Spotted in China: Fiat Coupe

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Seen on a sunny day near my home in Beijing; this is the brilliant Fiat Coupe, officially called ‘Coupe Fiat’, designed by none other than the equally brilliant Chris Bangle. The Fiat Coupe was made from 1993 until 2000 by Pininfarina in Turin, Italy.

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Spotted in China: Fiat Coupe

This yellow car in Beijing was very dirty but the body work was in good shape, rust doesn’t have much chance in Beijing and for a car of its age, in Beijing, is was remarkable free of any damage. When it debuted in 1993 the Coupe was available with a four cylinder 2.0 with 139hp or a 2.0 turbo with 190hp. More engines arrived in 1996, a 1.8 with 130hp, a 2.0 5-cylinder with 150hp and a 5-cylinder turbo with 220hp. Our yellow racer is powered by the 150hp 5-cylinder.

Spotted in China: Fiat Coupe

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Large low profile tires and racy alloys are after market but the look great under the fantastic Fiat. Dirt comes from the trees, but this still ain’t no excuse for the owner not too wash a bit more often!

Spotted in China: Fiat Coupe

Interior doesn’t look too good. Leather worn out, a weird knob on the 5-speed manual, and dirt all over again. The styling of the interior was done by Pininfarina, best thing being the yellow strip around the dials that continues over the doors. Otherwise it is not as special as the exterior.

Spotted in China: Fiat Coupe

There was no official Abarth version of the Fiat Coupe but Abarth did sell sets to tune to engine and body kits for the Coupe. Not sure whether this yellow car has any set under the bonnet, no body kit and alloys didn’t have any name on them. Anywayz, sticker loox kinda cool.

Spotted in China: Fiat Coupe

Fiat logo with four separate letters, this sorta costly madness was still possible in the 1990’s.

Spotted in China: Fiat Coupe

5-pot had four valves per cylinder, hence the funky 20V badge.

Spotted in China: Fiat Coupe

The Fiat Coupe was never officially exported to China, so it is an extremely rare machine to meet on the streets, this great yellow example is the only one I have seen in my ten long years in Beijing.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. ‘the equally brilliant Chris Bangle’
    Bangle the Angle who made a shaky start in BMW ?
    I’m surprised, but his later BMW’s seem to have more overall ‘balance’ than his early 6+7 series.

  2. i’m surprised as well that bangle actually did make something that looks half decent.

    but: rare, hence nice!
    if only they made it RWD…

  3. Chris Bangle is an absolute pompous moron, but somehow he managed to get things right with the Fiat Coupe, still one of the coolest sportscars around. What he did at BMW with his Bangle Butt, and Bangled flame surfacing still has BMWs ugly to this day. Makes you look back at the E46 and before 3-series and E39 and before 5-series and just feel sad…

  4. Ugly but def brought change to the lineup. Its a lot easier to notice individual changes in design between the model series in the BMW lineup now than it was before Bangle and more individual than MB and Audi today

  5. Ottima auto, ne ho avuta una turbo 20 220 CV, questa nelle foto è una seconda serie dal 96 in poi 5 cilindri 20 Valvole 150 CV. Personalmente sono sorpreso di verne una in Cina, la plancia era stata disegnata da Pininfarina, e i motori soprattutto quello turbo 20 era molto sportivo. Complimenti al possessore

  6. who writes some of this rubbish. the 4 separate blue badge where fists trade mark for many years it was nothing to do with costly hardness it was simple how all fists at that and for previous 20,years had been badged it cost no more to badge a car this way thank it does with the current badges so get your facts write before printing rubbish

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