Fiat 850 Coupé or Sport Coupé

Fiat 850 Coupé or Sport Coupé

First up is the 850 coupé, based on the 850 saloon and introduced in March 1965. The body styling was done in house by Fiat, with the Boano father and son team the creative brains behind the design. It was a 2+2 coupé, and featured a tuned version of the 850 engine, giving around 35kW (47bhp), which was enough for lively performance as the car was light, and geared well to make the most of the power. The top speed was just short of 145kph (90mph), though the little engine was revving pretty fast at that speed, and the car handled well with eager turn-in and a slight tendency to oversteer. It sold like hot cakes, as indeed did its stablemate the Bertone-styled 850 Spider, which had a slightly more powerful engine. It was available in New Zealand from 1965 to 1968, imported in cbu form, and competitively priced at $2200 to 2700.

In March 1968, the coupé was updated with the introduction of a 903cc version. Power went up to 39kW (52bhp) and the styling was changed very slightly to incorporate a neat little spoiler at the rear, probably too small to do anything useful to the airflow but quite visually distinctive. Two extra headlamps were built into the front, partially sunk into the front panel. This model was assembled in New Zealand from 1969 to 1972, and sold rather well, priced at around the $2900-3000 mark. The extra power lifted top speed by about eight to 13kph and improved acceleration, and the car was also a little more economical. It was now called the 850 Sport Coupé.

The coupé and spider between them sold around 467,000 units, with the coupé scoring 342,873 of those sales, pretty good for only six years production from 1965 to 1971, while the spider remained in production till 1973.