It’s a real treat to run into a car that I’d utterly forgotten about. When I was scrolling down at the Cohort, and this orange coupe appeared, I did a double take: Wait a minute…what is this again? it looks so familiar, but I couldn’t place instantly, although the Fiat wheels were of course a give-away. This was shot and posted by William Rubano, who did not identify it in his posting.
It’s a Fiat 125S coupe by Vignale, and if you’ve never seen on before, there’s a reason: only some 100 were built Vignale, and it was penned by Alfredo Vignale himself, as he rather fancied a handsome coupe for his driving pleasure. And he got it, along with 99 other folks willing to pay more than the price of an XK-E for a pedestrian Fiat sedan in a finely tailored Italian suit.
It’s a certainly a handsome hand-tailored suit, but a derivative one. I’ll let you list all the other Italian coupes thta share various design aspects. Well, that’s hardly a put-down, as it was the style of the day (1969 or so).
This shot of the interior is from the web, but I added it to show that the money spent on a coach-built Italian car was generally well-spent, in terms of the interior as well as the exterior. A very attractive place to spend a day driving through the hills of Tuscany, or wherever. The DOHC 100hp 1.6 L four was willing, and the slick five-speed transmission was able.
The headlights do a Miura-esque tilt when called into action. Admittedly, the view from the front with the lights up is not the most flattering until ones eyes work their way back a bit.
In addition to various Italians, it also calls to mind the 1969 Audi 100S Coupe.
It’s not exactly brilliant or the best of the genre, but there’s quite a lot to like too. With the headlights down, its front end rather evokes the Fiat 850 Spider.
In any case, you won’t likely see yourself coming.
It looks like a squished Vega!
Very elegant, almost feminine. This is what an automobile is supposed to look like. The designers at Fiat should look to this car for inspiration.
Is it just me, or does this car seem to sit awfully high up on its suspension? The car looks like it needs a good two or three inch lowering front and back. I like it, but it does seem to be “generic Italian styled car” from right about then.
That dash (or something quite similar to it) makes me think it might have inspired the guys who designed the Ford Pinto dash, which was probably happening around that time.
It’s not quite as high as you think. In the 4th picture you can see clearly that the rocker panels are black. None the less, there is a lot of room between the tires and wheel arches.
Overall height is listed at 1290mm/51 inches, so it really is pretty low.
The generous wheel-arch clearance leaves room for snow-chains in winter…
JP – All cars are like that now as regards the suspension. This was just ahead of its time.
I’m not certain this is true, but I believe the existence of this car is to do with Vignale having a surplus of Jensen Interceptor doors after losing the contract to build the latter. Can anyone more knowledgeable confirm ? One for Tatra87 maybe….
The idea of building an entire car body because of a surplus Jensen Inceptor doors seemed so odd that I decided to take a look at a Jensen Inceptor…, and crazy as it sounds, I think you may have something there….
Those Jensen doors have a design flaw, the pointy top corner of the glass frame can dig you in the ribs when getting in if you are careless, had a good few bruises as a result.
As a lover of Italian style, (current car Peugeot 406 Pininfarina Coupe), this Fiat misses the mark, it needs a Dino front grill not folding lights, and get rid of those horrible potholes in the back pillar
According to various car magazines in England, this is one of several cars commissioned by a Greek casino owner who decided to get into the car business, like Wacky Arnolt.
Frixos Demitriou commissioned a number of RHD Vignale Fiats for the UK market including these. Bizarrely, he apparently died in a Samantha when it was run over by an army tank.
Using the same doors on multiple designs is a Vignale tradition. The Vignale-bodied Cunningham C3 road cars use the same doors as other Vignale cars of the 50s.
According to the Jensen Owners Club, yes on the doors
https://www.joc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11677
Amazing stuff. Never knew of the Samantha / Interceptor connection.
And that guy who was squashed by a tank in one in Cyprus. The Cypriot Job? More on that tidbit here:
http://www.vignalegamine.net/gamine_cyprus_mail.html
This is why I love CC.
What a tale! Brave flotilla of Fiat-Vignales invading swinging London, which turned out be less swinging than cold. And damp. Dispirited, they swim for a smaller, warmer island where they might peel instead of turning brown, and they are welcomed, only to have their leader flattened by a tank – very likely a British one at that.
(This Sounds Like A Job For..Tatra87 or Don…hint..)
Oh yes, this is why it is not Coke but CC that is it! Wonderful.
Thanks for that. I love it when weird stuff turns out to be true.
Beautiful car, though the headlights when “extended” and those 3 round “vents” behind the rear side windows look a tiny bit odd.
I actually had a 72 Vega that was this color, I wanted something a bit different.
You could do a lot worse than parade around in a fine Italian suit…..
Yes, this may be a bit derivative of several other designs, but like fashion, that is not only acceptable, but practical. You want a suit that fits well, and functions as expected, but perhaps with a slightly more narrow lapel, or perhaps with a different take on pinstripes or houndstooth plaid. The same can be said with this. Take a good design, tweak it a bit, but keep familiar design cues from Fiat.
