Parts and documentation, I have lots of it. This time I needed a book and started searching. Didn't find the book, but this sticker is a very good alternative!

And the book? Of course I found it somewhere else.

It's autumn in Holland now and the weather is good, but there will be days when the weather is cold and damp. How do you keep the kids occupied while you are in a Team or Zoom meeting? Well, you could give them a coloring page of a Fiat 850 Special or a Fiat 850 Coupé. Good for bonding! And if you click on the image, a new one opens in A4 format.

Click on the pictures to get an A4 size picture

All Fiat models could be driven in a sporting manner. They were raced and rallied with. 500's, 600's and 1100's in all kinds of variations. Before Fiat started participating with its own factory team, this was usually done by private individuals. A while ago I published a topic about an Italian car club that was rallying in a Fiat 850 Special. Now I found some photos of 850 Coupés that are being driven at full speed.

Am I mistaken or did they taped the windshield back?

I found these on www.racingsportscars.com.

Fiat 850s also competed in rallies, in this case a Special. Zandonà-Bracco participated in the San Martino de Castrozza rally (apparently in the Dolomites) and were 14th overall. Quite an achievement when you look at the other participating cars.

In Valencia, Spain, there is a hairdresser's salon after my heart. If it wasn't such a long drive away I would go there! Look what was installed here: 

This image was also shown the Fiat 850 page on Facebook and I was allowed to use it.

In the Covid era, unnecessary travel is strongly discouraged. Not being able to travel anymore has a side effect: no more photos as a reminder of a nice environment, an interesting city or a nice car.
Which we would of course put on social media nowadays to prove that we were there. When social media didn't exist, people sent postcards and "Greetings from". Likewise the senders of this card who were on holiday in Torremolinos. And now that postcard with a Seat 850 is online:

The Fiat 850 was introduced in 1964 and, in the Netherlands, from about October that year. I checked the sales lists of my father's dealership and the first Fiat 850 was delivered to the proud owner there on October 2, the registration was GL-06-32.

And from there I started counting and the following numbers are the result of a few hours work:

In 10 years a total of 1526 Fiat 850's was sold by my father; 32% of Fiat sales in the company! After the Fiat 127 and Seat 133 became available in the Netherlands sales of the 850 suffered.

The car dealership's building housed a stock of cars on the first floor, which could be reached via a homemade car lift. In the image you see that there were quite a few 850s in stock:

And the company advertised too; this one is from Autovisie:

I have a thick folder containing a collection of letters and cards from grateful customers (happy drivers) of my father and his Fiat garage in Breda.

Sometimes they would send him a photo of their car and write a message. The same goes for Miss (you don't see that much anymore!) Van Vlimmeren, who was a loyal customer.
This time on occasion of the new year 1970. And we were very happy with that card .

Douwe is a fanatic Fiat 850 lover. His 850 has received a lot of TLC already and I can imagine that when someone recently ran into the rear bumper of his 850, some things were said that are unfit to publish. Fortunately he found a new rear bumper so now the Fiat 850 is spic & span again. And he took this nice picture of it:

And another:

"Kedeng Kedeng" is, according to a Dutch song, the sound a train makes driving on tracks. 

A "Draisina ferroviaria" is a vehicle that is used on the track to transport a small team of railway workers to a workplace. Long ago that was a hand-operated cart, then something motorized came. And in the latter category this thing that is based on a Fiat 600T belongs:

They were also produced based on the Fiat 850T:

Just too nice not to show. More information on this site

In a previous article I mentioned a house in Norway that has a Fiat 850 on the wall. Nice!

On holiday in Spain (near Castellon de la Plana) I was tackling a roundabout with the intention of leaving the city when I spotted a yellow Seat 850 in the corner of my eye. Missed the turn, but this disadvantage also had its advantage because, in addition to a nice memory, I was able to shoot these photos:

On holiday in France we ran into a car meeting in a village. All sorts of beautiful cars and lots of "automobilia": parts, billboards and mixed junk that you can't understand anyone would ever want it.

What happens at some point? You are in front of a booth and suddenly your eyes focus on a familiar shape. A Fiat 850! My hands reach for it automatically and yes, I didn't have this yet.

Negotiating the price took a while because the seller thought it's a diamond. This is so rare that I have to have it. So I overpaid, by quite a lot, but I have no regrets so far.

