Fiat 850 Coupe

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Launched in 1964 the Dante Giacosa-designed Fiat 850 was an evolution of the hugely successful Fiat 600 which had made its debut nearly 10 years previously.

Beautifully proportioned like all Giacosa’s cars, the little two-door saloon was powered by an 843cc rear-mounted water-cooled engine in two states of tune, ‘normale’ with 34bhp and ‘super’ with 37bhp which gave it a top speed of 78mph. Other versions were also made including a Familiare seven-seater estate, a Spider Convertible and a Furgonata van.

But the prettiest of all was the sporty Coupe version you see here which made its debut at the 1965 Geneva Motor Show. Cute and perky with a wonderfully cheeky face, it was designed by Fiat’s Centro Stilo (under Boano) and had more than a whiff of scaled-down Dino about it. Fitted with a more powerful, rev-happy 52bhp engine and a taller 4.875:1 final drive, it had a top speed of 98mph.

To further differentiate it from the lesser models, the Coupe also had supportive sports seats, a sports steering wheel, a wood veneered dash and twin instrument binnacles ahead of the driver. Weighing just 720kg it also had front disc brakes and excellent handling which made it a hoot to drive. A natural contender for the race track, the Coupe was eminently tunable and companies like Abarth were soon turning out hotter versions which ran rings around much more powerful machines on the continental race circuits.

Although the 850 was a very successful model for Fiat with nearly 2.3 million sold in total (of which over 2.2m were saloons and 380,000 were Coupes), the car had zero rust proofing and survivors are now extremely thin on the ground, just 125 Fiat 850 models of all types still being registered in the UK, according to DVLA figures.

This stunning little Coupe is said by the vendor to date from 1965 and was reputedly fully refurbished to standard specification in its native Italy where we are told that it only had three owners. Looking gorgeous in red with a blue sports interior, it has an MOT until March 2016 with no advisories recorded. Said to drive well it certainly felt very lively as we hoofed it around the Brightwells yard to take these pictures; and then hoofed it some more just for the fun of it.

Recently imported from Italy, it comes with sundry Italian paperwork and will be straightforward to register here with the relevant forms as it has come from within the EU will not be due any import taxes. Catalogue Amendment: NOVA document to follow. We will retain all documents we have on file and send on the remaining paperwork when the NOVA is received.