As said in
the Do Look Back post, ‘Small but Perfectly Formed,’ with the advent of the
1960s, Moretti transitioned from an automotive manufacturer to an ‘enhancer,’
upgrading Fiat mainstream products with, mostly, aesthetic improvements –
though some mechanical upgrades were also available at customer request. Given Moretti’s previous affinity with the
sports car sector – the 750 Gran Sport being obvious testament to this – it’s
not surprising that the marque took a keen interest in the Fiat 850 Coupe at
its ’65 launch. With a powertrain
specification different from the saloon model, the Coupe’s engine, running on a
Weber 24/32 or 28/36, delivered 47 bhp with 59 Nm torque, enabling it to be ‘sporting’
enough for the era on a kerb weight of 725 Kg.
For anyone wanting more urge, the factory would arrange tuning by Giannini,
resulting in an additional 50% bhp. And
the ‘look’ was good too, with in-house styling led by the father and son Boanos. So, it was felt that a profitable niche
market sector opportunity existed for a Moretti-bodied/badged version for
customers valuing a measure of exclusivity.
The resulting car was styled by Dany Brawand who had become familiar at
the Grugliasco factory while working for Micholetti (and moonlighting) prior to
joining the Moretti business on an official basis in late ’65. The Tipo 100G, named ‘Sportiva,’ was unveiled
at the Turin Show in early November ’65.
It is therefore likely that Brawand was working on the design much
earlier in the year as a personal job while still employed by Michelotti – it
was Michelotti’s discovery of such moonlighting that prompted him to fire
Brawand.
Production and sales
of the ‘Sportiva,’ model S, began in ‘66, with pricing ‘from’ 1,095,000 lire
(about) £635. A ‘SS’ model with 50 bhp
and 62 Nm torque was also offered, this being priced at 1,350,000 lire. Two cars with ’66 attribution are present on
the Moretti Registry - #0524208 and #0636135.
A photograph of that second car, seen below, shows that head on, there
was a hint of Corvette about the early Sportiva front end:
 |
#0636135 Courtesy Moretti Registry |
Whilst much
has been written about the generally pleasing aesthetics, including favourable
comparison with the Fiat Dino, the front panel/nose profile/headlighting has
been the subject of some criticism. One
objection is to the bluff front panel, unrelieved by any aperture/grille, not
functionally necessary of course with the rear engine location. Also apparently disappointing to some eyes is
the modest headlighting – it being suggested that a ‘sporting’ character would
have been better indicated by a four lamp array, and that this too would have helped
counteract the bland vertical plane of the front panel. Moving to a 3/4 or side view, adverse comment
has been made about how the leading edges of the front wings interact with the
front panel, with the charge that there is no harmonious flow in how these
components come together. The disjointed
character is emphasised by an abrupt
change of plane in the front wings above the leading edge of the front tyres,
(circled in the photograph below).
 |
#0677840 Courtesy Vintagesarasota (BaT) |
This infelicitous aspect of the car was resolved by the ’68 facelift
which created the ‘S2’ model, as seen in the example below:
 |
#1445000 Courtesy Moretti Registry
|
Although
some critics have suggested that the rear of the Sportiva S is plainer than the
curvaceous front might lead you to expect, the various elements seem to me well
matched and blended. The engine deck lid
is the main component, the upper surface of which is well relieved by the five
groups of (10 each) cooling intake slots.
 |
#100G-1084286 Courtesy Moretti Registry |
The full
width, wraparound rear bumper and circular tail lamps (standard Fiat items) are
unfussily styled and work well with the rear panel and wings. Two distinctive points to notice – the
additional length of the side elements of the bumper, required by the
Sportiva’s greater measure of overhang, and the central, twin hemispherically-capped
licence plate lamp bulb arrangement, (Fiat versions using a single, lozenge-form
element).
 |
Courtesy Moretti Registry; Car and Classic |
The Sportiva was badged, 1) Script ‘FIAT MORETTI’, chrome with black or
deep red ground, mounted centrally on front panel, (with chrome ‘whiskers’
running either side to the headlamp apertures); 2) ‘MORETTI,’ chrome, red and
white castellated shield crest over rectangular ‘MORETTI TORINO’ script with chequer
pattern, mounted on the front wings between the trailing edge of the wheel arch
and the leading edge of the door aperture; 3) ‘MORETTI’ and ‘FIAT 850’ or ‘850
Special’ chrome script badges on the rear panel.
