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Junkyard Gem: 1975 Fiat 124 Sport Spider

Fiat sold the two-seat convertible version of the 124, the Sport Spider, in North America from the 1968 through 1982 model years. After that, Pininfarina continued to build and sell the 124 Sport Spider through 1985. Like the similarly cheap and fun MGB, plenty of these cars were sold, and huge numbers remain in back yards, garages, and driveways across the continent. Those unfinished projects continue to get evicted, which means I see a good half-dozen discarded 124 Sport Spiders in junkyards every year, about the same quantity now as you'd have seen 30 years ago. Here's a once-snazzy tan '75, spotted in Denver. Fiats became somewhat mainstream in the United States during the early 1970s, with the extremely cheap 128 stealing plenty of Beetle and (a bit later) Civic sales. The 124 Sport Spider competed directly against the MGB, and both types once served as commonplace daily drivers all over the country. In 1975, the 124 Sport Spider cost $4,703 ($23,140 today) and had 86 horsepower to move its 2,320 pounds. Meanwhile, the MGB cost $4,249 and weighed just 2,287 pounds … but was issued a mere 62.5 horses by British Leyland. The Fiat Twin Cam DOHC straight-four was decades more modern than the MGB's elderly (but quite sturdy) pushrod BMC B engine. If this is the original engine, it displaced 1,756cc. There's enough rust to scare off would-be restorers, but this car could have been put back on the street at fairly low cost. Naturally, I brought a vintage Italian film camera — a Bencini Comet II, circa 1951 — to photograph this vintage Italian car. You can tell a sports car owner is serious when you see studded snow tires on the car. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The car so good, it made you hallucinate romantic drives with Rolls-Royce owners. Featured Gallery Junked 1975 Fiat 124 Sport Spider View 17 Photos Auto News Fiat Automotive History Convertible fiat 124 Junkyard Gems

Junkyard Gem: 1974 Fiat 124 Sport Spider

Fiat sold the Pininfarina-designed 124 Sport Spider in North America for the 1966 through 1980 model years, followed by a few years of importation by Malcolm Bricklin as the Pininfarina Spider. During the 1970s, these cheap and lightweight sports cars sold well, and enough of them still await oft-postponed restorations that plenty of them still show up in wrecking yards to this day. Here's a rusty but complete '74 in a Denver-area self-service yard. This wouldn't even count as real rust in Maine or Michigan, but it's a death sentence for a Denver Spider. According to the emissions-test sticker, it was driving in Colorado as recently as 1994. The inherent coolness of an Italian convertible keeps these cars around even after they break (which happens with great frequency), but their affordability makes owners reluctant to spend real money on fixing problems. This means that many thousands of 124 Sport Spiders sit in driveways, yards, and garages around the continent, awaiting repairs that (in most cases) will never come. Eventually, a spouse or landlord or homeowners' association has had enough, and the old Fiat project takes that final, sad tow-truck trip to the graveyard. The 1,756cc Twin Cam engine in this car was rated at 92.5 horsepower, which was decent power for a 2,128-pound car in 1974. The current Miata-based 124 Spider has 160-164 horses and weighs just a few hundred pounds more, but expectations have changed since the dark days of the Malaise Era. The 124 Sport Spider's main rival in North America was the venerable MGB. Both cars were notorious for reliability problems, but so what? Commuting in an affordable little European convertible was way more fun than chugging around town in a Corolla or Pinto. In 1974, the 124 Spider had a $4,395 price tag (about 23 grand today), and the MGB cost a mere $3,925. The MGB was heavier and had just 78.5 horsepower from its sturdy-but-primitive pushrod engine (yes, British Leyland claimed the half-horse instead of rounding down), but was much more solidly built; if not for the flaky electrical system made by The Prince of Darkness, the MGB would have obliterated the 124 Spider in the dependability department. I always grab these beautiful metal-and-glass warning lights when I find them in junked Fiats; I have installed them in everything from Impala instrument panels to homemade car-parts boomboxes. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

FCA profits surge in second quarter

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles gave the cash register a beating in the second quarter, improving its net profit to 333 million euros ($364M US), which is a 263-percent jump over its reported Q1 profit of 92 million euros ($108M US). At the same time, FCA improved its global profit margin to 7.7 percent. Compared year-over-year, in Q2 2014 FCA reported net profit of 197 million euros making this year's Q2 a 69-percent increase, and profit margins a year ago were 4.9 percent. The two big factors for this increase are strong NAFTA sales and Jeep. In the US alone, Jeep sold 222,940 units in Q2 this year, a jump of almost 20 percent over the same period last year. Revenue in the NAFTA region totaled $18.8 billion, adjusted earnings before interest and taxes were $1.45 billion, both of those numbers more than doubling compared to 2014. The vastly better numbers come on marginally more global sales, 1,181,000 units sold in Q2 2014, 1,193,000 units sold in the same span this year. In the US, FCA began charging dealers one-percent more for vehicles to up the margins, a move that helped boost its US margin from 4.1 percent a year ago to 5.8 percent the first half of this year. The company is holding steady on its guidance of global deliveries at 4.8 million and its net profit guidance at $1.1 to $1.3 billion. It has increased its adjusted outlook for the year to $120.5 billion in revenue, and EBIT to "over $4.93 billion." News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: AP Photo/Carlos Osorio Earnings/Financials Chrysler Fiat Jeep FCA