Fiat 124 Spider: Everything a Happy Life Has to Be

9 October 2017 Redazione News, Tested

FIAT 124 SPIDER

Everything a Happy Life Has to Be

Words: Marco Rallo

Photography: Jay Tomei

It was 1966 and, from the pencil of Tom Tjaarda, the unmistakable shape of the Fiat 124 Sport Spider was born. Italy was a beautiful Country, people were serene and Fiat had given birth to another successful model, built on the standard 124 and thought for a younger and wider market, so as to be finally exported overseas in the United States, with great joy of those who could not give up driving on the roads of California with hair in the wind and an Italian spider in their hands. 50 years have gone by, Italy and the world itself have radically changed, but for some, the desire to savor the full half of the glass has remained intact and Fiat has presented the new 124 Spider, this time strong of a very important partnership with Mazda and the new MX-5, with which it shares chassis and other key ingredients that are preparing a proper comeback.

The 124 Spider lines are completely different from the Japanese sister and remind some salient features of the late 1960s predecessor – you can notice that from the front headlights, from the grille itself and from the long bonnet that contributes transmitting a low and backward seating sensation, to the advantage of an ideal driving feel, especially when it comes to deal with a car that will turn fun into its winning weapon. The 124 Spider is also beautiful to look at, especially in this black color that makes the whole silhouette more elegant, in perfect contrast to the biscuit leather interior. It is a car that asks to be driven with the canvas roof open the entire year, despite being perfectly able to accommodate two people with a decent room for their heads – the only problem that can be said is that the steering wheel is not adjustable in depth but only in height and that depending on the driving position, your knees may collide with the bottom of the dashboard. This is probably the only drawback in an extraordinary spider that offers a comfortable pair of seats for motorway drives, but that does not hide the desire to be pushed to the limit on some scenic, perhaps curved road that can best enhance a chassis that speaks the favorite language of us car-minded people. On the tested specimen the gearbox is a 6-speed manual (there is also the automatic one, but the manual is the best choice) and the lever is short and very close to the driver, right next to the handbrake and the knob by which to operate the on-board multimedia system – all of this is perfectly placed on the central tunnel and perfectly at hand for the one driving. There is no Sport button, there are no useless frills, but only the desire to open the roof and make a simple and desirable action, mechanical (for some), and you find yourself with only one thing in mind: drive. I find that turning my eyes upwards, where the manually folded roof has left room for a beautiful blue sky, I am wrapped up in a new perspective, with the sun’s rays blend into a delicate morning breeze – behind me, the exhaust is never intrusive and represents the right voice to the 4 cylinder turbocharged breathing in front of me.

Wherever I look I feel overwhelmed by a sensation of freedom, continuous movement and inner peace – you will never find an angry driver at the wheel of a similar car because it is able to improve your mood right after a couple of miles. The 1.4 is the excellent FCA MultiAir and here delivers 140 horses at 5,000 revs, which have the task of giving life to the rear axle only, showing great traction and cutting power as soon as the grip starts lacking a bit. Although not equipped with an exaggerated power output, the fact of weighing just 1.125kg and having a low center of gravity makes the 124 Spider agile and reactive, so I decide to test the 240Nm of torque and touch first hand what a state of inner peace can turn into pure joy. I turn off traction control and come out of a corner with the throttle to the floor: the behavior is completely different than before – I do not lose power and the rear gently widen. Just a slight countersteer in order to straighten the bonnet, ideal for setting the following corner. Everything becomes more vivid, even more than before and I forget to have a Bose audio system equipped with even a couple of speakers sunken in the headrests. It’s just me and the 124 in a dance that makes the little Fiat curl up from one curve to the other, with an extreme ease I’ve rarely found elsewhere – no doubts, it’s actually so good that can transform an apparently standard day into an extraordinary one, it is able to value each simple action.

The MultiAir is lively but does not make the 124 Spider nervous and frustrating, it is elastic on the motorway and gives good fuel consumption figures, even during an intensive use into the city – just what you would expect from a common city car, but the 124 is able to do that adding colors that make a picture more special than a drawing. Performance figures lie, 7,5 seconds for the 0-100 does not seem to reflect the feeling of concreteness you once experience at the wheel, and I’m pretty sure you won’t be interested in checking lap times on track or something else, here we are talking about a pure driving experience and I would never have thought of finding such quality. Some plastics are rigid, but the overall quality feeling in the passenger compartment is good; it surely misses a storage compartment and the one located between the two seats is not the best, especially while driving, but are negligible details when your look is focused on the road in front of you. And if the air gets too cool, it takes just a handful of seconds to unlock and close the roof over your head, since sometimes the best answer is simplicity. Lightweight, smooth and pleasant to drive in any situation, you will never be tired of sitting at the wheel of the new 124 Spider, which in a different way, but like the new MX-5, comes here to rediscover that lost taste of a Country that we madly love for a whole load of reasons. To forget the stress of the intense life we live every day there is a medicine that does not foresee contraindications and it’s called 124 Spider.

FIAT 124 SPIDER (2017-)

Layout   –  front-engined, rear wheel drive

Engine  –  4 cylinder 1.3cc – turbocharged

Transmission  –  6-speed manual gearbox

Power  –  140 hp @ 5.000 rpm

                     240 Nm @ 2.250 rpm

Weight  –  1.125 kg

Acceleration  –  7,5 sec.

Top Speed  –  215 kph

Price –  from € 30.300