Small-car giant Fiat rolls out a classic retro sports model
Chic 21st-century Fiat Spider 124 retains many of the features seen in its pre-Woodstock ancestor without being shabby or cheap
Here’s something of a shock: it’s a sports car from Fiat. Now Fiat may be Italian – and we all know just how much the Italians love their sports cars – but, yes, this is the very same Fiat that over recent years has had a runaway smash hit with its tiny Fiat 500, small on proportions but big on personality.
In its short life, the Fiat 500 has become something of a cult object, replicating the love felt for the original of 1957 in the way that the re-imagined Volkswagen Beetle did but, perhaps, the new Mini hasn’t quite. Maybe that’s payback for having its offer of limitless Fiat 500s declined by the producers of the 1969 hit movie The Italian Job, who chose instead, at the maker’s insistence, to actually buy those Minis, giving the car endless glory as a consequence.
Just how Fiat has pulled off making the 500’s undeniable cuteness so desirable is up for debate. Maybe the zeitgeist – to use a very un-Italian word – was just in the Turin manufacturer’s favour: Anthony Sheriff, the former boss of McLaren, has only half-joked that the only car anyone really ever needs is a Fiat Panda. Small makes sense on congested roads with parking spaces at a premium. Or maybe Fiat has just found a knack for it – because it seems like the lightning of inspiration may indeed have struck twice with the new Fiat Spider 124.
It too has a famed ancestor – the Pininfarina-styled 124 Sport Spider that debuted in 1966 and which remained in production until 1985. And like the 21st century Fiat 500, the modern Spider manages to retain all the spirit of the original. If revisiting a car that’s 60-plus years old might sound like a dumb move in a consumer market that fetishise the new, the Spider has instead tapped into a more niche, but no less resonant, mood for nostalgia. Sure, the Spider has the touch-screen, the rear-view camera, heated seats, powerful sound system and shiny alloys – or at least its top-spec Lusso version does – but it’s defiantly not a supercar. If you’re after that pumped up, aggressive race-track experience, look elsewhere. And be ready to pay a lot more for it.
