Fiat Barchetta – time has stopped

Usually journalists at the beginning of articles quarrel to write something interesting and encourage the reader to spend a few precious minutes of their lives reading the article. However, the day has come when I don’t need to do this and, as an exception, I won’t write anything for “good morning”. Why? Because just look at the pictures of this car.

How timeless is Barchetta? Very. However, you can even conduct a simple test - go to the supermarket and ask people what year this car can be. And you can hear a lot - 2005, 2011, 2007, 2850 ... Meanwhile, this car is closer to the monument than a brand new car dealership - 1995! Yes, this structure is so old. So it's easy to imagine how the automotive world felt when the Barchetta hit the showrooms, and the stupid faces on the faces of the drivers who parked next to the car in the parking lot. “A Jetson car in serial production?” And Fiat too? No, It is Immpossible". And yet, it is possible. Why? Because, unlike the German stylists, the Italians have it, they started parties in the womb, and their life is as serious as climbing naked in the Palace of Culture. And praise them for it - literally everything is done in style in Barchetta. And even a nasty radio antenna, as if alive transferred from a receiver for tracking animals in the thicket, would not interfere with this. The headlights are reminiscent of the Ferraris of the 60s, moreover, the characteristic broken line running along the body refers to the Ferrari 166. The rear end is hard to mistake for any other car, and those chrome handles built into the doors.. creepy uncomfortable, some don't even know how to use them, but whatever - they're just fine. And not only them - impeccable style, graceful curves, soft lines ... this Jennifer Lopez car in the automotive world. As if that weren't enough, it's a roadster! Two armchairs, textiles, a hand-folded roof, wind in your hair, and a sun-tanned face. This is enough for the rest of the riders, after meeting the driver's mixture of Burkett-Burkett, drove into the pole from absent-mindedness. Fiat has built a miracle on wheels? No.

This car has several problems. First, his body could be made from a cube of cheese. It is elastic, rubbery and creaky. So much so that the windshield can break. Secondly, after a slight modernization, the production of this car did not stop until 2005, but the secondary market still has the largest number of copies since the beginning of the second half of the 90s. And this means that they will soon reach adulthood and will not be unfailing from this. Thirdly, after all, Fiat is not a premium car, so it has not used, does not use and probably will not use immortal materials that will see the moment when the Earth collides with Saturn. He's just trying to make cars relatively inexpensive. And feel it. The engine suffers from oil leaks and equipment failures, but its flagship fault is different. It has variable valve timing, and if so, then it must have some kind of variator that controls them. And yes, it is extremely dangerous. If it breaks, the machine will start to twitch under acceleration, and the sound of its work will be something like the sound of a farm tractor and the crying of a child. In turn, the suspension has weak shock absorbers and all rubber-metal elements. Electrician? It happens in different ways, but it breaks down and heals itself.

The car has a folding soft top, so it's worth taking a good look at it before buying. The mechanism itself is very simple, so there is nothing to break it, but the lid ... It is like a human face. If you don't rub something into him from time to time, he will look like Yoda from Star Wars in his old age. The roof is the same - if it is not impregnated, then there will be problems. But there is one plus - the face is quite difficult to replace, but the roof is not. It is enough to have a familiar craftsman and about PLN 6 in the account. In ASO it will be twice as expensive. By the way - gaskets are also not cheap, and even after so many years they are sometimes brittle.

However, the roadster is, above all, driving pleasure. With the roof open, on the straight, with Joe Cocker's Summer in the City in the background, it could be fun. But someone also invented the curves. Is the slightly modified suspension straight from the city of Fiat Punto a dark joke of engineers? Surprisingly, no, and that's fine. The Barchetta is really good to drive and doesn't even lengthen the front of the car in fast corners - a typical sports car. But comfort... what is comfort? No one bothered to find some kind of compromise - it's hard and that's it. The drive is moved to the front, so the possibilities of playing with the car are limited, but still not boring. The motor has a volume of 1.8 liters and a power of 130 hp. Small? Maybe so, the BMW Z3 could have over 200 of them. However, you might be surprised. 8.9s to hundreds, an average of about 9 liters of fuel per 100km and quite a good sound - this car really has a lot of pepper. Power develops smoothly thanks to the variable valve timing system. At low speed you can slowly move around the city, and at high speed you can drive with "sportsmen" in improved, adult cars. Interior? This is the art of sports.

Of course, not everything is so rosy - some of the switches are from Punto, there are no armrests on the doors, the materials are lurid, and the engine stall is terrible. Only this is a sports car - it should be loud and strict. Many people, before buying such a car, also ask themselves the question: "Will I even get inside." Well - no revelations, but even tall drivers can easily get inside by reclining the seatback. The seats are really good, they support the body well in corners, and the bare metal plate, which in normal cars would scare the cuts in costs, is here like nowhere else. In addition, someone sensibly thought about the interior - all compartments are locked, including the one in the armrest.

Finally, there is the last moment. Summer is coming, people want to go crazy, does it make sense to buy Barchetta? No. But only if it will be the main car in the family, because it is impractical and unpredictable in use. However, if there is free space next to a “normal” car in the garage, and funds allow, well, this time I won’t even write some kind of brilliant conclusion, because in this case it will show a look at this car. you are everything.

This article was created thanks to the courtesy of TopCar, who provided a car from the current offer for a test and photo session.

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