 |
Courtesy Rajveteranu.cz; Kristoj (BaT); OldMotors.net |
For the SS model, a signifying chrome script badge was added, usually
between the ‘FIAT 850’ script and the right hand rear tail lamp. See below; #0524208, for example.
 |
Courtesy Moretti Registry |
Inside the
Sportiva, a Moretti crest was usually to be seen on the gear knob, horn button
and dashboard, (central, above the centre console). – see below:
 |
Courtesy Kristoi (BaT) |
Nardi steering wheels were a popular choice for Sportivas – both black
and wood rimmed, some signed on the right hand spoke, and some with a Nardi
badged horn button. An alternative was
the Ferrero two spoke model.
 |
Courtesy Wikiwand; ClassicVirus.com |
Standard road wheel rims were 12” (145 width tyres) either Borrani wires
or Cromodora alloys.
 |
Courtesy Car and Classic; Kristoi (BaT) |
For ’68, an additional version became available. At 1,500,000 lire, the ‘1000 Sport Coupe’ offered
an appreciable enhancement of performance capability thanks to the additional
capacity (139 cc), a Solex 34 PBIC carburettor, (in place of the Weber), and
increase in the compression ratio from 9.2:1 to 9.5:1. The result was 62 bhp, enough to reduce the
0-60 mph time by 3.4 seconds. At the
same time, the base model was re-designated ‘S2’ and upgraded with a
substantial styling facelift to the front end bodywork and lighting, as
illustrated above by #1445000. At the
car’s rear, a more subtle revision was that to the engine decklid with four
groups of cooling intake slots as opposed to the five on the original
design. An ‘S2’ badge was added to the
rear quarter panels.
 |
S2 Courtesy Kristoi (BaT)
|
One of the fundamental
compromises for the Sportiva was the lack of any +2 seating. Where, on other such cars, there might have
been some semblance of seats that might accommodate small children, the
Sportiva had just a luggage storage area between the engine compartment and the
seat backs. This was largely due to the lack
of boot space ahead of the cabin, this being taken up by the spare wheel which
could only be mounted horizontally in what was a shallow void. Moretti sought to address this limitation of
the Sportiva’s appeal by creating a four seat version, named S4 and first-shown
at the ’69 Turin Show.
 |
Sportiva S4 as shown in a Moretti range
leaflet |
The S4 sold
to those liking the basic concept of the Sportiva whilst wanting more interior
room, but its looks must have been a significant deterrent to a broader
appeal. Although the model was launched
after the S2, it had not adopted the latter’s more aesthetically successful
front end. Also less pleasing was a top
heavy impression given by a disproportionately ‘tall’ glasshouse coupled with
seemingly too-small wheels. The rear
quarter panels too appear ‘odd,’ as does the shape of the rear side glass. Notable is the use of an S2 type engine deck
lid and six elements tail lamps.
Two examples of the
S4 appear on the Moretti Registry, #1266944, below, and #1282958, lower below,
both ’70:
In regard to
both the S and S2 variants, ‘Special’ was added to the nomenclature, (and
indicated by a rear panel-mounted badge), in some instances, but clear
documentation of what specification upgrades gave rise to this designation is
not available.
A
convertible version of the Sportiva was marketed in 850 form initially, subsequently
as an SS and finally in 1000 guise. Very
small numbers were made and there are no examples on the Moretti Registry. I have also been unable to find details of a
convertible Sportiva being sold in recent times.
Even at the beginning
of the Sportiva’s production run, Moretti had turned its attention for future
model lines to the new Fiat products – ultimately with a revised drivetrain
format - which would emerge in the second half of the Sixties. Initially, this saw Brawand drawing a coupe
body for the Fiat 124 chassis and this resulted in both 5 seat and 2+2 versions
introduced in ’66. Within short order,
the larger Fiat 125 was used as a basis for another new Moretti, titled GS 1.6. Then, in ’69, Moretti presented its coupe
version of the 128, especially significant in view of its front wheel drive
layout, breaking with the rear engine configuration with which it had worked
for so long. The phase in which the
company had created a coupe on the Fiat 850 saw justified respect for its
product, with the Sportiva widely admired – especially in its S2 form – for its
looks and general character. It is
usually given that Moretti built about 300 Sportivas and that 52 of those were
of the S2 type. Final sales occurred in
’71.
No comments:
Post a Comment