A four door Fiat 1300 saloon.
Zooming back to the 1960s with this old photo, showing a family stood alongside their trusty (not yet rusty) Fiat 1300 or 1500 4 door saloon, of a type built from 1961 through to 1967. Perhaps someone recognises the style of registration plate shown here, I'm guessing at Italian but can anyone confirm or correct this theory? Maurizio recognised the number: "The plate is from MESSINA (ME): the faces of the father and his son are
truly sicilian faces!"
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Two versions of this crisply-styled car were offered, with either a 1295cc or 1481cc version of the inline four cylinder Fiat engine, driving the rear wheels. Saloons and estates were the big sellers in the range. For those wanting to cut a dash in a convertible, a 1500 drop-top was also offered, looking quite different to the boxy saloons however but sharing the Fiat saloon's four-pot engine. An estimated 600,000 examples of these Fiats were sold during this period, but despite this the number of surviving examples is low, most having been scrapped and turned into Fiat 126s, or Lancia Betas.
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Just as the later 125 range went on to be produced by Lada, Polski Fiat and FSO, so too the 1300/1500 cars were licensed to be built by other manufacturers, but this time concurrently with Fiat's own production line. Zastava, the Yugoslavian car manufacturer, built the 1300 & 1500 and continued to do so long after Fiat halted production. Siata offered tuned versions of the boxy Fiat too.
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Return to Old Vehicle Photos Page 8.
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