A pretty red Fiat Barchetta, seen in China near the Dashanzi area in northeast Beijing. The little boat was in a very good shape; the paint looked fresh, no rust or rot, nothing broken or missing, and everything original up until the six-spoke alloys. License plates are of Jiangsu Province.
The Barchetta was a small roadster, similar in concept to the new Fiat 124 Spider, but much better looking. It was designed in-house by Andreas Zappatinas and Alessandro Cavazza. Production started in 1995 at the Italian coachbuilder Maggiora. When Maggiora went bankrupt in 2002 production was suspended.
In 2004 Fiat restarted production of a facelifted version at one of their own factories, but production lasted only until late 2005. The facelifted Barchetta is therefore very rare, and this Beijing car is one of those! How exactly she ended up in the Chinese capital is a mystery, as the Fiat Barchetta was never officially sold in China.
The brilliant simplicity of the pop-out door handle combination: a push-button to pop the handle out and a large old-school door lock.
The interior was in a fine shape too, everything original, with only the leather slightly worn. Design a bit messy in typical Fiat style. There is a nice mismatch between the the red door panels in exterior color and the orange trim on the seats and center tunnel. The leather around the gear lever has a slightly different orange color yet again. I really like the totally old-school digital clock next to the ash-tray, which, sadly, or perhaps not so sadly, is a thing of the past as well.
The Barchetta was powered by a 1.8 liter petrol with a decent 130 hp and 164 Nnm, mated to a five-speed manual gearbox, sending power to the front wheels. It stood on the same platform as the first generation Fiat Punto.
That is a really large rear window for a small roadster. Antenna located on the right, on top of the fender. The third brake lights sits in a fin-like pod, in line with the Fiat logo below.
Not so sure what to make of the design of that brake light. It looks very…. touchable. And red. Shaped in a certain way. Hmm… Lovely!
Mirrors stand on the doors, sport car style! Barchetta is colored in almost the same shade of red as my electric Luyuan scooter. Great little Fiat, may she still be around today.