FIATS & FRIENDS 2024

When Gavin Bushby of the Fiat Motor Club GB invited me to the first ‘Fiats & Friends’ event – https://fiatsandfriends.co.uk/ – at the British Motor Museum on the 3rd of August, I predicted it would be good. But the sheer array of cars is nearly impossible to describe, so here are just 25 highlights:

1. A 1959 Fiat 600 Multipla, one of fewer than 100 RHD examples believed to have been officially imported to the UK. It was a car to delight the senses, from the headlamp bowl by the driver’s right kneecap to the spare wheel by the front passenger’s feet. And this example is even more unusual in that the owner is only 16 years old – watch out for a future blog.
2. A SEAT-badged Panda. Not only a reminder of the brilliance of Giorgetto Giugiaro’s “Blue Jeans” car, but also a legacy of Fiat’s importance to the Spanish motor industry.
3. A Fiat 900E campervan – a form of motoring life I last remember seeing in the 1980s, parked at the side of the road in the New Forest.
4. Fiat 500s darting about Gaydon as though they had just left the set of La Dolce Vita.
5. Nigel Ford’s magnificently orange Fiat 127 Sport.
6. A supremely stylish Fiat 124 Coupe.
7. John Corbett’s Fiat Tipo – were the 1990s really that long ago?
8. A Lancia Beta Coupe that looked primed for the autostrada.
9. A Lancia Beta Spyder that looked so elegant it belonged on Rome’s Via del Corso in high summer.
10. The Fiat Uno. It is difficult to describe the impact of the first models on the UK’s “supermini” market in 1983.
11. A 1972, utterly unmodified, Fiat 124 Berlina, with two round headlamps and plastic upholstery. This modest-looking saloon is now rarer than your average Lamborghini Countach, was Car of the Year 1967, and was made worldwide. That “three-box” outline could be seen on the roads of the former USSR, Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria, India, South Korea...
12. ‘Hugo’, the Fiat 131 Mirafiori Sport, in all his metallic grey glory – not to mention that ultra-orange seat trim. Car wrote of the Sport: “As far as hotshoe saloons go, Ford has been building the best for upwards of five years, and it is probably time they were bettered. That, Fiat has duly done.”
13. A 1988 Croma. Fiat’s version of the ‘Tipo 4’ family deserves to be as well-remembered as the Alfa Romeo 164, the Lancia Thema and the Saab 9000.
14. Two Fiat 850s, one Italian-built and the other hailing from South Africa. Once familiar sights on British roads in the 1980s, they are now as common as a watchable episode of
15. A Lancia Thema: purposeful, handsome and formidable.
16. A Fiat Argenta Series 2 from Ireland! I have long been fond of this large saloon that did not prove a roaring success for Fiat GB. They declined to import the Series 2 as they were still having great difficulty in marketing the Series 1. Today, there are believed to be only five on the road in the UK, and you would stand more chance of seeing an Argenta in a repeat of One Foot in the Algarve than outside your local Asda.
17. A delightful Fiat Punto Cabriolet.
18. A Lancia Beta Monte Carlo in red, which mesmerised all who saw it with its sheer elegance.
19. A Fiat 128 Coupe; when new, they always seemed to be a cut above a Ford Capri 1300L.
20. Was that an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider in one of the rows, a car that belongs in a black-and-white film starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni?
21. The Fiat 128 Berlina, COTY 1970 and one of Italy’s greatest post-war cars.
22. A Lancia Delta in standard form, rather than an HF replica. Today it must be one of the most exclusive cars to wear the shield badge.
23. A splendid Fiat 2300 Coupe; I recall how its foot brace for the front passenger and warning bell (!) for the handbrake so impressed my younger self.
24. Not only an Alfasud, but also an Alfasud Sprint, one of the most elegant small coupes of its generation.

And possibly my favourite:

25. A 1958 pale green Fiat 600, complete with rear-hinged doors, indicators atop the front wings, a floor-mounted starter lever and a heater control under the rear seat. The 600 was Fiat’s first rear-engine car and the first that a worker on the Turin production line could aspire to own. In addition, it was the car the Mini had to beat in 1959, as well as bringing mobility to Italy, Spain and the former Yugoslavia.

So, here is to the next Fiats & Friends meeting in 2025! In Gavin’s words:

The first Fiats & Friends was extremely well received, and we’ve had nothing but positive feedback. It’s been a bit overwhelming, as it was the Fiat Motor Club’s first attempt at anything like this! I’m pleased to confirm that the committee agreed that there will be a second Fiats & Friends if we can negotiate a suitable date for next year.

With thanks to: Gavin Bushby, John Corbett, Brian Stignant and https://www.facebook.com/groups/fiatmotorclub/?locale=en_GB

With thanks to Gavin Bushby for his time.

With thanks to Gavin Bushby, Gill Hague and Bruce Bradshaw for the permission to use the images in this blog.