Fiat Kabriolet "Doppelgänger"

[MikeSimon]

Some of you may remember my first car was a Fiat 1500 OSCA. Cees is restoring one. I always thought that the Peugeot 404 Cabriolet was a dead ringer for the Fiat. Probably no wonder as Pininfarina designed both.

[JamesL]

The tail lights and wings scream MGB to me. Oh, also a PininFarina design

[Mike Hughes]

The tail lights and wings scream MGB to me. Oh, also a PininFarina design

Nope, the MGB was an in-house BMC design.

What Pininfarina did do was design the MGB-GT roof and rear hatch, incorporating a taller windscreen and vent windows.  This after the BMC in-house team tried to create a closed successor to the MGA Coupe and couldn't come up with a design that they liked.  Nothing they came up with looked or worked better than an MGB roadster with the fiberglass factory hardtop.  BMC then reached out to a number of studios including Michelotti and Pininfarina for help, the brief being that they should suggest an enclosed coupe design that could be produced with minimal changes to the existing MGB body shell.   Pininfarina hit it out of the park.

[mdsalemi]

I absolutely LOVE that Peugeot design…

[MikeSimon]

For comparison....

[rwmastel]

OMG, that's 98% the same car.  Both are very nice, would be special to own here in the US.

[MikeSimon]

I am not sure about the Peugeot, but the Fiats are available in the US. They came in a variety of engine configurations. There was a 1200cc (avoid!) and the first years 1500cc had an OSCA DOHC engine (1959-1962). That was replaced by a 1600cc OSCA (in 1963)and finally, they put the 1500cc standard Fiat engine from the Limousine in it from 1964/65 on). Of this, there was a higher performance "Siata" version available in Europe. The cars to go for are the OSCA engine cars and of these, the later 1600S (for looks, IMO). prices have skyrocketed for these. Concours examples can reach 100k. The 124 Spider replaced that model range.

[Cees Klumper]

There's a 1200 restoration project for sale in Washington for around $2K:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/335607014646?mkevt=1&plmtId=1110100101&mesgId=4001&mkpid=0&emsid=enull.m161499.l174141&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid&bu=43217969028&trkId=e5862229-00ea-3d0c-819a-c9799ce11705&cnvId=a7fb74a1-c76a-4a5d-81a4-a4efd73d9c0c&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20241013082112&segname&recoId=335607014646&recoPos=1