Fiat 124 Spider reborn

WITH more of its DNA from Mazda than Fiat, the 124 Spider has been reborn without its ancestral family rusting defects, meaning that the sexy little Spider is now the car it always wanted to be.

The new 124 Spider is being built alongside the Mazda MX-5 in Japan and shares most of its basic architecture. But the petite two-seat, rear-drive roadster that revives one of the marque’s most iconic nameplates gets unique exterior styling and a subtly different interior to the loveable Mazda sports car.

In addition, under the bonnet the Fiat gets its own 1.4-litre four cylinder turbo engine, producing 119kW of power… 1kW more than the maximum output of the car it’s based on.

Fiat also says there will likely be a more powerful Abarth version that will squeeze more power out of the 1.4-litre turbocharged lump. 

Fiat America boss Olivier Francois said, “The characteristics of the car are extremely similar to the original 124 Spider. Half of the car is an engine produced in Italy making it a super fun-to-drive car with a perfect power-to-weight ratio.”

Even with the turbo and intercooler adding weight to the fiat, it will still perform better than the more powerful 2.0-litre powered MX-5.