Rest assured, readers, that we’re not quite finished with AMC week here at CC. There’s more of Kenosha’s finest in store over the next day and a half (and forever after that), but I just had to share these excellent photos of a Fiat/Alfa/Lancia graveyard uploaded to the Cohort by willmanhattan way back in May.
Pictures of these Italian retirees in what appears to be Australia seemed the perfect compliment to yesterday’s piece on the AMC burial ground. There are a large number of models rarely seen in the US nor, at this point, in the rest of the world. The red sedan with its rear end smashed in appears to be a Fiat 128 124 sedan and the pewter sedan to its left is an Alfa Romeo 90, the 164’s predecessor.
Most every one of Alfa’s most flawed (and to me, most desirable) sedans of the 1970s and 1980s is represented here, many from before the Fiat takeover. Kudos to whoever can correctly guess the black car directly behind the white 156 (click for a better view).
The selection of Lancias is less impressive, with most models dating from after the Fiat acquisition. Not a Gamma, Stratos or Fulvia to be seen here.
There are a few Betas, though; there’s a blue Berlina shown above and an green HPE, at the bottom right of this picture.
As for Fiat itself, there’s quite a selection, from the family friendly 132 (parked behind the Celica and in front of the delivery van) to the spartan 126. That Maserati Biturbo Spyder looks either to be a daily driver or newly left to rot among its compatriots.
The rarest and most interesting car in this lot, however, is this white Fiat 130 sedan. It was Fiat’s final executive car and came with the company’s only V6. There can’t be many examples left in the world, especially of the sedan.
There is, naturally, a Fiat 127, which Zastava rebodied with sharp early ’80s lines to create the Koral/Yugo. The model pictured is a Series 1 and was once a common sight nearly everywhere. I can see myself really enjoying one as a daily, perhaps with a big cam and dual Webers. There’s another Alfa 90 decaying behind it and a Fiat 126 in front of it, slowly sinking into the earth. Luckily, there are plenty 126s to go around.
I’d be remiss not to give this X1/9 a mention, which still looks fetching in its metallic cerulean paint. Extra points to those who can identify the red fastback squeezed between the two white 126s, and parked behind the leftmost red Alfa 33 (again, click to enlarge).
There are plenty of Alfa 75s and 164s to be seen. Also note the Fiat 500 carcass in the very back.
Whether the parts cars here serve much of a purpose to their roadworthy counterparts is debatable. This collection appears to be more of an example of hoarding but if I were a neighbor, I wouldn’t complain.
While not an Italian car, this Pug was styled by Pininfarina and, like large Italian sedans, was sold alongside a sexy and substantially different coupe variant. Only its relative reliability and lack of lusty engines keep it from being an honorary Italian. Just imagine if PSA decided to buy a bunch of engines from Alfa, saving both development money and the Italian firm’s viability.
I’m sure politics played a role in the way things turned out; French workers needed jobs too. Unfortunately, I did not find an Alfasud, the Italian car similarly conceived with reducing unemployment in mind. I’m slightly disappointed there was no Lancia Flavia or Fulvia on display, but I would like to think this simply means most are somewhere else, being taken care of. The same goes for the conspicuously absent Alfa Giulia sedans. Better to be loved and cherished than left to rot in this junkyard of good taste.
Quite the collection indeed. And that black car is a Fiat 124 Coupe, one of my favs. A friend of mine has one, and I need to get over and shoot it. That reminds me, I need to do that before he sells it.
Just got a few shots of it now, for a future CC. These 124 Coupes have become quite rare, unlike the Spider.
I love the 124 Coupe; that red one is sweet.
A girl I worked with (about 1979/80) had a tan ’73. One day she asked me to look at it as she thought there was something wrong with it (well, it was a Fiat). I drove it with her in the passenger seat when she said, “How are you doing that?” When I asked her what she was talking about, she said, “driving it so smoothly?”
Many of these cars had what we used to refer to as “drivetrain snatch”. If you weren’t smooth with the clutch they would kind of surge and un-surge (probably not a word) like a rubber band was in the driveline. Did these have Guibo joints (rubber donuts) in the driveshaft?
Anyway, what was “wrong” with the car was she couldn’t drive it.
By the way, the later US versions had possibly the worst 5 MPH bumpers ever, and should have been nominated in the Bad Bumpers post; I just didn’t think of it at the time.
