This caught my attention in traffic heading out West 6th Avenue, and I was just barely able to peel off a couple of Hail Mary shots, as it wasn’t moving and my lane was. It’s a car I’ve never caught in the wild before, and not likely to do so again: a Fiat 1200 Spyder, from about 1957-1958.
It’s not exactly a styling gem; in fact, I’ve never really liked it all that much, as it’s clearly aping an early-mid-50s Cadillac, with the chrome leading edge of its bulbous hips and wrap-around windshield. A Fiat Series 1.2 Convertible.
Fiat’s first crack at the fast-growing sports car market in the fifties was the 1200, which arrived in 1957, based on the popular Fiat 1100 platform. This was not a Pininfarina design, as if that wasn’t all-too obvious. An in-house design by Fabio Rapi, it was trying way too hard to look American, and ends up looking like an amusement park kiddie-ride-mobile.With 53 hp, it probably wasn’t much faster.
Too stubby and bulbous, with overwrought details, including that very badly cribbed vertical chrome strip on the hips à la Cadillac. An Allante, three decades too soon (oops; that was by Pininfarina).
Fiat quickly saw the error of its ways, and hired Pininfarina to design its elegant successor, the 1200 Spyder of 1959. Of course, like so many PF jobs, its themes were also to be soon found on the Peugeot 404 Coupe/Cabrio, as well as of course on Ferraris, in more extravagant versions.
The 1200 became the 1500 Spider/Cabrio, and I spotted one nearby a few years back. The full write-up is here.
I did get a second shot, obviously from my old truck, but it doesn’t reveal much more than the first. We do have a restoration shop that specializes in old Fiats and other Italian cars, so it may well be coming or going to it.
Wow, I can just imagine the mad scramble to get to the phone/camera, get it in photo mode and hope it doesn’t get fat-fingered and ruin the shot of something you won’t get a second bite at!
What a great find and it’s evident how small it is, that trailer wheel/tire looks positively huge even though it’s just a regular car trailer tire along with all the extra space on the trailer.
Excellent color choices too.
Interesting that the colors on the car match the colors on the car in the brochure, right down to the red wheels (are they showing through the wheel covers or is that simply painted inserts in the wheel cover itself?). Coincidence?
Those are fake wire wheel covers, so yes, the red painted wheel shows through.
Super-rare find. Never seen one in person.
Reminds me of a big Goggomobil, not a small Caddy.
I have never seen one of these before, and don’t think I even knew it existed at all.
First, it is hard to imagine you getting a more perfect shot off in really challenging conditions. These really are excellent shots.
I really want to like this car. The publicity photographers must have worked hard to find two angles that really flatter the car. I like the car in the publicity photos, but the ones from real life, not so much. There is much awkwardness in that straight-on side view.
It must have been a terrible job to try to run an in-house design outfit at one of the Italian manufacturers. In the US Raymond Loewy and Brooks Stevens got most of the contract work but were really seen mostly on those who couldn’t afford to maintain a decent studio. In Italy the situation seems to have been reversed.
I only ever saw these in European movies, and it didn’t actually strike me as a “sports” car – more an exotic little two seat convertible with a slightly pretentious windscreen….
What a find. I hope you can track it down (at the shop?) for a fuller post one day.
Nice catch! That’s a cute car, but definitely agree that the restyled version is much better looking, if slightly generic. The “Caddy” version is certainly unique. Did they sell these in the U.S.? Like most Americans, I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen one even at classic car events.
As best as I can tell they were sold here. Undoubtedly in small numbers.
“As best as I can tell they were sold here. Undoubtedly in small numbers.”
Yes. Somewhere I have old photos of a baby blue Fiat 1200 Spyder that a female friend of my boss in NYC kept in a garage under her Manhattan apartment. Early-ish 1960s or thereabouts, my father and I were asked on a few occasions to bring the car out to Long Island where a local Lincoln/Mercury dealer serviced it and made requested repairs.
As Uncle Mellow says, it was not a sports car, but it made me feel a bit sporty driving it with the top down (remember, my DD was a 1953 Fluid Drive Chrysler). While I do not think any car is really a chick car, this was as close to one as I have ever come upon. Compared to contemporary Healys, TR3s, Bug Eyes, and MGAs, the 1200 Spyder was down right frilly.
It have few gauges, mostly warning lights and the dashboard was thickly padded with an soft, off white patterned material. The seats swung out for graceful exits of mini skirted drivers (and passengers) and the top went up much like a NA Miata (not common in mid-1950s “sports” cars).
The hood ornament had two sharp point facing rearward which I clearly remember because I impaled my hand on one of those points while washing the car.
It had fake wire wheels and white wall tires.
(I found a 1967 photo of my first son Chris who was born in late 1965, in front of the 1200, so I guess my father was still bringing the car out from NYC as late as 1967 making the car 10 years old.)
Great find Paul. A super rare curio that I’ve never seen in the flesh but have a real soft spot for. Fussy, yes but also a nice period piece. Its US intentions were clearer in development phase.
Somewhere on You Tube is a clip of Let’s Make a Deal where a battered example
of one was a “zonk”.