Moretti 850 Sportiva

The Moretti 850 Sportiva was a rear-engined two-seat sports coupé that the Turin coachbuilder Moretti Motor Company built on the mechanical underpinnings of the Fiat 850 Coupe. Silodrome credits its styling to the Swiss-born designer Dany Brawand, who had trained under Giovanni Michelotti and by the mid-1960s worked for Moretti full time. Work began in 1964 and the car was first shown at the Turin Motor Show in 1965, with full production starting in 1967 and running to 1971. It kept the 850 rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout and used an 843 cc inline-four of 47 bhp, with a 982 cc engine of 61 bhp in later cars and Giannini-tuned units of up to 70 bhp offered as an option. Although it looked like a much larger car, it stood only about 104 cm tall on a 203 cm wheelbase. Silodrome says the production figure is hotly disputed, with about 300 cars the most widely cited. A four-seat S4 and a convertible Trasformabile followed the original two-seater.