Fiat 1200 Gran Luce -59

Photos please! I love these...

 

Wow...that's great condition. They're those great Fiat styles with a little extra sport...I love the roof on these.

 

Beautiful! I'm a nut for old Fiats...

Make sure your tires and brakes are safe before setting out on your trip.

 

Fabulous.

Great colour scheme too.

 

The road test was published on the Road&Track magazine, August 1959.
And here are the manuals (i'm not connected with the seller):

http://annunci.ebay.it/annunci/ricambi-e-accessori/torino-annunci-torino/catalogo-ricambi-carrozzeria-fiat-1200-granluce-del-1959/30615143

http://www.kijiji.it/annunci/ricambi-e-accessori/torino-annunci-torino/catalogo-ricambi-carrozzeria-fiat-1200-granluce/30615217

 

Glad you made it OK using just the handbrake, I had a feeling the brakes might give you problems after sitting for so long! According to my 1200 Gran Luce parts book, early cars had the handbrake on the transmission drive shaft and later cars had the handbrake on the rear shoes. If you have the early car I wouldn't trust the handbrake to slow you down safely, only to lock the shaft in place. Be careful! Parts should be easily available to fix whatever is wrong with your brakes, and they're simple to work on.

The heating and defroster system should be reasonably effective if it's set up correctly and in good working order, but not nearly as good as the cheapest cars available today.

 

Of course, but your rubber seals are too old.

 

Hey...great thread. We have one very similar in Melbourne, Australia and we still use it.

It has done just under 80,000 miles from new and I am the third owner. It had a few rust spots that had to be cut out and patched with new steel and as a result the trunk lid and doors on the right hand side had to be resprayed. My paint man rang me and said the hood then looked shabby compared to the doors so he did that too. The rest of the car is original though. I had padded mats made for the front and the rear carpet fully done which made it a lot quieter inside. The brakes have all been done and the radiator was recored but the rest is original. The wheels are off an Alfa and were on the car when I bought it so I just left them there.

We get along very nicely and don't hold too much traffic up. Last Christmas we took it over the highest mountain passes in Southern Australia with no problems at all... a trip of about 1500km which we did in 3 days.
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That car of yours looks absolutely stunning. Now I may be the first 20 year-old to admit this, but if your Fiat can make it over a mountain without any problems then that puts my Subaru wagon to shame (it cannot go anywhere without overheating- which is early 90s). Saddening!

Great pics btw!

 

It's a 1100/103 D.

 

The 1100/103 was so good and reliable that Fiat exported it all over the world and if I am not mistaken, they still make it in India to this day.

 

The 1200 parts catalog lists the brake master cylinder as Fiat part #996796 (superceded to 4087907). According to Chris Obert's website, he has nine of these in stock at $215 each (187 Euros).

It's apparently a 1" diameter cylinder, you could probably have your old cylinder resleeved to size, and Obert also lists the seals (4115453) at $6 each (2 required).

 

Hey.... thanks for the comments on my little 1100 in Australia. I have the original handbook for the car and it is actually a "Fiat 1100 Export" and I think it was made at the same time as the Grand Luce but was not quite so nicely styled. But here is another bit of interesting information...... These cars were actually assembled in Australia. I think that there was a government incentive at the time to save import duty by giving the car some Australian labour content so they were shipped out completely disassembled by Fiat in boxes and then assembled, painted, fitted with Australian tyres, etc in Sydney. Many other companies assembled cars here as well. I have spoken to an old Fiat mechanic and he said it was possible to see Italian assembled cars in the showroom alongside the locally assembled cars and there was a saving of about $60 which was significant back then. There is a plate in the engine bay showing this car was assembled in Sydney.

Now... here's another few bits of info. The Grand Luce in Australia was called a "Riviera". As far as I know Australia was the only country to do this... and I have a few spare Riviera badges if any-one is interested. They were on the trunk lid in the same place and using the same chrome script. The cars were assembled in India up until the mid-90s and sold as a Pal Premier. Originally they were just about all Fiat parts but towards the end they introduced some new parts and even had Datsun engines at the end I think. But India is a fantastic source of parts and all the brake components are still available and very cheap....more like $50 for a new master cylinder and I think the wheel cylinders were less than $10 each when I last bought them. It is great to be able to buy new rubbers and new tailights... I think they were about $20 each. Send me a PM if you need some help.

Keep the thread going... they are great little cars.... easy to restore... and good to drive. We are often amused to come back to our car in a car park and find a crowd around it.... or to go to sn event and find it gets just as much attention as some of the exotics.

All the taxis in India were Pals.
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I just love this thread on the Fiat 1100s and it is great to see there is a bit of interest. I want to show you a photo of another car I bought on ebay about 2 years ago and have been slowly restoring. It came from California, unfortunately from a deceased estate so no history came with the purchase. I would love to know if any-one recognises the car and can fill in any of the history. It was white originally.... then at a later stage was light metalic green and it is definitely a 1200 and definitely original.
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Miura68:

I'm pretty sure that this is your car, a one-off? Picture taken from the 1958 Turin Show report in Sportscar Quarterly, Spring 1959 edition.

I'd love to know more about it!
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It isn't a one-off.
Pf produced a small series of 2 or 4 seater coupes, based on the 1100/1200 platform in 1957/58. He produced also the Lancia Appia coupè with a similar shape in the same period. One year later he introduced the Fiat 1200/1500 coupè.
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Miltonian, PG 1964,

Thanks so much for your responses and the attachments. This car...or at least one looking the same appeared in a detailed article in the Italian magazine Quattroruote (not sure how it is spelt) in August 1958 describing the Turin show car and saying they would make more if there was a demand. The price was 50% more than the Grand Luce. The car is also the same or very similar to the prototype ASA.

I would love to know if any others exist or any more photos.

My car was definitely not a production car. It had bracing and angle sections all through the inside of it. The door interiors were obviously just fabricated to hold the trim in place. From what I can see it had a green chequered trim and was probably nicely finished.

The next interesting thing is that it was advertised as having a fibreglass trunk lid. When I bought it on ebay and was waiting for it to arrive in Australia I was thinking that the trunk lid was just another job I would have to fix. Then I found an article in Cavallino about 250 Ferraris with fibreglass lids. In total I think 21 cars were made. It turns out that Pininfarina had decided this was the material of the future and had started experimenting with non-production cars and special bodied cars. This is just another rare feature of the car.

I am attaching another of PF's publicity photos.

Thanks so much for your responses.

Miura86
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Miltonian, PG 1964,

I have learnt a lot about my Fiat Coupe over the last few days thanks to you. It has got me thinking. I was the lucky one to get this car on ebay because no-one was sure what it was and it had a Volvo motor. From my research and interest in Fiat 1100s I had an idea what it was but it has a 116 prefix in the chassis number which has got me thinking now. Does that suggest it had a 1500 twin cam rather than a 1200 pushrod motor originally?

I work a long way from home but when I get back I will take some photos of the framing inside the car. You will see this is definitely a one-off or very low volume car.

Incidentally, in the note I sent the other day I referred to 21 cars with fibreglass trunk lids. That info is from Cavallino and apparently 21 250 Ferraris are known to have fibreglass lids.

Miura68