang up to date, design-wise. By contrast, the quasi-contemporary Alfa Romeo Spider, designed by Pininfarina and launched in 1966, was still stuck in the ‘50s. Apparently, the rear light clusters were used on the very first Miuras, as well as the De Tomaso Mangusta.
Alas, the 850 Spider’s sculptural nose did not remain this was for very long. Fiat were selling quite a few 850 Spiders on the American market, and new federal safety requirements meant a number of European cars had to get sealed beams sans glass covers. Most only did it for their US-bound products, but Fiat and a few others just made the US version the default.
The other sporty 850, the Coupé (designed by Mario Boano for Fiat Centro Stile) was unaffected by this headlamp business, though it did gain an extra pair, placed in-board. The other change was terminology: both of these cars became the 850 Sport in March 1968. And that wasn’t all, as there was movement on the engine front.
The engine evolved strangely in the US, being brought down to 800cc to dodge emissions regulations. The rest of the world got a more logical upgrade to 903cc, though both versions did end up providing 52hp. The car we’re looking at today still has the original launch motor, i.e. a 843cc 4-cyl. good for 49hp – a couple horses more than what the Coupé got and quite a lot more than what the base saloon was given. This meant the Spider could hope to reach over 140kph, provided the road was nice and flat and the winds were in its favour.
Sporty, the 850 was not. At least, in its standard version. There were some Abarth bits one could add to boost performance – or one could fork out a small fortune and get the whole Abarth package, known as the Fiat-Abarth OT 1000, comprising a souped-up 982cc engine churning out a not-so-whopping 62hp. The truly spicy 106hp Abarth OTR 1000 spec was only available on closed bodies.
The 850 Spider, with or without a scorpion badge, was more at home cruising on the back roads of the Riviera and puttering about the piazza than fighting Alfas for supremacy on the autostrade. Even in “racing red,” it remained a humble Fiat.
It didn’t have to be red, of course. This is the 1971 colour chart, just so we can have an idea of the available palette. Not that this was necessarily the same five years earlier…
The cabin is very well-appointed, as expected for a Bertone-badged car. Many Spiders seem to have been decorated with plastiwood – our example even has some on the ashtray, but some early cars have an all-black dash and later ones usually sport a brushed aluminium look.
Is it time to get going already? No, that’s neither a yeti nor a pro basketball player getting in the front seat, but a normal-sized Japanese man. The 850 Spider is that low and narrow.
This delightful Fiat is quite a small package, in every way. Mind you, they do say good things come in those.
Related posts:
Vintage Review: Fiat 850 Spider, by Yohai71
Vintage R&T Road Test: 1968 Fiat 850 Spider – The Miura Of Cheap Sports Cars, by PN
Cohort Sighting: Fiat 850 Spider – Reminder Of A Happier Day, by Perry Shoar
COAL #3: 1969 Fiat 850 Spider – The Sexy Little Italian, by Ed Hardey
These were not that rare in Midwestern USA. I recall thinking they were nice looking but impossibly small and the rear engine troubled me. And I had a friend with an Austin-Healey Sprite so it wasn’t like I was biased against small sports cars.
130K sold? Cute little car but most Americans aren’t interested in a 850cc car that can’t reach legal speed limits and is more like a golf cart. Maybe some that never leave a city and 35 MPH speed limits. And most engines don’t last long driven at WOT all the time.
The 850cc version could top 80 mph and do 0 to 60 mph in around 20–21 seconds, which was in the same realm as base-engine domestic compacts of the time. The gearing wasn’t well-suited for interstate travel, though, that’s for sure.
The early versions with 49 HP prolly struggled to 60 MPH…
Well I can believe the 130k number because they weren’t a rare sighting in the Midwest. You could still buy MG Midgets at that time so micro sportscars were available and the Fiat had them all beat in the looks. Yes of course avoid interstate travel.
Great essay on a car that has long fascinated me – the “Baby Ferrari”. I have loved these since I had first seen the 1971 film “L’Automobile” some years back, which starred the great Anna Magnani, where a yellow one of these was essentially a supporting character.
Just lovely! What a great design – those proportions are not the easiest to work with and the team did a masterful job. That original front end is very pretty and the interior well done.
My kind of vehicle – small, rear engined and designed at my old workplace, Bertone!
Belissima!
When I was younger, I didn’t care much for Fiat and its products. But the older (more mature?) I get, the more I appreciate most of them.
It’s just a shame that the models from the ’60s and ’70s received almost no rust protection (already rusting in the brochure, as they say in my mother’s land).
The main problem of rust with Italian cars of that era wasn’t so much a matter of poor-quality steel (“Russian” or otherwise), or lack of rustproofing (which hardly any other mfrs. did either), or lack of any concern over rust prevention but, rather, labor unrest rife across the country in that time.
Frequent and spontaneous walkouts and strikes would often leave bare body shells and panels sitting idle and exposed to the elements for brief to extended periods of time, giving rust a headstart before they ever saw any paint.
Whether and how badly any particular car was affected by premature/severe rust depended largely on whether and how long its construction was interrupted and at what point.
This neatly explains why some people insist their Italian car rusted catastrophically while others insist theirs, even of the exact same model and year, didn’t really rust much if any worse than any other cars of the era — it all depended on exactly when their own particular car was built.
Rusty on delivery in the 1980s as well. Fiat supposedly had a 6 year rust guarantee, but try getting the bits that were rusty when new fixed… Hasn’t stopped Fiat being the driving force behind St*ll*nt*s.
What a beautiful little car! It will also fit right in with the Kei class in Japan. When I lived in Japan, it always surprised me how many cool cars were on the road.
Sure looks great to me ! .
I remember every time Fiat dropped a new model they’d sell a bunch then a few years later they’d be the typical clapped out barely running Fiat of jokes .
I didn’t realize until the late 1970’s that Fiat’s were in fact good little cars but required proper maintenance .
-Nate
I agree about the colors, I always think of 850 Spiders as blue because that’s the only color I’ve seen in person. I also wonder if the 850 had any influence on the Honda Beat, since it a similar size and layout, apart from being mid engined rather than rear engined.
The Vignale one off is very attractive but definitely a sheep in wolf’s clothing reminiscent of the Renault Floride.
Regarding size I believe the X 1/9 is close and I fit into one of those. The X 1/9 also benefited from a bigger engine, a 1979 US spec car did 0-60 in 11 seconds, significantly quicker than an 850, but with almost twice the displacement.
They are tiny but a nice urban cruiser open cars and long distance dont work well it rains here a lot, I wanted a 850 coupe but couldnt find one without the dreaded metal termites already installed, shame because they were great to drive.
My older brother bought an orange 1972 850 spider brand new. When he left for boot camp, he left it in our mom’s care. Mom couldn’t drive a stick & didn’t care for tiny foreign cars so I took care of it. The 1st month he was gone, I put about 2000 miles on it. I’m 6’3″ and had no trouble fitting in it, especially since we lived in San Diego which has perfect weather, most of the time so the top stayed down almost all of the time. It was a blast to drive and while it was no rocket ship, I saw slightly over 100 mph on interstate 8 one night with no wind or traffic present. Too bad they don’t make cars like these any more.