1964 Fiat 850Z Coupé
I love Italian sports cars, and if they were built in the 1950s or 1960s, even better. At the top of my personal list are those constructed in small numbers, with bodies hand-crafted from aluminum. And, if the coachwork was executed by Carrozzeria Zagato, all the more glorious. This month’s Hidden Treasure is a Fiat 850Z Coupé and ticks many of my own “this is a special car” boxes. Built on a Fiat 850 platform, the 850Z Coupé was Zagato’s answer to what a Fiat 850 ought to be. Sadly, Fiat had other ideas.
The Fiat 850 line followed the commercially successful Fiat 600 and the 850 was a step, rather than a leap, forward. The inline, 4-cylinder, OHV engine was based on the 600 with two valves per cylinder and displacement bumped up to 843-cc with a bore and stroke of 65 mm and 63.5 mm, respectively. The rear-mounted engine was positioned longitudinally and came in two varieties. The type 100G.000 engine (“normale”) delivered a modest 40 BHP at 5,300 RPM and the type 100G.002 (“super”) produced 42 BHP @ 5,300 rpm. With power distributed to the rear wheels shifting through a 4-speed manual gearbox, the Fiat 850 spooled to a top speed of 75 mph.
