131mirafiori forum

Hello 131 lovers,

The most of us know that the 131 Supermirafiori Volumetrico was a 4 door Abarth. Actually Abarth builded another 4 door car years before, so in the history of this famous marque you can find 2 different four door family cars next to all these great coupes, barchettas, cabrio's and racers.
Anybody know which car I mean?? Pictures will follow ;) ;D ;D

Simca abarth 1150??

Yes, indeed the Simca Abarth 1150.
Here are some pictures from the 2 cars presented at Guy Moerenhout.
The metallic car is real, the white a replica as said immediately.

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Abarth Simca 1150 1963.


Fiat Abarth 1500s Berlina 1962.... ;)

Very well Graham ;D ;) ;)

I'm stitched into my anorak  :D

I'm sure about that :D

You know I've always looked out for one of these Abarth 1500s whenever I've been to a W.A.M. but they never appear.

I think they mostly got used up a long time ago.

I have seen a few of the Simca 1150s, good little cars...I've heard Mr Abarth wasn't so keen on them....but that might have had something to do with strike issues at the Simca factory messing up his production runs  ::)

Dosen't the Simca 1150 look very similar to the Renault 8 ??? ::).Any opinions ??? ::).Eugene

VERY similar indeed!

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Renault8.jpg)

I agree there are many similarities between them.

The funny thing is the Simca 1000 series is based on a Fiat design, I think it was called Project 122 but was dropped by Fiat in favour of the 1100 & 1300/1500 Berlinas with their front engine RWD design.

There have been a few pictures of this rear engined project published over the years but I'm unable to find any at present ( Albert can you help? ).

It looks pretty much identical to the Simca but has slightly different headlamps.

As for the Renault, the predeccessor of the R8 was the Dauphine and strangely this was built under licence by Alfa Romeo for the Italian market.

So much for individual design!!!!  :D ;D :D

Right Graham,  I am digging in my collection for pictures from tipo 122. Indeed the Simca 1000 was a Fiat design. Fiat changed to what would be the Fiat 850 later.

Nice to tell that something simular happened later with the design for the Cinquecento. The prototype they didn't accept was sold to Daewoo and became the Matiz.

Nice that you started about Alfa Romeo with the Dauphine which indeed was built by Alfa Romeo under licence. I already have the picture from the original prototype for the Alfa Giulia and I saw that car in the Alfa Museum in Arese. Look at the very very close simularities with the Renault 8, especially the bonnet! About this are going 2 stories, I will dig it out more and(try to) explain if people are interested :-*.
It is said the design was sold to Renault,which is quite possible as I was reading Renault had trouble with designing the car(R8) and had to bring it with TGV speed on the market, so they were shopping :D

That gives the interesting fact that 2 french best sellers were actually written off italian designs ;D

Pictures come later

Well done Albert.....who's wearing the anorak now :D ;D ;)

Was the Alfa known as the Tipo 103?

I remember seeing it at Arese myself a few years back, I'm sure it was light blue.

The original Matiz was built on Punto running gear I think, Fiat turned down a winner.....YET AGAIN  ??? >:( :-\ ???

Yes, indeed it was tipo 103 and the light blue car! I like this kind of histories!

You were in the Alfa museum?

You can choose the anorak :D

Yes please more info very interested.

Ha,ha....I'll have the day-glo orange with white strings and toggles :D

Yes I went to the Alfa collection in 1998, very impressive as you would expect.
Our party of 10 were the only people there. The curator buzzed off, 2 guards wandered around outside and we had the place to ourselves for a couple of hours.....bliss!  8)

I have pics here somewhere of the museum, so I'll have a dig about to see what I've got stashed away.

Please post the story of these cars, I know its not 131 related but its still very interesting....well to someone like me who gets his outer garments from Millets ;D.   

Then I take the pink one with yellow stripes ;)

I visited the Alfa museum twice, first time in 1991,second around 98. The first time we were the only guests so yes, I know how it feels to be between all these history alone(without your passport).
I will go into the history of the prototypes, I am interested myself too in the deeper history, I will let you know what I found as soon as possible. ::)

Here is the part of the story of Fiat tipo 122 in comprimated form. I hope it is interesting for you all :) :)

Project 122 started in 1959 with the chassis of the Fiat 600. Before that, Project 119 with the Fiat 1100 engine did not win the Fiat bosses approval, so Project 122 was developed. The first prototype, 1A, looked like a big Fiat 600 (almost a Seat 800) with? four doors. Later prototypes looked more and more? a? four door ?Berlina?. Fiat made about 15 plastic mock-up?s before they stopped the making of a Berlina.
At last, design 4A (made in 1960 by Mario Revelli de Beaumont) was chosen by Simca for the Simca 1000. The first Simca?s came out in September 1961. Fiat forgot the project but the success of the Simca 1000 awoke the Turin designers to make a successful replacement of the Fiat 600.? In 1964 Styling Centre Fiat introduced the Fiat 850, with the 100G (Grande) engine from the 600. During a lot of years the 850 was a successor. Over one million were made in Coach, Coup?, Spider and Wagon outfits. More than 15 coachbuilders made several 850 models.
Note that 122 was not the only project for Fiat, sold to Simca. Project 112 (1955) was very similar to the Simca Versailles. Much later, Fiat sold a? five door hatchback project to Zastava (1100/101) and made a Berlina for themselves, called the 128. Did you know the first Seat Ibiza was nearly a Fiat Uno? And the Daewoo Matiz a Fiat Seicento( I correct myself here too!)?

I hope I can do pictures soon, as the ones my friend have are very small.

I do my best to have the part of Alfa Romeo tipo 103 also sorted ;D

Nice one Albert,

Fiat Centro Stile rule!

The tradition of passing projects over to satellite companies continues today e.g. Fiat Brazil and the Uno/Strada/Doblo projects...although these were already successful European ventures before Fiat passed them on to Sth America.

The 128 was indeed developed as a hatchback as well as a berlina, the early Zastavas were all berlinas and the hatchback did not appear until the mid 70's ( please correct me if I'm wrong ), also the early Ibiza is based on the Strada/Ritmo floor pan as they are indentical underneath ( found both cars sitting side-by-side once and compared them ).

Was the Matiz an Italdesign project?   

Here is the promised picture of the prototype Tipo 122/540 design 4A from 1960. Already very near to the Simca 1000, isn't it.


Yes Graham, as far as I know was the Matiz from Italdesign.

Thats the pic  :)

The roofline looks a lot like the Fiat 1300/1500.

Thanks for confirming the Matiz's origin.