The Fiat 124 Spider May Gain a Coupe Sibling Next Year
And we’re not talking a folding-targa roof like the Miata has, either.
If you number among the legions who've always craved a Mazda Miata coupe, well, we have some good news. No, not the Mazda MX-5 Miata RF. (We assume you already knew about that.) It seems Fiat may be planning a coupe version of the 124 Spider...and it could make itself known to the world as soon as next year.
According to a new report from the masters of the sports car scoop at Britain's Autocar, the coupe version of the Fiat 124 Spider—which we assume will be called the Fiat 124 Coupe, as there's already precedent for the name—will be pushed as a more performance-oriented version of the car designed to boost the carmaker's street cred as a maker of sporty machines.
Don't expect Hellcat-like levels of power, though; there's reportedly still some debate about which of the 124's three global engines will be used, but even the most powerful option in that hand is the Spider Abarth's turbocharged 1.4-liter inline-four that makes 164 horsepower and an equal number of pound-feet of torque. Assuming the coupe weighs in close to the 124 Spider's roughly 2,400-pound curb weight, that should still be enough for a 0-60 mile-per-hour time in the mid-six second range—about as quick as its MX-5 sibling.
But no Miata will have a roof like the one on the 124 Coupe. Final styling purportedly hasn't been pinned down, but Autocar says its sources claim the Fiat's ass end could be restyled all the way down to the trunk for a sweeping profile. The Fiat 124 Rally car that debuted alongside the Abarth at the Geneva Motor Show this year is said to potentially provide a hint as to what a more conservative version of the roofline could look like. Now, if we can convince Fiat to slap that car's 300-hp turbo-four into a few 124 Coupes...
