Fiat Coupé

Vehicle Overview

The Fiat Coupé made media headlines in auto magazines during 1992, after several spy shots were taken revealing the car on test. Fiat had decided to produce a new coupé based upon the old Strada platform when the Pininfarina factory was suddenly dormant after the Cadillac Allante project failed around 1990. Two designs were put forward, with Fiat’s in-house Centro Stile team competing with Pininfarina. The concept as put forward by Centro Stile’s Chris Bangle unexpectedly won. The interior, tho was designed by Pininfarina. The design previously offered by Pininfarina was eventually accepted by Peugeot, who adopted it as the 406 Coupe in October 1996. The Fiat Coupé was based on the VSS project known as Tipo 2, used on various Fiat group models including Fiat Tipo and Bravo, Alfa Romeo GTV (modified), 155, Lancia Delta second series and others. In anticipation of the installation of powerful engines under development, the chassis was designed with good torsional stiffness, the suspension was not the subject of particular attention for the type of car, the front and rear were taken from the models from which it derived, at the front McPherson while at the rear there were longitudinal arms mounted on an auxiliary frame with a spring separate from the shock absorber, the anti-roll bar also acted as a toe-in control, this scheme was not particularly effective as this solution did not allow the recovery of the camber angle during the rolling of the car, causing the wheel to lose grip. It was offered in several engines, exclusively petrol, from 1 800 cm³ and 2 000 cm³, also in a turbo version. The Fiat Coupé was assembled by Pininfarina in its own factories. The engines were located transversely, traction was on the front wheels and the gearbox was initially available with 5 gears, later 6.