Love the 124 Coupe, especially the BC version. I think a 2 litre version was planned to be launched in the states as the 132 Coupe; it looked identical to the plasticated 1800 CC. Looking forward to the post.
So, I guess Tony the mechanic moved out of town? 🙂
Certainty not a selection I would see in my neck of the woods today.
The people who are letting me strip a Singer interior have a small pile of Italian wrecks on their property nothing as elaborate as this though.
There’s a white Alfa Romeo 156, that was the last Alfa model that sold really well throughout Europe. Introduced in 1997, a design of Walter de’Silva. (Now working at the VAG-Group.)
It had no rear door handles. Well, sort of, they where hidden in the black window frame.
The Alfa 156 was also the very first car on the market with common rail diesel injection.
Either a 1.9 liter 4 cylinder or a 2.4 liter 5 cylinder. It was the final breakthrough, performance wise, for diesel engines.
The little red fastback must be an Alfa 33. Not even in Northern Europe an unsuccesful car. Worth mentioning for Alfas.
I think the black car behind the Alfa 156 is a Maserati Biturbo 4 door.
An Alfa 90 in the first pic. Extremely rare, almost exclusively sold in Italy, like all large Italians. Not unstylish though, the kind of cars that give Italian motorway trips an exotic touch for northerners.
Is that a Fiat Croma standing behind it ?
Hard to say, generically styled as they are and almost identical to the Lancia Thema, the Saab 9000, the Peugeot 605 and probably some more. Any Italians here to assist?
It has a lift-back, making it a Croma.
The Fiat edition of that Fiat-Alfa Romeo-Lancia-Saab platform.
(Photo: Rudolf Stricker/Wikipedia)
The red car beside the fence while looking Italian I suspect is a FSO from Poland.
The small Fiats 126 were built in Poland till 2000 as Polski Fiat, Maluch or 126 bis, but never under the FSO brand though.
It would be a FSM Niki, sold here in small quantities in the late ’80s. A terrible, terrible car, all the vices of the Fiat version, without it’s saving charms.
Glen, those 126 may have been terrible according to American standards (clearly unfit for the motorway), but they were quite brilliant in their design, meant to be a modernized successor to the Fiat 500. Minimal surface with maximum utility. Believe me, designing a good small car is waaaaay more technically challenging than a heavily motorized large car. This is why American manufacturers got stuck in the motoring stone age for so long. Low fuel prices did not force them innovate.
Oh, not criticising the Fiat, except for the issues some had with the build quality,etc. In most European cities these were close to the perfect car and even here in Australia they got a deserved good reputation!
The Polish FSM version was a different kettle of fish though. By the time it arrived here, it was seriously outdated compared to the Japanese competition, the Polish specification lacked the lively sporty handling of the Italian version and the build quality made the real Fiat look like a Mercedes Benz.
There was simply no joy in owning one to make up for the compromises inherent in the aging Fiat design- a small Fiat is a wonderful car to drive, and these were quite horrible behind the wheel.
I do agree with you there. True, very very true. What strikes me most though, is that someone actually bothered shipping those all the way down under. I mean, they may have been usefull for many (eastern European but one can’t seriously expect this to be purposefull in any way in Ozzieland.
Just wondering how wide your kiwi cycle lanes are! In Poland they were sold und der Fiat brand. FSO (abbreviation of Polish Passenger Car Factory) elsewhere in Europe was used for the larger but objectively crap Polonez cars, based on the infamous Fiat 124 / Lada 1200. These Polonez did not obtain a cult following like the Maluch / 126 does in Poland these days, and rightly so.
Not hugely wide the owner of the local survivor told me of this trick he uses to beat traffic shots of it are on the cohort somewhere in a previous photo stream of mine
I think it might have been one of those “cars for wheat” deals done in the late Communist period. We got POS shit Lada Samaras about the same time under one of those trades.
Pretty sure the Communist Bloc got the better end of the deal.
Interesting story, about these deals, Glen. Thinking about it, it sounds reasonable. The GDR did such deals as well with Western Germany: cheap goods for technology or affordable loans. The Lada 1200 at least had the advantage of being based on a good original design, but the Samara was, at least technically, entirely conceived in the USSR, hence crap from the bottom up. That may also explain how some Lada Nivas ended up in Canada, even though those Nivas do have, objectively, their merits.
