Danti
Giasosa
Danti
Giasosa
Fiat
500
Fiat
508C
A wealthy Italian industrialist Piero Dusio, with a request to design a single seat racing car approached him in 1944, that could be purchased for a relatively low price. This he did in his free time away for the Fiat factory. The design utilised components from the Fiat 500 and 508C. The resulting car the Cisitalia "D46" was on sale in 1946 at a price in Italian Lira equal to around 1000 UK Pounds. The space-frame chassis was constructed using steel tubes and the body consisted of light alloy panels. The Fiat 1100cc engine that was fitted to the car was tuned to produce 60 BHP. A maximum speed of 108MPH was claimed. A batch of twenty cars was laid down in 1946 and the cars were raced successfully throughout the rest of the 1940's.
Fiat
508cmm
Giacosa did the initial design work on the
next Cisitalia model a two-seat sports car the Project
202. Again he used a multi tube space-frame chassis. The design being
an adaptation of the single seat model. The prototype was fitted with a
coupe body similar to the Fiat 508CMM. Before series production commenced,
he passed over responsibility for the design to Giovanni Savonuzzi.
Though Danti Giacosa had become director of the engineering division of Fiat, that didn't mean that he could follow his own inclinations regarding the design of any new cars. The Fiat sales department had an overriding influence on new the model produced. Therefore Giacosa may be excused that his next design the Fiat 1400 of 1950 was only a qualified success. Fiat wanted to produce a car that satisfied the needs of countries with a poor road system that had previously been supplied by American manufacturers before their cars had become bloated. They wanted a car with good stability, good visibility, and room for six people and their luggage, a speed of 75MPH and a fuel consumption of 28MPG. Unfortunately they also wanted the car with a modest size engine that wasn't too expensive to run in Italy. Despite Giacosa's best efforts they got a car that nether one thing or another. Only one hundred and twenty thousand examples produced in eight years.
His next lightcar design was the 1100-103; this model perpetuated the name Millecento previously given to the 508C. This Millicento was a compact unitary construction saloon fitted with wishbones and coil springs at the front and a live axle and half-elliptic springs at the rear. Its excellent handling and good performance was in the tradition of its predecessor. Of conventional design for its period, with a water-cooled O.H.V. inline four-cylinder engine of 1089cc, that at first produced 33 B.H.P. rising to 44 B.H.P. but much more when tuned. Features that would unfamiliar to us today were the steering column change for the four-speed gearbox, and the transmission handbrake. Through a series of models culminating with the 1100R, (The 1100D had a 1221cc engine.) the Millicento was in production until 1970 and one and three quarter million examples had been produced.
Fiat
1100-103
Next Giacosa and his team designed a replacement for the Topolino. The last version of the 500C had been discontinued the previous year 1954. The 600 was a totally new car, and for Fiat a new layout with the engine at the rear as well as unitary construction. When the 600 were introduced in 1955, rear engine cars had been produced for well over a decade and their advantages and disadvantages by then well known. Giacosa used the advantages to produce a four-seat car, although with limited luggage space, that had a reasonable performance from an engine of only 633cc, due to its low weight of eleven and one half hundredweight and also compact dimensions. Capable of almost 60 MPH and returning a fuel consumption of 45 to 55 miles per gallon and the ability to cruise at 50 MPH. He overcame the stability problems associated with other rear engined design's by identifying that the problem was not the weight distribution of the cars, but the simple swing axle rear suspension used in those designs. His answer was to use a semi-trailing arm type of rear suspension that eliminated the large change in the camber of the rear wheels that was inherent with the simple swing axle suspension system.
Fiat
600
The mini people carrier may seem to be a
concept of the twenty-first century, that is not so. Within a year of the
launch of the 600 a six-seat version was in production, the Multipla. By
replacing the transverse leaf spring used in the front suspension by upper
links and coil springs, the mechanic components of the 600 utilised
in a forward control unitary body with zero crumple zone and only a small
increase in wheelbase to accommodate three rows of seats. Over seventy
six thousand of this first version of the Multipla produced by 1963.
The 600 was replaced by the 600D in 1960.The engine size was increased
to 767cc, with a maximum speed up to 70 MPH. Production ceased in Turin
in 1970, but carried on in the Seat factory in Barcelona. Before then the
600 had been produced by NSU/Fiat in Germany, Zastava in Yugoslavia and
Concord in Argentina. Over two and a half million eventually produced.
