The steering felt good… better than I expected for a car older than me; engine in the back, wheels with nothing to do but steer and hold up some sheet steel and a cubic metre of thin air. Visibility excellent all round for a 2+2 coupe, suspension bouncing merrily on the rough ground probably means new bushes. Seating position surprisingly good for a sixties Italian, albeit via the Iberian peninsula... First drive and I'm enjoying myself.

"Oi!"

The shout from Pete brought me out of my reverie.

"Get out. It's your turn to push, you lazy git!"

 

*  *  *

 

A quick question. Which 1960s Italian coupe was lauded at launch as possibly the prettiest small coupe ever? Was universally praised for is handling and roadholding at the time? Can be run today on a shoestring due to the high number of available parts? And a pristine example of which is worth as little as, oh, £3K? The spider version will set you back, in mint order, about half as much as a Alfa Duetto. And the saloon? Well, I'll just see what change is down the back of the sofa…

 

Yes, yes we all know how good they are, but then we should. We're in the owner's club. And we value them highly. But conversations down the pub & at the shows are filled with Guilias and GTVs; Fulvias and 124 Spiders. Yes, all these are quicker. But does that mean more desirable? A well-driven warm hatch will see off any of the above on most roads. I remember being mortified at being overtaken by an XR2 whilst in my Guilietta GTV, albeit I had the handicap of running sporadically on three cylinders (and the constant worry of whether my dash would catch fire before I reached home). I sold the car straight after and bought a Tipo 16v. XR2; What XR2?

 

So it's not about performance then. At least not in a straight line. You could argue that the Bertone penned Alfa is prettier but I'd argue right back. Of course both the Guilia and the Fulvia have sterling competition histories, but then the only thing Lamborghini ever won was "most goat friendly tractor & trailer" at the 1962 Tuscany Three Counties show, and I'd still have a Muira. Of course, for the snobs among the cognescenti the 850 is, well, a bit plebeian. That pushrod four is hardly Lampredi's best work, and much of the oily bits can be found on your common or garden Pandas, 126s, and, yeuch, Yugos. Of course much of the problem is that the 850 was designed, in all its guises to be a fun affordable alternative for those who couldn't afford exotica, which puts off the people who always could afford exotica. And of course the reason the oily bits lasted so long is because they were so damn good.

 

Of course the spider was never officially sold in the UK, depriving the model of a show-stealing attention grabber. The fact that all the models dissolved like the Wicked Witch of the West in the shower combined with their initial cheapness to make them rare in the UK now. But don't take all you hear about unobtainable panels at face value. Look further afield, say to Chris Obert or Bruce Matthews in the States and you can get a lot, even for Coupes. How does a bonnet for $100 grab you? Doors for much the same? And they come up for sale rarely in the UK, even in these hallowed pages, but there's a thriving community just a short ferry ride away in Holland, and similarly in France, where the market is at least alive. And the problem with left hand drive? Well, it's no problem. Lets face it, with 47bhp you'll never be pulling out to overtake anything.

 

So there it is. Forget your dream GTA, buy a half tidy 850, a cylinder head and carb from an a112 Abarth and some suitable badges and live the Abarth dream. Or sell your pristine Duetto, hunt down an 850 Spider Torino and go to Mustique on the difference. Or just work an hour's overtime and buy a 850 Special saloon.

 

In short, find yourself an 850 and watch it appreciate*. But you can't have mine.

 

Calvin Jones

SEAT 850 Coupe

 

*Or come to think of it a 124 Sport Coupe. Or a Lancia Flavia.

 

http://compusulting.com/fiat850/

http://www.fiatparts.com/

http://got.net/~fiatplus/

http://www.geocities.com/seat850c/index.htm

 

 

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