November 2024

The winners are...

+ Our raffle celebrating 125 years of Fiat with 3 vouchers to win

Our new employee Gerda has drawn the winners

 

The winners are;

1. Mister M. R

2. Mister E. K

3. Mister J. M

We congratulate you!

+ 850 prototypes in Austria

At Puch, the 500 and the Haflinger were the right vehicles at the right time. However, it soon became apparent that the market wanted larger, more powerful vehicles. At the end of 1959, the company began developing 4-cylinder boxer engines. The 2 cylinders were doubled, resulting in 1000 and 1300 cc displacement. This was tried out with small convertibles for the USA, in possible Haflinger successors, and the BMW 700 was also to have been built in Finland with a 4-cylinder boxer. And finally, thanks to the good relationship with Fiat, Puch wanted to convince them to install the 4-cylinder in the 850 and assemble it in Graz.
Soon new 850s were tested with 1.0 and 1.3 liter engines.

picture: Steyr-Puch Freundeskreis

In 1965, VW brought out the 1300, which had 40 hp. And the Puch engine 1300 had: 75 hp. Yes, they had reached Porsche dimensions. The 1 liter had 55 hp. Of course, a suitable exhaust also had to be developed. So Sebring* in Köflach was commissioned to do it. Their boss Herbert Tunner had one of the first 911 models. Acceleration tests showed that the 850 to almost 100 km was faster. But the handling was questionable, it had poor roadholding, the drum brakes were far too weak. To achieve Porsche performance naturally has its price, and Fiat could not be convinced. All other projects were not realized either.

And so some of the engines ended up in racing Haflingers. Test driver Weingartmann drove them in the then modern off-road vehicle races. The horsepower rose to 140 hp. The engines remained left-hand rotating, and the differentials were rebuilt. Such engines survived in the Haflinger.

Unfortunately we don't have a picture of the 850 engine compartment, but one from the "wrong" side (from the front). A test car was used by a factory director, including for hunting. The sons say that their father drove a Fiat 2300 as a company car. But the small 850 was much more agile and faster on normal roads. This car was scrapped in 1972.

 

A little later Fiat brought out the 850 Special with a more powerful engine, disc brakes and better chassis.
Then the were further developments with an Austrian connection, when Carlo (Karl) Abarth, started improving the sedans and then moved on to make further improvements to the Coupes...

*The first Sebring sports exhaust was for the Fiat 1100R....

+ no more customs clearance costs for our Swiss customers at Autoquariat

Gruezi in die Schweiz

We ship with the Swiss Post.