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October is generally the warmest month here by the Bay, so that's when you get the big car shows on the island. On Saturday, Park Street was taken over by hundreds of chromium-dipped chariots ; the following day, a horde of Ferraris, Fiats, Lancias, Alfas, and the like swarmed across the bridges and set up shop on the soccer field of the junior high school at which I was forced to learn " The Hustle " in P.E. class, circa 1979. Sadly, the LeMons-veteran Ecurie Ecrappe Alfa wasn't there, but the presence of such jewels as a Fiat 2100 wagon, supercharged Lancia Scorpion, and SEAT 850 compensated somewhat. Jump, jump, and see all the purty cars! galleryPost('LHSItalianShowTop', 6, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1'); galleryPost('LHSItalianShow2', 50, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1'); galleryPost('LHSItalianShow3', 27, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1');
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Welcome to Project Car Hell , where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Last time we simultaneously crushed and seared our fingers in the red-hot vise of the Hell Garage, the Shelby-ized Dodge Omni beat hell out of the Shelby-ized Dodge Shadow in the poll. Today, with the New England 24 Hours of LeMons race coming up in just a few days, we're thinking about the kind of car it takes to win the most prestigious trophy of the event. No, that's not the one that goes to the so-called "overall winner" (although a team does get some heavy-duty bragging rights by taking that honor ). We're talking about the coveted Index Of Effluency trophy, the one given to the team that achieves beyond all reasonable expectation in a seemingly hopeless "race car." You contend for the IOE by showing up in a looks-fast-on-paper car that everyone knows is going to blow up for sure (e.g., Maserati Biturbo, Merkur XR4Ti,...
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Most of us Norteamericaños imagine a cheap, zippy 124 or 128 when we think of early-70s Fiats, so the luxurious Fiat 130 coupe appears to come from an alternate universe (in which, perhaps, the Vega and Pinto managed to compete with their Japanese rivals). It packs a snarling 160-horse DOHC V6 under the hood, as befits a car that manages to get away with a red velour interior without looking ridiculous. We'd been meaning to go photograph DSwig's 130 (and maybe talk our way into a drive), but we're too late and now it's up for sale. [eBay Motors] galleryPost('Fiat130eBay', 3, '1972 Fiat 130 Coupe For Sale On eBay');
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Once I found the Fiat Strada , I knew I'd have to be able to find a 124 somewhere on the island. Sure enough, on the same block as the aquamarine '65 Impala , here was this fine example of Italian Malaise. These things used to be quite common on the island (as were MGBs ), but... well, you know the rest of that story. This Fiat has a few dents, but all the parts are there, there's no (visible) rust, and it's in pretty good shape. It must drive, too, because it's not always in the same parking space. With just 86 horsepower to haul its 2,180 pounds, the '77 Spider wasn't exactly fast. And with a list price of $6,115, buyers were likely tempted to shell out the extra $884 for the Japanese reliability and 149 horses of the Datsun 280Z. Of course, the Z wasn't this car's true competition; British Leyland products like the MGB and TR6 were. So let's have a poll to see whether the Jalopnik readership would choose the 79-horsepower red MGB over the 86-horsepower...
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newVideoPlayer("78_Fiat_Ritmo.flv", 463, 387,""); After seeing a Fiat Strada as today's Down On The Street car, it seems only right that we should see an ad for its European sibling, the Fiat Ritmo. Naturally, car buyers of the time were eager to buy vehicles made by Italian robots , and who can blame them?
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So there I was, just walking near the salt mine office in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, when here's this bright orange Fiat 500 just sitting there , being dwarfed by Civics and Sentras and begging me to take its photograph. I didn't have my camera handy (and, yes, I should carry it with me at all times), so out came the Blur-O-Matic™ cellphone camera. The car's owner is the owner of the restaurant in the background , and he came out to tell me all about his car. Turns out he picked it up in Italy for $500, shipped it back here, and has been using it as his daily driver ever since. This guy definitely gets the Jalopnik Stamp Of Approval! galleryPost('DOTSBESFFiat500', 6, '1970 Fiat 500 Down On The San Francisco Street');
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When I was a kid, my mom bought a Fiat 128... which died of old age about two years later (it sure sounded cool to my 7-year-old ears as it ran through the gears, though). But I'm not going to let my personal experience color my opinion of Fiats, nor will I let the fact that I've never even heard of a North American Fiat that could go for more than a month without suffering some sort of catastrophic breakdown prejudice me against the marque. Not after seeing evidence of a daily-driven 124 living in New York City! I'm guessing it's a '66 or '67, judging from the lack of side marker lights. We can thank Harumph for sending these shots our way. galleryPost('DOTSBENYCFiat', 6, 'Fiat 124 Survives On The NYC Street');
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It looks like the Jalopnik readership did some agonized soul-searching and decided to go with the 308/Esprit combo over the somewhat imcomplete 365 at a 7-to-3 ratio in yesterday's Cheap Ferrari Edition Choose Your Eternity poll. But an Italian car versus an Anglo-Italian 2-fer brings to mind an interesting PCH dilemma: what happens when you pit a geeky-yet-cool Italian car against a geeky-yet-cool French car? No dreamworld Quattroporte versus SM here; instead it's a pair of cars that don't cost all that much and can even be driven... straight to Hell (i.e., your garage). Most Americans have never heard of the Autobianchi A112 , which is why we're providing the quick lesson in the video above. The little Lancia/Autobianchi/Fiat (mechanically similar to the Fiat 127) wasn't sold in the US of A, but it's worshiped as a classic rally-winning hoonmobile over there in Yurp. And now a A112 could live in your garage, simply by handing over $7,950 to the seller of this '79...
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newVideoPlayer("Fiat_128_Enzo_476.flv", 475, 376); Let's say you're Enzo Ferrari and it's the early 1970s. What are you going to drive? Well, you could go down to the factory and pick out a nice Daytona... or you could pay homage to your Fiat overlords and get a buzzy little 128. This ad makes it clear that Enzo, like Flava Flav, knew what time it was!
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