They do fit in cycle lanes though probably the only useful feature theres one live survivor locally but not registered as a Nikki its a FSM not FSO sorry
quite agree re 126 and designing small cars in general. Drove the (latest version of the previous model) Panda last year (I believe the two designs overlapped) and it was brilliant. The designers of this car have a WAY harder job than BMW do making an M3, for example, in my humble op.
Seeing this I immediately thought : A taste of their own medicine, RUST.
Italian cars were quite poorly built and rustprotection was non existing.
In Italy they still lived three times longer, you could sweep up an AlfaSud or Lancia Beta after three four years in Northern Europe.
But they have become more clever in salvaging the right stuff, no Innocenti Mini’s there (these are Italian assembled Mini’s and their Cooper 1300 is now worth a fortune), no Giulia’s – they love them themselves nowadays. like Fulvia’s and Fulvia Coupes.
And unfortunately, a great car like a 130 Sedan (a period BMW or S class Mercedes alternative) will never be worth much.
Odd that no Egyptian or Tunesian guy has discovered that 504 Pug, they love the 404 and 504 even today in north Africa, especialy in the Taxi business.
This place looks like it’s in South Eastern Queensland, but the couple of number plates on cars are too small to make out the state.
I photographed these. They are in the Northside Brisbane neighborhood of Boondall, right by the train station. This older Italian lady started yelling (??) at me from across the street so I left after I thought I took a suitable amount of photos.
Might just have to take a drive to Boondall later…
That explains the rust QLD humidity.
Please tell me she spoke with an Italian accent and gesticulated wildly.
I think the red sedan with the smashed in backend is a 124 sedan not a 128. The 128 was significantly more square than the 124. This one has the roundness in the roofline of a 124.
You are correct. The squarer, thicker fenders, with a character line at bumper height, along with door handles below the doors’ squared off shoulders show this is a 124. I figured that the 124 would have a full metal bulkhead behind the rear seatback, not an exposed cushion with some basic metal bars to hold it in place. That seems more in line with most FWD cars, hence I thought it was a 128.
But you are right.
my father had a 124 wagon growing not much too it under the skin. but a great car none the less, too me at least. great pics.
I’m not sure which red car between two white 126’s you mean, but in that pic is what looks to me like an Autobianchi in front of the red 33 and the black car just in front of that one.
If its an Autobianchi, that would be rare. They weren’t imported over here. My guess is the 128 Coupe in the second body-style.
I think he means the car that is directly between (diagonally) the two white 126/FSM Nikis, visible in the top picture missing a big chunk of it’s ass. I believe that’s another Fiat 124 Coupe minus it’s entire rear third, but I could be wrong. I can’t think of anything else with that same rear window shape and such slim pillars.
The one you guys are looking at may be a later model Fiat 127 (124 Coupe pictured below).
Good call. Shoulda looked at the C-pillar. I’ve never seen a Fiat with the trunk sawn off; why would you do that? Oh yeah, its AMC week.
I meant the first picture with the blue X1/9 in the foreground. There is a greenish-silver Alfa 75 (Milano over here) right behind it, then the red thing beyond the top of the front of the Alfa’s roof. That rear pillar looks too upright for a 128 coupe. Most of the Autobianchi;s had a back insert in the rear pillar but they do exist in body color as well. I see some sort of cut line there (but it could be the fence in the way as well).
What no Fiat 500 examples? The Alfa Milano was a common enough sight in my area in the early 1990’s but are pretty much gone now
With asking prices reaching $20,000, even a 500 rustbucket would probably be worth more than the Biturbo (emoticon smile).
There is a 500, a yellow one in the third pic from above. Right in the middle of the picture, parked against an electricity pole.
Italian/Japanese junk yard! Try to find the Celica! 🙂
When racist jokes were funny…
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/archive/index.php/t-138842.html
I have seen an Alfasud in the wild here in NZ, but sadly I had no camera on me. Very few cars have ever been so great to drive and awful to own. Growing up in the UK, every alfasud ever seen had catastrophic rust, and seemed to be barely hanging on to life.
Eyes peeled – I know it’s owned by a teacher, so I’ll look in teacher gathering places..
I really like the looks of that Fiat 130 sedan. Too bad it’s so far gone.
Nice find and some cool pictures!