When 86 Horsepower Was More Than Enough For a Sports Car!

by Murilee Martin

Published: December 31st, 2010

when 86 horsepower was more than enough for a sports car

OK, we’ll admit that the ’75 Fiat 124 Spider was ridiculously underpowered with just 86 horsepower out of its Twin Cam engine, but compare that to the 62.5 horsepower of the ’75 MGB, a car so miserable that its manufacturer couldn’t afford to round the power figure down a half-horse.

This car scaled in at a lightweight 2,320 pounds, so it wasn’t quite as poky as the power numbers might suggest.

I’ve been seeing junked 124 Spiders quite regularly for decades now; my theory is that every 124 Spider still on the planet is now sitting in a back yard, waiting to be scrapped. You see one on the street every now and then, and some brave souls even race the things.

#1970s #1975 #1975Fiat124Spider #1975FiatSpider #Denver #DownOnTheJunkyard #Fiat #Fiat124 #Fiat124Spider #Junkyard #JunkyardFind #Malaise #MalaiseEra

Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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2 of 51 comments

And003 on Apr 06, 2012

Maybe Dustin Hoffman should have driven THIS in 'The Graduate,' no?

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RRJ on Apr 11, 2012

You don't think 62.5 hp is enough? Try having a brake line rupture when driving in traffic.

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