Giacosa's next rear engine car for Fiat was the Nuova 500 of 1957, with a similar layout to the 600, but with a two-cylinder air-cooled engine instead of the water-cooled inline four-cylinder unit. Being a two/plus/two-seat car, it was the true replacement for the "Topolino", at the bottom of the Fiat range. With a wheelbase fractionally over six feet and a length under nine feet, it was also a lightweight weighing less than five hundred kilos. The 479cc engines in the early production cars so under powered with only 13 BHP that they recalled and an up rated engine that produced 16.5 BHP was fitted. The final 500F of 1965 had a 499cc engine producing 18 BHP, sufficient to get to 70 MPH and a fuel consumption of 55 MPG. In 1960 Fiat introduced the "Gardinera", a 499cc station wagon with a similar inline twin cylinder engine as the "500", but with cylinder horizontal. The engine was located under the floor at the rear of the car. With a slight increase in wheelbase and the weight increased to five hundred and seventy kilos, it was newer a four seat car with a luggage area over the engine. In parallel with the Fiat models, the "500", platforms clothed in prettier bodies by Autobianchi at their Desio factory. Named the Bianchina, a convertible, later a convertible, a four seat saloon, an estate car and a van version on the Gardinera platform produced. A version of the Nuova 500 was made by Styr-Puch in Austria in 1957, with their own flat-twin air-cooled engine and swing axle drive and suspension. The Styr 650TR of 1965 to 1969, was the hottest 500 model made and a competent rally car.
Steyr
produced Nuova 500
Fiat introduced a roomier four-seat
two-door
saloon in 1964, to run alongside the "600". The "850", had an 843cc
engine
and a 270 centimetre increase in the wheelbase, but the specification
was
the same as the "600". An 850T version of the "Multipla" was also
available
the following year. Fiat also produced coupe and spyder versions using
the "850", platform with an engine that produced 47 BHP at 6200 RPM,
later
52 BHP from a 903cc engine. A total of over a half of a million of
these produced by 1972. Spyder production had ceased by 1973.
Many special
versions produced by the legion of specialist coachbuilders at
work
in Italy at the time. The "850", saloon and coupe models also
produced
by Seat in Spain. The "600", had been discontinued by Fiat in 1970.
Dante Giacosa's first front wheel drive car
was the Autobianchi Primula. Autobianchi was a subsidiary of Fiat. Ready
for production in 1964, it had a four cylinder water-cooled engine of 1221cc
that was already fitted in the Fiat 1100D. The rest of the car was of all
new design. The engine was transversely mounted with the four-speed gearbox
located inline with the crankshaft. With a gear train to the offset differential
and final drive and unequal length drive shafts. This is the arrangement
we see under the bonnet of most front wheel drive cars today. Other features
of the design are not so familiar, such as the gearchange on the steering
column, also the wishbone and transverse leaf spring front suspension and
the rear dead axle with half-elliptic springs. The steering was by rack
and pinion, a first for Giacosa, but almost twenty years after it's first
use by Issigonis.
The "500", series of cars was twenty-five
years old by 1972 when Fiat introduced their last rear engined saloon car
the "126". A four seat car the size of a BMC Mini on the wheelbase of the
"500". The engine was increased in capacity to 594cc, producing 23 BHP
and a top speed of 65 MPH. The 126 was in production until 1987 and almost
two million examples produced.
The Fiat 128 of 1969 was the final break
through by Dante Giacosa. After a lifetime of exceptional car designs both
conventional front engined and also rear engined cars. In the 128 he brought
together all the features that are considered conventional today. Transverse
engine/gearbox/ off set final drive with unequal length drive shafts, in
conjunction with MacPherson strut front suspension. Rack and pinion steering
and disc brakes on the front wheels. The 128 had wishbone and transverse
half-elliptic spring independent rear suspension.
Fiat
128
Fiat had dealt with all the bugs associated
with a new concept in the Primula and the 128 was a great success with
one and a quarter million were produced by 1972. Although the wheelbase
was 2.45 metres, the overhang each end was minimal, resulting in a compact
car but with ample passenger space.
After reading the above, I hope you agree
that my opening statement was not exaggerated and that we are unlikely
to see his like again.
Light
cars from Cowley
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