Vignale 850 Spider

The Vignale 850 Spider was the open two-seater of the three small Fiat 850 based cars that Carrozzeria Vignale presented at the Turin Motor Show of 1964, next to a two-door saloon and a 2+2 coupe. Like them it was drawn by Virginio Vairo from sketches by Alfredo Zannellato after designs of Giovanni Michelotti, and it carried on the Vignalina nickname of the earlier Fiat 600 based Vignale cars. The Vignale cars were built from 1964 to 1969 in four series, and the spider was by far the rarest of the three, with about 1,000 made against 5,000 coupes and 4,000 saloons. The bodies were not hammered out by Vignale itself but by the Turin supplier L.I.T.L.A., and Vignale bought 10,000 chassis directly from Fiat, a purchase that left Alfredo Vignale deeply in debt. It should not be confused with the Fiat 850 Spider drawn and built by Bertone, which Fiat sold in parallel; a classic car blog describes a 1965 Vignale spider as an inexpensive, fun car rather than a status symbol.