Here's the car I'm driving at the moment. Wait. Here are the cars I'm... or are they one car?
Two Fiat Tipos. Identical. The one on the left has a metallic paintjob and was bought 17 days after the right one... at the same dealership!
It all started when my father bought a 1993 scurro rosso Fiat Tipo 1.4. My family likes Fiats (we started with a 126p, then upgraded to a 127 1300 sport) so the Tipo was bought instead of a Citroen ZX.
The car has a couple of noteworthy features:
-it's comfy. The interior is large (as wide as that of a Volvo 940/960), seats are nicely stiff, doors open at almost 90 degrees. Also, it's almost completely noiseless, no knocks, no creaks, no nothing.
-it handles well. I'll risk a statement: it can easily compete with more modern cars and beat some of them easily in that department. The car is low and wide, the wheelbase is large. Suspension wasn't made with a calculator in hand, it sports two antiroll bars and has a nifty rear setup (fully independent with two control arms, springs and shocks). As amazing as it may sound, the ride is firm but thanks to superb suspension setup it's also comfy. The car absorbs short bumps (potholes, speed bumps) softly while long bumps/dips in the road seem to stiffen the suspension up (it never bottoms out!). Fiat used this floorpan to build Lancias, Alfa Romeo 155s and Fiat Coupe: this is telling or what.
-it's slow. Yes, the 1.4 78HP engine makes this anything but a Ferrari. It sounds nice (carb!) and can pull rather well (the car wieghts only 950kg) but out on the highway it simply lacks power.
-it's bare. The most basic version offered for eastern Europe markets by Fiat has only a cigarette lighter... that is all.
OK, enough shooting shit. Time for some pictures.
