The Fiat 850 was introduced in 1965, based on an elongated 600 platform to match Fiat’s aspirations toward multiple body styles. Four basic body styles were offered: a saloon, a van, a coupe, and a spider. Augmenting these, the company eventually developed several variants. Technical progress from the 600 to the 850 was minor, consisting of an uprated rear-mounted engine and front disc brakes on the coupe and the spider. Still, sales eventually ramped up past 2.2 million units. The spider was penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Bertone; the coupe was designed by Felice Mario Boano. Here on craigslist is a 1967 Fiat 850 coupe, with an asking price of $29,500. This car is located in New Albany, Ohio, and it’s ready to go to the nearest Ecteterini show. We have T.J. to thank for this jewel of a tip!
Despite the promise of an enormous 250 cc increase over the original 600 four-cylinder motor, US buyers of the Fiat 850 only got 817 cc’s due to emissions regulations. But there’s good news here: this coupe has the 843 cc version sold overseas with about 50 hp. That’s because this car was purchased by the seller at a recent auction where it was sold out of Piacenza, Italy. (Note the “Storica” badge, the Firestone tires, and the European license surround shown in both the craigslist ad and the auction listing.) The motor is said to run well. The car has a four-speed transaxle, said to shift perfectly. While this car would barely reach 90 mph from the factory, performance-seekers will be heartened to know that later 903 cc engines can be sleeved into this engine bay. The engines can also be rebuilt with race components (at considerable cost) to eek another couple of ponies from the unit.
The interior is quite nice. Detail shots show that the rubber inside the windshield at the juncture with the dash is torn (see upper right in the photo above and here). Slight wear on the dash around the switches and imperfections in the driver’s door panel are apparent. The headliner is good, with moderate wrinkling above the passenger’s rear seat. The car has a modern Sony sound unit, with speakers installed in the rear shelf.
This photo is from the auction listing showing the underside of the car. While it could be cleaner, there’s no obvious sign of damage. Even the front valance is straight. Surviving Fiat 850 coupes are rare in the US and nice ones are even rarer. Further, 1967 was the last year of the Boano body design; after that, the cars were burdened with a less attractive front end. But price is a consideration for a car that will mosey rather than rocket down the road, no matter how good it looks. The current price is nearly three times what the seller paid for this car (ex import and shipping costs), and about twice the average sales price of the last five years. What price would tempt you to add this Italian jewel to your stable?
This would be a cool little car – for $5000 (or less).
I had a teacher in junior high that showed us some
slides (remember those?) of her trip to Italy,& one
of them was this model of 850.
Funny what you remember from your past.
It’s corny, but a wonderful movie, “BFs is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get”, I’d sure like to know how BFs gets into my head on this stuff. Perhaps a bit vain, but here’s another I thought I’d never see again. The guy across the alley with the Honda 305 Scrambler, his younger brother, Johnny, THIS was his 1st car, a ’68. I think, 1971ish. Maybe I don’t want to know how BFs does it. I didn’t have my license yet, he did, and came home with this,,um,,car. Fresh from our 10 speeds( I still had mine), oh, this was the sportiest thing we saw. Bright red, 4 speed, that sweeping tach,( that failed) the sound, it was a fun little car,the closest thing to an Italian sports car,,,for a couple months. Then the problems began. It began to grind going into 2nd gear. Things randomly began to fail. Window crank, gauges, he took it in, they claimed to have fixed the trans, about a month later, it began to grind again, in ALL the gears. That thing couldn’t see 90 mph off a cliff in a hurricane. It was clear what a POS it was, and he dumped it for a ’68 Barracuda, with much better results. Thanks for the memories,plenty more where that came from, and while you’re at it, when will I find true love? At 68? :(
Too much to ask of a classic automotive site, I suppose,,
Merry Christmas Howard! If it helps, at 67 I am still looking also.Take care.
Any teenager driving in the early 70”s where cars were so much of the young culture needed durable goods. That poor Italian car never stood a chance. Also given they had a tendency to rust out in a couple years solidified the consumer opinion of Fiat cars. They are however clever beautiful works of art that can be thoroughly enjoyed leading a pampered life of a collector. Certainly any Italian car enthusiast.
I had one, [a 69 or 70 as I recall] and although not “fast” it was a really fun car to drive. I lowered mine about 1 inch, [maybe 2?] and with some better tires had a bit of fun auto crossing. No real success, just fun. On my way from Maryland to Virginia for “Summer Camp” [US Army Reserves] on a Sunday in the middle of the night it threw it’s belt which was nowhere to be found. I managed to make it to a closed country gas station, and after some wandering around the junk cars out back, found that a belt off of a rusty junked farm tractor would fit well enough. Installed it and put a 5 spot through the mail slot in the front door. Made it to base with time to spare…
I continue to be amazed and surprised at the vast numbers and styles of small FIAT coachbuilt or semi-coachbuilt cars produced in Italy from 1946 to about 1976. Sadly, very few came to North America, because, let’s face it — Americans generally didn’t want little cars with expensive bodywork.
