Flaunt It Again, Tony
By: Matteo Licata
Tags: Design, Vintage, Automotive, History, Italy

The story of the Fiat 130 is one of corporate hubris overpowering good judgment, of proud but ultimately pointless achievement.

Even Fiat’s engineering supremo at the time, Dante Giacosa, the “father” of all the most popular Fiat cars, did not hide his reservations about the 130 project. He did not particularly enjoy designing luxury vehicles and firmly believed Fiat had no business making one.

But those were the 1960s: Fiat was the biggest automobile manufacturer in Europe and enjoyed an almost monopolistic position in a booming Italian car market. Fiat’s upper management believed they could do everything, that the company was “entitled” to a slice of the luxury car market because of its success. They wanted a flagship saloon to rival the best, and the Fiat 130 that debuted in 1969 at the Geneva motor show certainly was such a car.

The Fiat 130 as it appeared at the 1969 Geneva Motor Show (c. FCA EMEA Press)

Its chrome-laden body measured over 4.7 meters in length, and under its vast bonnet laid an all-new 2.8 liters V6 engine designed by ex-Ferrari engineer Aurelio Lampredi. Power went to the rear wheels via either a five-speed manual or a three-speed automatic transmission.

The Fiat 130 aimed squarely at the Mercedes 250S, perhaps too much in the styling department: ponderous and somewhat old-fashioned, the exterior design of the 130 left cold public and critics alike.

few Italians bought such big cars, and those who did generally sought the distinction of a prestigious foreign brand

Even the brand-new V6 came under criticism: at 140 HP, it was low on power for such a heavy car, something Fiat only partially addressed in 1971, when the 2.8 was superseded by an enlarged 3.2 liters good for 160 HP. The same year saw the debut of the 130 Coupé, whose body was designed and built by Pininfarina.

The Fiat 130 Coupé (c. FCA EMEA Press)

The shape of the 130 Coupé was the polar opposite of the saloon’s one: light, modern, glamorous yet peerlessly elegant, it’s attributed to designer Paolo Martin, and it’s perhaps his finest work: an authentic Italian design classic. Sadly, the coupè did not save the 130 from being a complete market failure: only about 20.000 units were made between 1969 and 1977, a quarter of which were coupès.

The elegant lines of the 130 Coupé (c. FCA EMEA Press)

Punitive taxation in force at the time for the engines above 2 liters of displacement meant that few Italians bought such big cars, and those who did generally sought the distinction of a prestigious foreign brand like Mercedes or Jaguar. Italy’s roads were full of small Fiats, after all, making the brand hardly an exclusive one.

The geopolitical events of late ’73 didn’t help either.

The Arab Oil Embargo hit Italy hard, as it depended on imports for 85% of its total energy needs. In a clumsy attempt to save energy resources, the Italian government imposed a speed limit of 120 Km/h on motorways and outright banned private car usage on Sundays. While such a scenario was a blow to the automotive business as a whole, it killed off any hope for a model like the 130, whose position on the market had been weak right from the start.

Today the Fiat 130 stands tall as a symbol of a bygone era when Fiat was a successful, confident company with the guts and resources to try to beat Mercedes-Benz at its own game.