Mirroring the image revals what's going to be printed:
  

A while ago I wrote that the Fiat 850 rear lights were also used on other cars, and not modest carst too: Ferrari, Lancia, Ford and Simca. Maybe it's a coincidence, but on the AutoRai site too an article suddenly appeared with the same content and the same conclusion ...

3D printing is fun and is becoming more accessible now that the hardware is getting cheaper. If your fantasy is big enough and you can create a digital file, you can print it. On GrabCad others have already done that for you and now you can print your own grille for your Fiat 850.

Nice or what???

The Discovery Channel once featured a series in which Leepu, a self-proclaimed car designer from Bangladesh, constructed the most terrible creations of cars that he bought in bad condition. Lots of screaming and sparks flying; every project was finished just in time after many nights to get to some car show. Little was improved on the technical parts of the car, only the body and interior were disfigured beyond recognition. It has been off the telly for a while, but now there's a clone of his that has abused a Fiat 850:

Aldo Fico, the technician on duty, mounted an Uno Turbo i.e. engine and shows the results on Youtube

Any buildquality? Wmmmwaahhhh.

The Castle Combe circuit is used for racing with Special GT's. Norman Lackford drove such a car: a Fiat 850-BDH. He did so until 1996. I can't easily find out what happened to the engine but it looks very special:

Looking at engine the block it looks more like a Cosworth, but according to the this text from the Special GT site in this picture it's still a Fiat engine:

The quick Warrior-tuned Fiat gave way to a Saxon prototype in 1996 and later a Radical which Norman is still using in the series this season (August 29 1994)

That's what Landrover-lovers say: "the best 4x4xfar". As far as I'm concerned this is the best 4x4: A Fiat 850 with the chassis of ???

Looks brutal.

A while ago, on the Seat 850 group Facebook page there were a number of photos of a building in Norway where a Fiat 850 was hung:

Of course I want to know more about this and continued to search on the Internet. In this case my search involved "Sigvard Larsen", because his statue is beneath the 850. And so I found some "Labour of love" with a Fiat 850 again.

Around 2015 the managers of Atelier Kakao painted nice bright colours on it.

Nothing is for eternity, or, as the Norwegians say: "ingenting er for alltid" and so the 850 got different colours again:

In october 1971 Mr. van Loenhout from Dutch village "Made" won a Fiat 850. He looks a bit baffled, the person handing over the keys seems to have more fun than the winner.
Once Mr. van Loenhout drives the car the smiles will come, I'm sure.

In Amsterdam, graphic designer Ed Martare constructed a hardtop for the Fiat 850 Spider, in a very small edition.

The number plate shows a registration from 1968, the Spider no longer exists.

Not satisfied with the amount of groceries he could take with him in his Fiat 850 Coupe, this owner decided to turn it into something very special.

Nice how he put all of this together at the back.
I came across the photo on the Seat 850 Facebook page.

In August of 1967 there was a nice picture in the Fiat calendar with a Fiat 850. It is summer and that's why, of course, a Spider in a beautiful landscape was selected. In 2017 the caalendar is exactly the same as 50 years ago, which gives me the opportunity to have a vintage Fiat calendar all year!

A while ago, this Fiat 850 with folding roof came up for sale. A case of "rare" and that does not always immediately mean "beautiful" (for me anyway). However, there was someone who liked this creation and paid € 6300 for it. The pictures are from www.autobelle.it where special cars can be spotted on a regular basis.

One day, in my hometown Breda, I came across a speedboat that appeared to be based on a Fiat 850 Spider:

Now, on Autoblog someone has gone one step further. He converted his Spider into a real vessel. The ultimate "Barchetta.

And to prove it's heart is truly a Fiat engine:

For moving images:

Fiat 850 Barchetta

Scuderia Veltro is an Italian car club with a beautiful site and members with beautiful cars. In earlier times too this used to be the case, when rallies were competed in, with a Fiat 850 Special:

I'd love to have one of the service vans (a Fiat 1100 t2 and a Fiat 600t).

Because there was something strange going on with the rear suspension of our Fiat 850 (I mounted the "A"-arms of two different cars) I wanted to test with a set of 1 car. However, a set is not that easy to obtain. Or is it? I found such a car, almost in my backyard and within a few days it was arranged that I could remove the suspension. The remains would then go to the scrapper. But before that happened, there was a nice photo to be taken:

I once photographed one in red, just before the inner screens were cut from my own 850:

I would like to put back such a sticker, preferably intact!

What is left of the car after this job: