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Fiat 124 Sport Spider
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The 124 Sport Spider is a 2+2convertible sport car made by Fiat, introduced at the November 1966 Turin Auto Show, and manufactured until 1985. Most of the cars were exported to the US.
The Sports Spider and the Fiat 124 Coupé, introduced in 1967, were related to the 124 sedan in name through the use of much of the mechanical running gear and in the case of the Coupé, a shared platform. However, the Sports Spider utilized a shorter platform along with a shorter wheelbase.
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Encyclopedia
The 124 Sport Spider is a 2+2convertible sport car made by Fiat, introduced at the November 1966 Turin Auto Show, and manufactured until 1985. Most of the cars were exported to the US.
The Sports Spider and the Fiat 124 Coupé, introduced in 1967, were related to the 124 sedan in name through the use of much of the mechanical running gear and in the case of the Coupé, a shared platform. However, the Sports Spider utilized a shorter platform along with a shorter wheelbase. Fiat designed and manufactured the Coupé in-house while the Spider's monocoque was designed and produced by Italian carozzeria Pininfarina — at the time Pininfarina's most successful commercial venture.
Engines
The engine used in the Spider and Coupé was a double overhead cam, aluminum crossflow head version of the sedan's pushrod unit. It started in 1966 with a capacity of 1438 cc progressively increasing to 1608 cc in 1970 (although this reduced to 1592 cc in 1973), 1756 cc I4 in 1974 and finally 1995 cc in 1979. Fuel injection replaced carburettors midway in 1980.There was also a supercharged model called Volumex offered toward the end of production, but these are rare. This family of engines was designed by ex-Ferrari chief engineer Aurelio Lampredi and in one form or another remained in production into the 1990s giving it one of the longest production runs in history. The double overhead cam (DOHC) version was the first mass manufactured DOHC to utilize reinforced rubber timing belts, an innovation that would come into nearly universal use in the decades after its introduction. It's family, powered race cars such as: FIAT 131 Mirafiori, Special T, Lancia Beta Montecarlo, Delta Integrale and many others.
- 1400 (1438 cc) - 90 PS (89 hp/66 kW)
- 1600 (1608 cc) - 110 PS (108 hp/81 kW)
- 1600 (1592 cc) - 106 PS (105 hp/78 kW)
- 1800 (1756 cc) - 118 PS (116 hp/87 kW)
- 2000 (1995 cc) - 78 PS (77 hp/57 kW)
- 2000i (1995 cc) - 100 PS (99 hp/74 kW)
- VX (1998 cc) - 135 PS (133 hp/99 kW) supercharged
Suspension
Suspension was conventional by unequal length wishbones and coil over damper at the front and by coil sprung live rear axle at the rear which was located by a transverse link (Panhard rod) and two pairs of forward extending radius rods to react braking and acceleration and to control axle wind-up.
Specification
The Coupe and Spider were first sold in the US market in 1968. In 1969, the Spider was one of the few affordable cars with 4 wheel disc brakes, double overhead cams, hesitation wipers, steering column mounted lighting controls, radial ply tires and a 5 speed manual transmission. Its convertible top could be raised and locked in place in 15 seconds. With a MSRP of $3250 (Car and Driver, 1968), the Fiats compared favorably to the Volvo 122 ($3000) and Plymouth Barracuda (with the 340ci engine, $3200)..
Late in its life, Fiat abandoned production of the Spider as well as the X1/9 — to have their production assumed by their respective carozzeria. An early special version was the 124 Spider Abarth which incorporated such things as an independent rear axle, hardtop, different seats, interior etc and only came in 3 colours.
Notably, the body of the Spider remained unchanged for its entire production run, with little modification.
Production
The model line ceased in 1985 after over 150,000 Spiders alone had been built. There were six models of Spider, the AS, BS, CS, CS1, CS2 and CS0.
Production for each year is as follows, chassis numbers start at #000001.
- 1966 AS #000001
- 1967 AS not many
- 1968 AS #005619*1969 BS #010554
- 1970 BS #021861
- 1971 BS 1438cc #022589
- 1971 BS 1608cc #033950
- 1972 BS 1608cc #047032*1973 CS 1608cc #059592
- 1973 CS 1592cc #063308*1974 CS1 1756cc #071650
- 1975 CS1 1756cc #088792
- 1976 CS1 1756cc #099909
- 1977 CS1 1756cc #113343
- 1978 CS1 1756cc #126001
- 1979 CS2 1995cc Sportivo de Pininfarina Special edition by Ferrari [citation required
- 1979 CS1 1995cc #142514
Needs updating on models after 1979 to 1983
External links
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