Matching experiences with an unsung Torinese great
I was really interested to read your very well-researched article about Simon Hucknall’s immaculate Fiat 128 (May). Simon’s experience mirrors mine very closely.
Like him, my father bought one of the early 128s (a navy blue two-door), which we kept as a family car until ’ 79 when he traded it in for what must have been one of the last Italian-built models (I recall that 128s for the UK market continued to be built in Ireland for another couple of years).
The second one we had was identical to Simon’s, except it was a light metallic blue. It lasted about 10 years but is now long gone, I’m sure.
Both 128s were excellent and roomy cars that served our family very well here and abroad (despite needing cylinder-head gaskets and clutch cables relatively frequently when they went into Formula One driver Tony Brooks’ Fiat dealership in Weybridge for routine servicing). Neither one really succumbed to rust, perhaps contrary to expectations.
After passing my driving test in 1983 I cut my teeth in the second 128, and the only car I have since driven that has imparted a similar sense of absolutely safe and secure handling and roadholding was my late (and much lamented) Golf GTI Mk2. I chuckled when I read Simon’s comment that the 128 ‘revved for Italy’ – this applied absolutely to my parents’ 128, as well as two I later owned (one of which was a hardly used 1974 128 Rally that had been bought new for an Iranian princess).
Great cars, which are sometimes under-appreciated. Looking back, it must be my 128 experiences that led to a continuing love of Italian cars: it’s no coincidence I still have the 850 Sport Coupé I bought a year after my family parted with the second 128. Chris Lake
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