In the early 1980s, when FIAT dealers began to disappear, I found numerous unusual FIAT cars being sold off cheap, and I owned 3 of them:
1959 FIAT 600 4-door with a Lombardi body [not a Multipla style].
1961 FIAT 1200 Cabriolet in light blue.
1965 FIAT 1500 Cabriolet, also in light blue.
Both of the cabriolets were found by me in a 2 car garage in Washington DC, where they had been parked for over a decade. They were both covered with multiple layers of blankets and sheets, and then slowly covered over and around, by lots of household junk, to the point where I couldn’t see the cars.
Later on after I had sold it, I was told by a FIAT collector the 600 Lombardi sedan was the only one imported into the USA, brought home by a US Army officer stationed in Italy.
No doubt Fiat turned out some good looking cars in those years. This is one of them. My favorites are the the OTAS that showed up the other day on BF and this car that we raced with several times in the early 2000s. Just plain good looking car in race or street trim.
Very nice coupe but way overpriced.Now if it was an Abarth model.
This Fiat reminds me of the VW fastback of the 1970’s. Does anyone know which made it to production first, the Fiat or the VW. A high school friend had the VW fastback which we nicknamed the “Eggbeater”, because it sounded like our mothers electric mixer running. The VW fastback could probably have beat the mom’s mixer in the quarter mile but not by much.
To be pedantic, this is about as far from “Etceterini” as an Italian car can get, having been cataloged by Fiat as a standard production model.
The VW Fastback was two whole size brackets bigger in Europe.
My brother has an 850 which he called his “Italian convertable”. 2dr hardtop with no floors….
is the saying ‘in a slow car going fast”? At any rate its a fun car. We had several of the spyders. Sit in the driver’s and open/close the manual rag top w/o moving.
I went from the larger’s development as 1200, 1500 onto the ‘124’ evolution.
This one? good for SCCA events w/a few Abarth speedy bits. 5K$ seems right to double for concourse condition. I’ll take this and the sporty model in robins egg blue.
Not worth anything near the astronomical price being asked. It isn’t a sport coupe either. Good luck.
Not worth anything near the astronomical price being asked. If it was a sport coupe it eould be more desirable but still not at that price.
Owner of an OTAS that is Fiat 850 based, the Abarth upgrades to these cars, as mentioned at high rarity expense, makes them into a pretty amazing collectors car dream. No two Abarth modified Fiats were the same. Carlo was a racer, and constantly modifying these often under 1000cc “Giant Killers”–to the point that his cars were banned from many competitions where his ultra light cars were beating cars of double the displacement. Coil over front suspension, Camber compensators, taller gears, weber carburetion, and bumble-bee higher rpm cam shafts all contributed. How was it that a photo was posted? If that was allowed, I always have photos to augment comments.
I love these cars, I had multiple Coupes and raced a spider in HP for a few years. The cars through 1967 got the 843cc motor. In 1968 the displacement was reduced to 817cc because the EPA exempted cars under 50 cubic inches from any smog requirements. Then after a year or two of that the 903cc motor came in the cars. With a mild PBS cam and a slightly bigger carburetor they were great fun to drive.
Ridiculous price! Had 2 in nice shape for under $1ooo just as nice, 40 MPG. Still looking for a reasonably priced one that isn’t rusted out.
Attempting to triple a Bring a Trailer result by advertising on Craigslist? That will certainly be an uphill battle! Cool car – high price tag.
I’ve owned (and still own) tons of rear engined Fiats and derivatives by Abarth. I currently have an 850 Shellette by Michelotti, a 600 Jolly by Ghia, an Abarth 1000 TC, an Abarth 750GT spider by Allemano, and a Fiat 850 Familiare minivan. I paid MUCH less for the Familiare which was also on BAT. It has rewarded my with multiple concours trophies, and even earned some great income when it was featured in Paramount’s production of “The Offer” about the making of the Godfather!
Average price for first series cars is around 8000€
Why do only Anglo-Saxons panic when they suspect they
see something special? Of the just than half a million
pieces built of this car, the second line is more sought after.
Not only because of the dual headlights but also because
of the more balanced design. It’s not always about another
engine, it’s about to make a well balanced package.
You better stay with your schäwies because with them you
can’t do much wrong.
Ok, hear me out- this car, lowered on coil overs and road course suspension, a good set of brakes, and a Ducati 1198cc V-4 with 220+ horsepower and 6 speed transmission with wider wheels and tires. Now that would be fun to drive!
But seriously, I love the classic FIATs and Minis from back in the day when they had to have tiny engines to avoid the high taxes on cars with large engines, and they could be tuned to make better power with the right parts and money. I went to a car show back when we lived in the St Louis area and someone brought a classic Mini Cooper that had a Honda K-series engine with a supercharger and 6 speed out of a Civic Si. Owner claimed well over 300hp in a car that barely weighed a ton! Talk about a handful! I bet this FIAT with the aforementioned motorcycle engine and transmission would be a real giant killer on the track, if it was properly modified to handle the extra horsepower. I’d love to see the look on people’s faces when I passed them on a road course or twisty back road, thinking this car only had a 50hp 850cc engine.
But that’s just how my mind works, no matter what kind of car or motorcycle I buy, the first thing I do when I get it home is to immediately start planning on how to make it faster. I’d love to have something like this, but for a third of the price.