Description
Stupendous and highly restored Fiat 128 Rally from 1972. The car carries black plates and a first-registration booklet with the Varese province. ASI gold plate homologation. It wears period alloy wheels. The rally is distinguished by its front bar and the driving fog lights.
History of the model and curiosities
The Fiat 128 Rally was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1971 and, despite being assigned the role of a substitute and provisional product, achieved a flattering sales success, also due to its affordable price and good performance.
The substantial differences of the Rally, compared with the 128 saloon from which it derives, are very few. With the exception of the engine and the adoption of power-assisted brakes, the most evident improvements concern the headlamps/ lighting units, exterior mouldings and the substantial interior overhaul, featuring contoured and reclining seats with adjustable headrests, rear windows opening in a scissor fashion, new upholstery, central dashboard storage shelf on the floor. The dashboard, identical to that of the saloon, was enhanced with instrumentation made more complete by the addition of the rev counter, oil pressure gauge and water thermometer. A 2-spoke drilled steering wheel with a smaller diameter and a leather-wrapped rim. The pedal box is redesigned, with the accelerator pedal modified to aid toe‑to‑heel technique.
The exterior is made more aggressive by side adhesive strips, the front bumper which doubles as a support for rally-type auxiliary lighting, four circular rear light clusters (in fact inherited from the 850 Coupé) and the possibility of obtaining alloy wheels.
At the end of 1972 a light restyling was presented affecting some interior and exterior details: internally new optional seat fabrics were offered, with the central part of the seat in red or ochre cloth (depending on the exterior colour) with the sides always in black faux leather; also the chrome rings around the supplementary instrumentation disappeared; externally on the front bumper tube a black seal was installed, as well as around the "rally" badges mounted on the front bonnet and the boot lid; the external handles were given a slight redesign with the movable part in black; finally on the rear bumper the horns disappeared in favour of a black rubber seal running along the full outer edge.
Performance, although not vastly different from the base model, saw a noticeable increase in power at the expense of higher fuel consumption. The Fiat 128 Rally’s mechanics, just named Car of the Year, at that moment represented the technical and performance excellence of its class and showed its potential for evolution and development.
The Fiat 128 Rally was offered at the price of 1, 220, 000 lire in the branch treasury (14% more than the base model), with a limited choice of optional extras, including an anti-theft device (7, 000 lire), heat-insulating glass with rear window heating (21, 000 lire), front seat belts (10, 000 lire), the windscreen with built-in radio aerial (15, 000 lire) and magnesium alloy wheels (50, 000 lire).
The colour range consisted of white, red-orange, Arctic grey and yellow, none metallic, with black leatherette interiors, alternatively leatherette and red or ochre cloth in the central band of the seats.
