The Green Machine

Following the discovery of a pristine Fiat 124 Special in a nunnery we take the opportunity to consider the origins of one of the longest-running production models of all time.

- Phil Ward & Andrew Roberts

Dante Giacosa, Fiat’s brilliant chief design engineer, could never have imagined that his 124 project would become the world’s highest-selling automobile to be produced without a major design change. To understand how this was achieved we need to investigate the original concept.

THE 124 IN THE MAKING

Dante Giacosa was responsible for a host of new car projects during his tenure. His book Forty Years of  Design with Fiat describes his work in great detail and is essential reading for scholars on the cars and the in-house politics prevalent from the 1950s to the 1970s. Fiat needed a new modern car to replace the ageing 1300/1500 range. That car was to be the 124 saloon, which was launched at the Geneva Show in March 1966. The 124’s development journey involved extensive research into the engineering options that began in 1958 – as the 123 project. There were four ‘123’ projects that were both highly significant and controversial at the time. None of them produced a vehicle for the motoring public but they each contributed to the evolution of the automobile, demonstrating the laborious process behind the development of a new model. The brief surrounded the construction of four experimental cars whose weight ranged from 760 to 780kg, two had front-wheel drive and two had rear mounted engines of varying configurations. Giacosa’s plan was to collect information relevant to functional details and manufacturing costs.