Deauville and Fidia: Shades of Gold

25 March 2017 Redazione Vintage, Your Cars

Fidia and Deauville, Shades of Gold

Words: Manuel Bordini

Photography: Federico Vandone dell’Acqua

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In the early Seventies two cars ruled the market of exclusive high performance Italian four-door sedans: the De Tomaso Deauville and the Iso Rivolta Fidia.

The cars were born just 180 kilometres apart in the same vivid pre-oil crisis environment, in Bresso and Modena respectively. The latter doesn’t need any explanation, but the first was until the early 50s a virtually unknown town which today could be well considered a suburb of Milan, melted in the metropolitan area of the working heart of Italy. The Isothermos first appeared in the 40s as a manufacturer of refrigerators. A few years later it made its debut in the automotive industry with the name Iso. First in production was its futuristic egg-car, Isetta, designed by the aeronautical engineer Ermenegildo Preti. The market didn’t enthusiastically welcome the newly born: the gentlemen didn’t like it because it was reputed more of a lady car, and the ladies didn’t because of the front door, considered not appropriate when wearing a skirt. As a matter of fact it was a car too ahead of its times, too sophisticated to be appreciated by the masses. The same fate was about to affect both the Fidia and the Deauville, but let’s move on gradually.

The Fidia came to light in 1967. In 1966 Piero Rivolta was appointed CEO of Iso Rivolta (the name of the company after releasing the GT 300/340) after the death of his father Renzo. He thought the company and the market were ready for a new Iso car, a 4-door this time. The Iso Rivolta 4S (later named Fidia) made its first appearance in 1967 at the London Motor Show, striking everyone including John Lennon who eventually bought two of them. Both Giorgetto Giugiaro and Piero Rivolta himself worked on the design: Piero had clearly in mind what he wanted, and Giugiaro helped him translate his ideas into a defined shape. Piero wanted a 4-door Grifo, a car that could easily express power, comfort, exclusivity and show an almost fastidious care for details. The Fidia was the proper car to replace a Grifo in the garage of a growing family. The result was exactly as intended.

The feeling at the steering wheel is as close to a Grifo as a twin can be to his sibling. Despite the weight (1600kg) the car handles well, both at high speed on a motorway or cruising in the countryside. The lack of power steering in the example tested is actually only felt while parking, but when the car is in motion the steering gets light and sharp.

This one, chassis #48, fits a Chevy 5.4 litres, 300 bhp and a manual gearbox. Torque is never a problem, there’s always plenty of it in any conditions. You can easily start in 4th gear with no problem, this Fidia accelerates effortlessly with a clearly higher performance than most of the sportscars available at the time. The driver is surrounded by the opulence of the Connolly leather, personally chosen for a few of their cars by Lele Rivolta, wife of Piero. The last of the Iso models, the Lele, was named after her.

The engine is revving quietly at 2000 rpm at 100 km/h, but is ready to roar wildly as we hit the higher floors of the counter.

Fidia #48 was bought new in 1968 by the Italian sports magazine “Corriere dello Sport” and kept in service until 1973, when it left the scenes just after taking the signora Piantelli, wife of the editor, to the Teatro La Scala in Milan for the premiere of the year. It was then stored in a building basement for decades until 2008, when it was sold to a new owner who took care of it and had its engine rebuilt by Diomante. The lack of use had clogged the engine cooling system, it had to be dismantled and rebuilt by the well-known Iso and Bizzarrini specialist. The body is still in its original colour, Grigio Indianapolis, and Senape interior, with factory fitted air conditioning. It still retain its books, the original keys, key chain and knock-off wheels for a very Grifo-type of look. Barely 192 Fidias left the factory after seven years of production.

In order to compare the Fidia to another car, we couldn’t choose anything else but the De Tomaso Deauville. Presented at the Turin Motor Show in 1970, it entered the production line in 1971 and remained pretty much unchanged until the last year of production, 1988. A total of 244 cars left the Modena-based company gates. The design of the Deauville is as timeless as the Fidia’s, though sportier. Tom Tjaarda received from Alejandro De Tomaso a clear task for the new car: he had to design a car with the aggressiveness of the Mangusta but in a black tie suit, and the result was something as striking as a four-door Pantera. The newly born could take advantage of a Ford power train, the mighty V8 Cleveland 351C 4V, rated at 330 bhp mated with a three-speed Ford C6. Differently from the Fidia, the chassis was not designed by the Ferrari 250 GTO’s engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, but by a young Gian Paolo Dallara, one of the most talented engineers of the Italian sportscars golden age. As well as the Fidia, the Deauville is built for Ghia by Silver Car of Grugliasco, the same company used to build many supercars including the Lambo Miura and Espada.

In spite of being considerably heavier than the Fidia (1800kg), the Deauville retains a road behaviour worthy of a supercar. Accordingly to Tom Tjaarda, the Deauville’s road holding is far better than the Pantera’s, his epic and most famous creature. The Cleveland monster torque pushes the 4-door easily far beyond any speed limit, the handling is easy and predictable. Even in winding mountain roads the braking system doesn’t indulge in fading thanks to the 4 ventilated discs, a never-seen-before feature on a sedan. The interior is well trimmed, the clocks designed for racing come straight from the Mangusta, the cockpit is rationally conceived, all essential gauges are in the driver’s sight for quick reading and prompt mastery of the car. Both cars share a De Dion rear axle with on-board braking disks for optimal road behaviour: the Fidia has solid discs while the De Tomaso panther in black tie features a full set of ventilated ones.

The Deauville was meant to appeal to those who weren’t fond of Jags and Mercs but wanted something classy with a significant muscular frown.

Despite the promising basis, these two supercars didn’t enjoy the success they deserved. Did the reason possibly reside in what the automotive literature called the oil-crises conjuncture? No, not completely. The Fidia and the Deauville suffer from being too ahead of their times, as their design didn’t meet any decades’ mainstream taste. They are timeless shapes created when the market wanted something more sober from a sedan. It simply wasn’t ready for what three decades later was to be named 4-door coupe. Their spell will eventually be their saviour. this year the classic car community will celebrate the Fidia’s fiftieth anniversary as it befits a timeless beauty. Then it will be Deauville’s turn. We bet on this!