FIAT 124 SPIDER
EDITOR PHIL BELL SAYS ‘My attitude to retro design must have softened in the intervening 15 years between the BMW MINI and the 348-generation Fiat 124 Spider, because for looks at least, it would have been my choice over the Nd-generation Mazda MX-5 with which it shares most of what lies beneath the skin. Although I generally prefer new cars to look modern, the last two generations of the Mazda have neither excited nor soothed my optic nerves, they’ve just looked a bit weird. In revisiting the original 1966 124 Sport Spider shape penned by former Classic Cars columnist Tom Tjaarda, Fiat’s 2016 retake is conventionally handsome.
‘A younger, more idealistic me would have slammed the new 124 for sharing its underpinnings with a rival, but, just as the original needed to draw heavily from its saloon and coupé siblings, such economies of scale and development cost are essential for survival now. Fortunately, such cost-sharing gave the Fiat a chassis that was fun to steer, partly for being so unfashionably light.
‘Critics compared the more relaxed demeanour of the Fiat 1.4-litre turbo engine unfavourably with the Mazda’s rev-hungry motors, but that characteristic made the newcomer more faithful to the original 124. While I love to sprint along near the top of the rev limit, I know that lots of drivers are happier with something that surges them down the road effortlessly on a broad wave of torque. It’s just a pity that Fiat withdrew the car from the UK and North American markets so soon.’