Outstanding Fiat coupe

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32565, 26 March 1971, Page 17

Outstanding Fiat coupe

Most cars, when one tests them, have their own particular merits and demerits, but are basically just another car. Others feel just right from the time one steps into them, and one hands them back at the end of several hundred miles with the deepest reluctance. The Fiat 124 sports coupe is very definitely in the latter category.

The good looking 124 coupe has become a familiar sight on our roads in the last 12 months, when many were imported under the additional licence provisions for built-up cars. Two-door four-seaters, they come with either 1438 c.c. or 1608 c.c. four-cylinder overhead cam engines and cost $4677 and $4849 respectively. The car tested was a 1438 c.c. model, and the overriding impression one is left with is amazement that the considerable performance on tap is produced by less than 1500 c.c. All the cars imported into New Zealand have fivespeed all-synchromesh gearboxes, and the extra gear makes a tremendous difference. Although the 124’s boot has a small opening, it will hold a surprising amount of luggage, and is very long. Inside the car, the seats are very well shaped and particularly comfortable over long distances, and the front seats have reclining adjustment. With average sized persons in the car, there is comfortable room for four persons on shorter trips, or three adults and a child on long journeys: with the driver’s seat well back, there is not much instep for the passenger behind the driver’s seat. Apart from this, the back seats are perhaps even more comfortable than the front, and headroom is adequate. FULLY EQUIPPED The 124 is very fully equipped, and has a full selection of well placed, well .marked, and exceptionally steady instruments. The dip switch and wiper switch are on the steering column, and the wipers have a separate variable speed adjustment on the dash.

The useful intermittent action mechanism which allows the wipers to give one sweep every few seconds in drizzle is found on the 124 coupe as well as the 125 saloon.

The hand dipper is less satisfactory, as it also controls the change between parking lights and dipped beam. As a result, one can accidentally turn off the headlights when trying to select dip. The coupe’s air horns are satisfyingly loud, and visibility is excellent in all directions. The ignition switch is also a steering-lock, and is mounted where the column joins the-dash: it is almost impossible to reach with a seat belt on. The car’s controls, do include a hand throttle, a very useful fitting which few vehicles, other than Fiats, can boast. The driving position is excellent, the pedals well placed, and the steering very direct and accurate with good feel. The mockwood wheel is less slippery than the ordinary type of plastic wheel, but a leatherbound rim would be preferable.

The 124’s heating and ventilation system is good, but takes quite some learning: there are no fewer than nine controls, including separate blowers for the main heater and demisters (plus eyeball vents in the console) and for the face-level vents at the ends of the dash. The output of the freshair vents is disappointing with the windows shut: an extraction system is badlyneeded. Opening a rear window greatly improves the flow of air, but creates too much noise. With all the windows shut, wind noise levels are low. GEAR-CHANGE

The gear-lever is well placed, and the change, once learned, is excellent. The lower four gears are in the normal positions, with fifth to the right and up. As the lever is strongly loaded in the third-fourth plane, movements between second and third, third and fourth, and fifth and fourth require only a flick of the lever—the spring-loading does the rest. The syncromesh is excellent, the movements very short and precise, and the ratio-spacing almost ideal. Third is the gear used most in town and for some openroad overtaking, but the car is happy at 30 m.p.h. in

fifth, and will pull from 20 m.p.h. in fourth.

Fifth, however, is really an open road gear. All the gears in the test car had some whine. The 124’s performance is good—excellent for the capacity. In many aspects it is as good as some 2litre cars, but one notices the lack of capacity when accelerating in fourth gear. In the lower ratios—fourth is quite high, and gives a maximum of about 106 m.p.h.—acceleration is good. There is some acceleration in fifth, but the “overdrive” nature of the ratio is illustrated by the top speed possible in this gear, about 6 m.p.h. less than in fourth. The engine is not particularly noisy under hard acceleration, never sounds strained, and soars up to the red line at nearly 7000 r.p.m. without effort. For best performance, one needs to take the car to more than 4000 r.p.m. before changing to third or fourth. HANDLING

The Fiat’s ride is firm but comfortable, and the handling is outstanding. There must be few cars which could out-comer the 124 sports coupe, and both the handling—which is very neutral—and the brakes (discs all round, plus servo) give the driver tremendous confidence in the car’s

safety. The 124 coupe is an effortless long-distance highspeed tourer but also bnsk and easy to manoeuvre in

town traffic. It is in many ways a car which sets standards in its size, price and capacity class, even with the burden of tariff it must cany as a car from a non-Commonwealth source. The standard of finish is excellent, and above all the 124 sports coupe feels like a hand-built car rather than a mass-production product: it has that feeling of solidity, finish and smoothness that is so rarely found in ordinary production cars. For the 1438 c.c. car the makers quote top speeds in five gears as 28 m.p.h., 50 m.p.h., 78 m.p.h., 106 m.p.h., and 100 m.p.h. Hie figures for the 1600 c.c. model are 28 m.p.h., 53 m.p.h., 74 m.p.h., 102 m.p.h., and 112 m.p.h.

SPECIFICATIONS Engine: 1438 cJc. four-cylin-der water-cooled,' twin overbead camshafts, compression ratio 8.9 to 1; max. power 90 b. (net); twin choke carburettor. Aluminium cylinder head, toothed belt timing drive, five-bearing crankshaft, thermostatically controlled electric fan. 1800 c.c. model: capacity 1608 c. bore 80mm. stroke 80mm„ compression ratio 9.8 to 1; max. power 110 b.h.p., two twin-choke carburettors. Gearbox: Five forward speeds and reverse, centre floor fever, all syncromesh. Suspension: Front independent with anti-roU bar; rear by live axle on coil springs and located by four trailing arms and one transverse rod. Steering: Worm and roller. Brakes: Discs all round with vacuum servo, independent circuits front and rear, proportioning valve on rear wheels. (Test car made available by Manchester Fiat Ltd).