Junkyard Find: 1977 Fiat 124 Sport Spider
After yesterday’s yesterday’s ’71 Fiat Junkyard Find, we should check out the slower, uglier version of the 124 Sport Spider that resulted from Fiat’s attempts to meet American safety and emission standards. Fiat did a better job than British Leyland in this department (e.g., black-bumper MGB, Malaise Spitfire), but that’s clearing an extremely low bar.
As I mentioned yesterday, there appears to be an unlimited supply of forgotten 124 Spider projects in the garages and back yards of America, which results in a steady trickle of these cars showing up in junkyards. Every year since the early 1980s, the number of junked 124 Spiders remains pretty much constant. Of course, you don’t see them on the street these days, but you really didn’t see many 25 years ago, either.
If there are any Denver-area restorers who haven’t abandoned their 124 Spider projects, this intact spare-tire hardware will be a nice find.
Even though these cars were really fairly terrible, I must admit they are a lot of fun to drive. Fiat was very good at making slow cars feel fast.
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.
More by Murilee Martin
Comments
Join the conversation
I remember this car -- when I tried to remove the throttle cable, my elbow sank into a pool of urine in the carpet... the afterlife of this car as a portapotty is almost as bad as an Alfa that had turned into a brothel (the parcel shelf was full of used condoms).
Amongst classic car enthusiasts in Europe the Fiat 124 Spider is very popular. It's a simple car and the knowledgeable owner can do a lot of DIY on the car. Spare parts are abundant and plenty and there are many dedicated Fiat 124 clubs and enthusiasts around to help keep them in good working order. I read mainly classic car magazines and all of them have the same thing to say about the Fiat 124: a generally reliable design with a few quirks but nothing to dramatic. The biggest problems on these cars is rust. Most of the Fiat 124 Spiders you'll see in Europe are actually reimported California spec models. I've been toying with the idea of buying an example. They're very handsome cars and above all fun to drive. These are cars for purists. These people won't mind working on this car on the weekend. It's part of their hobby. In fact the many classic car owners I know are just that. They have a daily driver but their classic car is their weekend driver or project.