Final Parking Space: 1972 Fiat 850 Spider
During my junkyard travels, I still find plenty of Fiat 124 Sport Spiders, plus many MG Midgets and MGBs. Those cars had temptingly low prices when new, but there was another European two-seat convertible that could beat all three in that department: The Fiat 850 Spider. Here’s one of those cars, spotted recently in a Denver-area self-service yard.
The Fiat 850 was derived from the very successful (in Europe) Fiat 600, and it first went on sale in the United States as a 1967 model. Through 1971, 850s were available here as two-door sedans, fastback coupes, and Spider convertibles; for 1972 and 1973, just the convertible reached our shores.
The 850 Spider was always very affordable, but the 850 sedan was able to compete on price with the very cheapest new cars available in the United States. In 1970, the $1504 Fiat 850 sedan undercut the stickers on the $1682 Morris Minor, the $1686 Toyota Corolla, the $1693 Simca 1204, the $1775 Renault 10, the $1798 Datsun 1200, the $1799 Volkswagen Beetle, and the $1815 Austin America (but not the $1297 Subaru 360, for obvious reasons).
For the 1972 model year, the MSRP of a new Fiat 850 Spider in the United States was $2424, or about $18,529 in 2024 dollars. That made it by far the cheapest new convertible available here, with the $2520 MG Midget coming in second place.
The 1972 Midget was lighter than the 850 Spider (1512 versus 1580 pounds) and it had more horsepower (54.5 versus 49 horses). The 850 Spider’s rear engine layout made for exciting oversteer adventures if the driver got ambitious, too.
The displacement of this water-cooled pushrod straight-four is 903-cubic centimeters, which means we can call it a 0.9-liter. The Midget had a massive (by comparison) 1275-cc pushrod four.
Inside, the shifter for a four-speed manual transmission and the remnants of what was once a stylish Italian interior.
I had found a couple of discarded 850 Spiders in the years before this car got to its final parking space, but I see at least a half-dozen 124 Sport Spiders in junkyards each year. Some Front Range 850 Spider owner is going to be ecstatic over this rare bonanza of affordable parts.
It traveled at least 69,284 miles during its career.
The build tag tells us that this car began life dressed in orange paint; the red overspray tells us that someone applied a thick coat of red paint later in its life.
I sadly saw a collage age girl killed in one of these when hit by a sedan after she ran a stop sign. Not much protection in those days,
They don’t make them like they used to…
Not to sound flippant, but almost any car is safer if you don’t use it to run stop signs.
Wow! I can’t believe that’s in a junkyard! That has less rust than most 850s on the road! Certainly less than my ’72 I had in the 80’s. I know people are doing it, but I always thought these were perfect candidates for electrification. Lots of room for batteries and drop dead gorgeous. And certainly nobody would mourn the 900cc dog of an engine it came with.
An 850 on the road IS rust – being towed.
When I was a teenager, one of my friend’s older sisters had an orange one parked on the family farm. She had apparently driven it during high school and college. At some point, something mechanical happened to it that turned it into yard art. It was complete and at the time the top even sealed out the weather. Always thought it was a cool-looking car, but had no desire to own it. I’m sure I could have had it for dirt cheap, but I had my 289-powered ’67 Mustang at the time and considered it nothing more than an interesting curiosity.
A friend’s daughter also had an orange one back in the early 80s. He and I repainted it (orange) in my gravel driveway. To this day I still occasionally find small pieces of orange gravel when I’m weeding that drive. I also welded in a new passenger side floor after daughter’s large-sized friend plunked down into the passenger seat and found herself and the seat on the ground below…
BTW that Fiat has the cutest little 2 barrel Weber carb–a 30DRS. Want to adapt one to my Renault 4CV.
I remember back in the ’60s that the 850 Spider was considered by many to be “a girl’s car.” Compared to an MG Midget it looked like a ballet slipper vs. a work oxford. The engine was inoffensive and buzzed rather than blatted. I still want one.