Hungry to see more of what the Italians will be able to produce out of the Fiat-Mazda partnership? Here are a few new spyshots of the Fiat 124 Spider captured ahead of its global reveal to go with all the ones we’ve shown you before. The difference this time is that the car has been spied for the first time with its top down.
The Fiat 124 here is essentially hiding a latest-gen Mazda MX-5 (ND) underneath its skin, but is poised to feature a certain degree of Italian flair with which its creators will use to call it their own.
For one, we understand that while the Mazda currently offers its MX-5 with a choice of naturally-aspirated 1.5 and 2.0 litre SkyActiv-G engines, the Fiat 124 is expected to feature a 1.4 litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine right out of the Fiat 500 Abarth.
Should the 1.4 litre turbo four not appease your appetite, we know also that Fiat is cooking up a hotter Abarth version of the car, said to pack a 1.75 litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, straight out of the Alfa Romeo 4C, packing around 200 hp, according to reports.
One other noticeably different area the Fiat will attempt to differrentiate itself from the Mazda is with its exterior styling, where the Italian sports car may opt for a bit more “emotional” flair than the Japanese outfit.
Still, the high level of camouflage you see on the car here continues to make it difficult for us to spell any more than we already have. The only extra bits we can take a peek at are the roll bars behind the headrests of the seats and the manual roof being operated, as it would be in the MX-5.
The Fiat 124 Spider is expected to make its full debut at the coming 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show at the end of this year, so we’ll have to wait for then before being able to show and tell you more.
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finally! a replacement for my old Fiat Coupe turbo!
(I can’t afford a Ferrari but I’ve MR2)
Fiat is such a good brand. In Malaysia, lazy nasi lemak eating people were running it. Half the time asleep and cari isteri No 2.
So the company failed
hopefully it’ll rectify mx-5’s no glovebox+cupholder issues….
i mean, pop up cupholder a la porsche wouldve been a nice touch
that long nose… reminds me of Dodge Viper.
It appears that Fiat and Mazda are going for the holy grail of Italian styling and Japanese reliability, so hopefully they won’t end up with Italian reliability and Japanese styling.