A great find and a great write up. Thanks for sharing both.
As an aside….
To me a suit is a suit. I might notice the colour if it’s unusual, but beyond that I just don’t see differences between ‘fine Italian’ and ‘cheap wherever’. I have absolutely no doubt there are differences, and probably some quite substantial ones at that, but my untrained eye can’t see them. To me, it’s just a suit.
And that’s just how many of those around us see cars. It took me years of marriage to realize this. 🙂
Great find!
Car exterior has tons of character, mild exoticar with definite Fiat cues.
But what I really like is the dashboard/instrument panel. Either a very flattering picture, or a great job–simple, functional, elegant!
Bravo!
I love this. I can’t say it’s my favorite car ever, but I suspect it’s more impressive in the flesh, and I just love the idea of it.
And yes, it looks like a delightful way to explore the hills of wherever.
Nice looking coupe and with the 125S Fiat running gear should go ok because the four door it was harvested from did.
I’d take that!! Magnificent! And that colour, so period.. Proportions are a little different but so what? Has a very 007 feel to me..
Likely because the Aston Martin DBS bears a lot of design similarities. Both were introduced in 1967, however, so this is likely pure coincidence. The DBS was Bond’s car in 1969’s “Her Majesty’s Secret Service”:
I see this as a mashup of an early Fiat 850 Spider and the aforementioned Audi 100S.
The grille seems to be a direct copy of the Maserati Ghibli, note the turn signal shape and placement.
I rather like the looks of these. To my eyes, it seems to be a combination of a sharper edged Fiat Dino coupe body with a Lamborghini Miura frond end. There is Aston Martin DBS in there too, but as I said above, both debuted in 1967 so I doubt one was influenced by the other.
Nice looking car – yes it’s generic but well executed generic and those lights add a twist.
Never saw one of these before. Were it not for the Fiat wheels, I’d have thought it was a European GM product – if Vauxhall had built a fastback coupe variant of the Chevette, it probably would have looked like this.
Close; Opel (and Isuzu) did make a fastback version of the T-Car:
I’ve heard of at least one prototype Vauxhall with that bodyshell, and I would be surprised if Chevy didn’t at least seriously consider it. Imagine how dirt-common it would’ve been in its’ day if that had been the case.
I never realized ‘your GM’ didn’t sell these. Somehow we even got them in Australia, instead of a two-door sedan. Fairly popular too.
My first car (well, technically it was my dad’s). 1978 Buick Opel. German designed, built by Isuzu, sold as a Buick. It was the car that taught me to love driving.
I always thought that early Audi coupe was a looker, but now it looks like the box this beauty came in. Vignale’s best?
Just beautiful, except for the Jules Vern/Buick portholes on the C pillar. Thanks for the write up.
How cool it must have been to have the choice of these and similar low volume specialist cars, too bad the economic and regulatory hurdles to be overcome won’t allow this today.
Chalk that up as another unfulfilled promise of relentlessly efficient production processes along with the (hilarious-in-hindsight) “problematic” increase in leisure time for all.
Great find William. Not one of Vignale’s best; that house really dropped back from the heights of the 50s and early 60s. I’ve seen an Eveline up close and, as with this, its overall an awkward shape. The face of this one is the real letdown, the Eveline’s is nicer if more conventional.
At least they didn’t give it Miura upside-down eyelashes like the Dart.
” pedestrian Fiat” is being a little harsh on the mechanicals. What is pedestrian in the late 1960s about an alloy headed DOHC four, a five speed transmission, and four wheel disc brakes?
Great catch, and I enjoyed the article and leant something new.
Exactly – the only downside was the 125’s leaf spring rear end
My fellow Australians, it is my melancholy duty to tell you that I inadvertently espied a Leyland P-76 Force 7 as seen from the rear in this other wise decent looker, and now it cannot be unseen. And to jim’s point above, perhaps there were always portholes underneath those Force 7 louvres. And to say that the coupe was much the best looking P-76 does not assist, rather as the best pig is unhelped by lip-gloss.
Maybe it’s just the colour.
It’s nice enough but I prefer the sharper tailoring or Bertone’s Fiat Dino coupe, plus the Ferrari V6 gives you a platform con brio.
Forgot the photo
The 125 Samantha is a poor man’s Fiat Dino coupe. Looks good from the rear and side. not so good from the front.
The dashboard used a few Fiat parts. The main dials are straight from the 125, for example.
Interesting that we now have a CC feature on this low volume coachbuilt car but to date nothing on the donor Fiat 125.
I have two Samantha s
A 125 with 4 gears and a 125s with 5
So I can see myself coming:-)
I also have the Dino Coupe for comparison sake and the 125s in original form
At the moment my favourite is my osi 20m ts
Hi “Me” user!
I like a lot the Fiat 125 Vignale Samantha and i have one. I own a facebook group dedicated to samantha’s owners (it’s called Fiat 125 Samantha Vignale Owners). I’d be glad if you would join our group where we try to keep up to date and share information on this rare car.
Ps. Anyone has more informations about the orange car from which this discussion started?
Kind regards everyone! =)