Fiat 124 Sport Spider

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The Fiat 124 Sport Spider is a cabriolet made by Fiat and introduced in 1966 and continued until 1985. Most of the cars were exported to the US.

The Sports Spider, introduced in November 1966 at the Turin Auto Show and the Fiat 124 Coupe, 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 Coupe, a shared floorpan. The Sports Spider utilized a shorter floor pan and its wheelbase was also shorter. The coupe was designed and built in-house by Fiat while the Spider's unit body was designed and produced by Italian carozzeria Pininfarina (it was that company's most successful commercial venture at the time).

1 Engine
2 Suspension
3 Specification
4 Production
5 External link

[edit] Engine

The engine utilized in the Spider and Coupe 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, 1756 cc in 1974 and finally 1995 cc in 1979. Fuel injection replaced carburettors in 1980. 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Specification

The two models 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 transmission. It boasted the best soft convertible top in the world which could be raised and locked in place in 15 seconds, a feature not substantially bettered even by the Mazda Miata 20 years later. All this for less than $2500 (a Volvo 122 was $3000 and Plymouth Barracuda with the 340ci engine was $3200), with great looks and a 7800 rpm red-line.