Yahoo Autos Drive Like Enzo In This Splashy Seventies Fiat
Enzo Ferrari drove a Fiat 128. Either you didn't know that, or it's exactly what Fiat's marketing arm would have you believe: when il Grande Vecchio wasn't ruling his Scuderia from a trackside in Monza, presumably, he was toddling around Maranello incognito in a Fiat 128, behind big Persol sunglasses, possibly on his way to visit Fiamma Breschi.
Though, he didn't drive the tarted-up time capsule that you see here.
The same man who gave Fiat the Nuova 500, Dante Giacosa, gave the world the 128. Alongside micro-sized cars like the Mini, this was one of the first front-wheel drive cars in the world. Three million customers served couldn't be wrong: by the time the 128 left production in 1985, with licensed production from Spanish SEAT and Serbian Zastava-and, as recently as 2009, complete knockdown kits from Egypt's state-owned Nasr-the front-engined, front-drive layout became the world standard.
But, maybe, not this example in Modesto, California. This 1978 Fiat 128 Sport 3P is a capsule straight out of the late-70s, with original, wonderfully intact tape stripes. And what a set of stripes it all is: that hockey stick pattern could've been an Italian Starsky and Hutch. It wraps around the hood in narrowing perpendicular stripes, reminiscent of Yamaha's famous yellow-and-black scheme, well underneath twin and possibly genuine ram-air scoops. And then, the big and blocky FIAT SPORT type! It's almost enough to make one overlook the Malaise-laden diving board bumpers.
Flaunt It Again, Tony. If you want to own a genuine piece of automotive history, wrung through the ringer of shouty Seventies "sportiness," then this four-spoked, modest, Modesto eBay example is all yours.
Hat tip to barnfinds.com
