The Fiat 124 Sport Spider is a cabriolet made by Fiat and introduced in 1966 and continued until 1985. Most of the cars were exported to the US.
The Sports Spider, introduced in November 1966 at the Turin Auto Show and the Fiat 124 Coupé, introduced in 1967, were related to the 124 sedan in name through the use of much of the mechanical running gear and in the case of the Coupé, a shared floorpan. The Sports Spider utilized a shorter floor pan and its wheelbase was also shorter. The coupé was designed and built in-house by Fiat while the Spider's unit body was designed and produced by Italian carozzeria Pininfarina (it was that company's most successful commercial venture at the time).
Engines
The engine utilized in the Spider and Coupé was a double overhead cam, aluminum crossflow head version of the sedan's pushrod unit. It started in 1966 with a capacity of 1438 cc progressively increasing to 1608 cc in 1970 (although this reduced to 1592 cc in 1973), 1756 cc in 1974 and finally 1995 cc in 1979. Fuel injection replaced carburettors in 1980.There was also a supercharged model called Volumex offered toward the end of production, but these are rare. This family of engines was designed by ex-Ferrari chief engineer Aurelio Lampredi and in one form or another remained in production into the 1990s giving it one of the longest production runs in history. The double overhead cam (DOHC) version was the first mass manufactured DOHC to utilize reinforced rubber timing belts, an innovation that would come into nearly universal use in the decades after its introduction.
1400 (1438 cc) – 90 PS (89 hp/66 kW)
1600 (1608 cc) – 110 PS (108 hp/81 kW)
1600 (1592 cc) – 106 PS (105 hp/78 kW)
1800 (1756 cc) – 118 PS (116 hp/87 kW)
2000 (1995 cc) – 78 PS (77 hp/57 kW)
2000i (1995 cc) – 100 PS (99 hp/74 kW)
VX (1998 cc) – 135 PS (133 hp/99 kW) supercharged
Suspension
Suspension was conventional by unequal length wishbones and coil over damper at the front and by coil sprung live rear axle at the rear which was located by a transverse link (Panhard rod) and two pairs of forward extending radius rods to react braking and acceleration and to control axle wind-up.
Specification
The two models were first sold in the US market in 1968. In 1969, the Spider was one of the few affordable cars with 4 wheel disc brakes, double overhead cams, hesitation wipers, steering column mounted lighting controls, radial ply tires and a 5 speed transmission. It boasted the best soft convertible top in the world which could be raised and locked in place in 15 seconds. All this for less than $3250 (Car and Driver, 1968). A Volvo 122 was $3000 and Plymouth Barracuda with the 340ci engine was $3200, with great looks and a 7800 rpm red-line. The Spider was a sexy roadgoing model from the 124 series that was built by Fiat from 1966 offered initially only in Europe late in its life built entirely and marketed by Pininfarina and also boasted a performance special in the 124 Spider Abarth which incorporated such things as an independent rear axle, hardtop, different seats, interior etc and only came in 3 colours. The body stayed basically the same for its entire life with only ongoing trim and accessory changes, such as interior, wheels, grille, tail lights and bumper bars over the years with each model.
Production
The model line ceased in 1985 after over 150,000 Spiders alone had been built. There were four models of Spider, the AS, BS, CS and CS1.
Production for each year is as follows, chassis numbers start at #000001.
1966 AS #000001
1967 AS not many
1968 AS #005619
1969 BS #010554
1970 BS #021861
1971 BS 1438cc #022589
1971 BS 1608cc #033950
1972 BS 1608cc #047032
1973 CS 1608cc #059592
1973 CS 1592cc #063308
1974 CS1 1756cc #071650
1975 CS1 1756cc #088792
1976 CS1 1756cc #099909
1977 CS1 1756cc #113343
1978 CS1 1756cc #126001
1979 CS2 1995cc Sportivo de Pininfarina Special edition by Ferrari
1979 CS1 1995cc #142514