When Bertone presented the original version of the Lancia Stratos, it naturally had to taken to the Autostrada. Quattroruote was there and took pictures when a Fiat 850 Special got alongside the Stratos. Unbelievable how low a Stratos really is:
I have a photo with this Stratos on my Fiat 124 Coupé site. Same session of course, but photographed a little later.
Even the Fiat truck and the Opel Commodore can be seen on it.
In the French version of TinTin an article was written on the Fiat 850. Looks like the driver was a happy puppy!
The title was: The Fiat 850 has it's role to play"
The entire article can be seen here (sorry, no larger copy):
In 1965 Miss Italia, Alba Rigazzi, took some time during the "Salone Automobile" in Turin to have her photograph taken in a Fiat 850.
A nice model in a nice model so to speak.
Italian magazine Quattroruote is a real treasure trove for me when it comes to data and photos for my Fiats. I removed and scanned all articles, photos and advertisements of the Fiat 850 models and the Fiat 124 Coupes and Specials. These are usually already published on this site. But sometimes there were beautiful fold-outs (photos or drawings) and they can't just be scanned on the scanners I have at home. But with the app "Photoscan" it's possible to "scan" these images. See the first results here:
Do you want to see the image a bit larger? Clicking on the picture will help.
"De Auto", magazine of the Royal Dutch Auto Club, borrowed a Fiat for a test in 1968. In this case a Fiat 850 Special. They drove it for 780 kilometers and thought it was a handy, spicy little car, especially for that price. Clicking opens the PDF.
Dutch car magazine Autovisie had a Fiat 850 Sport Coupé in the house for a road test in 1968. Leonard Lang, the Dutch importer, arranged an overprint of the test for the dealers, as a handout.
Of course I have on of those so here it is, for you to read.
Fiat annually published a printed report of the financial results of the year before and that was a joy to behold because they always contained beautiful photos. I have posted some of them on other sites before but never on this site. Time to catch up. And there's a lot of it: overkill!
The cover of the 1963 annual report with our favorite car.
This one I've used before
The cover of the 1964 annual report. Fiat, on land, at sea and in the air!
The Fiat testcentre in San Remo.
A Fiat 850 Coupé in Okinawa. Left hand drive?
The Fiat 850 assembly line in the Mirafiori factory.
Fiat 850's were also assembled in Portugal. Proof of this: the Somave facility.
The Fiat 850's womb?? Just because it's a nice picture.
The Swiss "Automobil Revue" yearbook is published every year on the occasion of the Geneva Salon and I have the complete series from the late 1950s until a few years ago.
It contains important data of all car models that are produced worldwide every year. The year that interests me most is of course 1964, the year of the introduction of the Fiat 850. That proved to be a bit disappointing because Fiat only introduced the 850 AFTER the Geneva salon and so no data were known yet. Fortunately, there was already a little story about the 850 in:
In 1965, the Automobil Revue reversed that omission: on the cover was an 850, although the Renault 16 was of bigger importance that year.
In the book, attention was paid to various types of bodywork, technology and there were many technical specifications:
A small overview of cars with rear engine. When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet Corvair or a Renault Dauphine?
A modern concept!
Technical specifications.
In 1966, Automobil Revue also paid attention to the various Fiat 850 models. Beautiful advertisements from Fiat and Bertone and a justification by the editors of the tests carried out. And there was also the Fiat 850.
I'm inclined to doubt whether these days they would still say that a car with a rear engine in deep snow would have an indisputable advantage.
Michel Vaillant was a interesting series of comic books for the younger car enthusiast: nice stories, fast cars, racing. The "Vrooooap, Vroomm, Vrooooaw and Vroooamm" really pulled you into the speed experience. In 1977 issue 18, "Oil on the racecourse" was published. I will not reveal the whole story, but it does feature Fiat 850s! Not that they are essential to the story, but they are for us.
"Guys, it's a girl!"
Here our heroes are overtaken by a Fiat 850 Coupé ...... That can't end well!
The driver had already built up a considerable lead.
"A few minutes later.... Look there, on the right! Fantastic!"
Totally agree! (although I did change the text in the balloon from 'left' to 'right')
Apparently, in traffic the drivers are unable to get ahead of the Fiat 850.
Before the Internet, as a car buyer (or interested person) one depended on books and magazines published at auto shows.
These "catalogs" contained all models of all brands shown with their specifications. Auto-Universum is one of them. This yearbook contained all the carsbrands that were produces all over the world, with all their models.
In 1965 the Fiat 850 was presented in the latest edition of Auto-Universum. An advertisement, a technical description and a tiny roadtest.
The magazine has long been defunct, but of course we have the images:
If you want to better read these specifications, click on the picture
A few years ago my wife bought "the big 70's book" because it contained nice photos from her childhood. Little did she know that there were also Fiat 850 images in it ... These in turn provided some nice pictures for this site.
This photo with a Fiat 850 Special was taken in "Safaripark de Beekse Bergen". The photo is by Ton Nelissen.
And this is fashion designer Frans Molenaar in unisex clothing, shown at the fashion fair in the Amsterdam RAI congress building. Not a very smart idea, hot pants during snowfall. The Fiat 850 Coupé they lean on makes up for a lot.
The photo is by Anefo - Punt
Monica Vitti was one of the most successful Italian movie stars, especially famous for her collaboration with Michelangelo Antonioni. We will remember her from this image:
In 1976, in Breda we see a Fiat 850 driving near the old railway station. It is unknown who took the photo, but I am grateful he/she did. I found the image on the "Oud Breda" Facebookpage.
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As seen before, many of the images that I publish on my website are from the Italian car magazine Quattroruote, mostly from old copies that have been in the family for a long time.
Quattroruote also publisheh a monthly magazine, dedicated to classics: Ruoteclassiche. Beautiful reports (if you can read Italian) with beautiful photos.
Since last year there's an extra magazine on a special theme every month. In March 2018 it was the "Italian car's from the 60's" turn. So Fiat 850's in all guises too. You can see photos of them here, thanks to Ruoteclassiche. If you come across this magazine (while on holiday in Italy?) my advise is to buy it.
This lady was certainly overwhelmed by the cop, bigger than her car, a Fiat 850 Spider:
Only in America!
I don't remember how I got it, but a while ago this photo came along:
It turns out to we are at the Koopmansplein in Assen where we see two 850s. Through the Drents Archief you can find many more photos of Oud Assen where 850's are visible.
Faceboekgroup "Oud Breda" is quite active posting street photos and there are Fiat 850's on them regularly. I already posted articles with these photos on this site. Below the new yield. They are often a some distance away, but they are 850's. The first we find in February 1974 in the "Abeelstraat" in Breda (NL):
This one is in the "Lange Gampel", in Breda too:
This one, with a few Fiat 600's, was parked on the "Markendaalseweg". The year is 1974. The buildings are long gone, the cars too.
In 1976 this Fiat 850 Special was parked in the "Meidoornstraat":
The "Gasstraat" was the place where this 850 was spotted. I see a "Staal" dealer sticker at the rear right which means my father sold the car and so I could find that this car was originally delivered to Mrs. Diemeren-Bakkers and that this 850 is close to her house.
Finally, a 850 in the "Zoutstraat". This street disappeared from the city maps long ago. The 850 disappeared too.
In Breda one often came across a Fiat 850, my father sold a lot of them. You could see pictures in previous articles on this site and I have a few more. The first one is from June 1979 in the "Bastionstraat", milk float was still driving around:
This one was in the "Reinierstraat" in october.
This one is quite crispy, but it's still there, in the "Nieuwpoortstraat", about January 1973.
Looking for images with a Fiat 850, Google can't be beat. Type "Fiat 850" and any piece of text and hundreds of images will appear. And often something appears in the results that I have not seen before; I publish interesting photos on this site. I already published this article on it. Results from a recent search was a photo that was on an "Autoweek.nl" forum and after that, I found more images. From the time when Fiat 850 were driving around in traffic on a regular basis.
Nice about this photo is that both Fiats have a "Staal" dealer sticker (that white rectangular thing at the rear) and, from the 850, I was able to find out to whom it was originally sold: registration is 43-95-DM and it was sold on April 4, 1967 and delivered to Mr. Rohacsek from Oosterhout. The Fiat 600 in the background with registration number 28-77-FP was delivered on May 30, 1968 to Mr. de Laat from Breda. The parking lot is "the Vlaszak" in Breda.
A few more:
The Dam in Amsterdam
The "Vliet" in Leiden
The Hague
At a traffic light. Why did anyone take such a picture?
The Fiat 850 was often featured in comics, in all guises. I have shown examples of this before. This time I came across a nice one in an Italian magazine that depicts the adventures of a Berlina, a Coupe and a Spider. Something about robots and a woman in traditional costume.
You can view both pages of the story when you click the image.
After three articles in black and white, it's time for some color again. Even the Fiat 850 had to be advertised at some point and they did so in 1965 with a colorful video
Click and view.
We have seen a Fiat 850 model car before, but a Fiat 850 with a model is also possible. Earlier you could see Joanna Lumley with a Fiat 850 Coupe on this site , but now I have one with an 850 Spider. The photo was taken at the New York Auto Show:
It could have been you, being a test driver for PEP. A boys magazine from years ago. One of the highlights of that job was probably the test of the Fiat 850 Bertone Racer.
The test can be found here
In the Netherlands, the summer of 2017 was a cool one, as it often was before. But cool summers don't matter because you always have sunny feelings in a Fiat 850!
In 1966 my father was still a merry Fiat dealer in Breda and he ordered calendars for 1967 for his company, Autobedrijf Staal. Nice to hand out to your customers. And nice to keep one yourself. Here we see February. 50 years ago we already knew that February 2017 would also start on a Wednesday . Ideal to use this calendar with vintage Fiat models at home in this year. After all, there are Fiat 850's in it too. This time "The Fiat 850 Sportcoupe at full speed on the Autostrada" as the text below the photo says.
