Vignale Samantha

The Vignale Samantha, also listed as the Vignale 125/Samantha, was a luxury two-door coupe built by the Turin coachbuilder Carrozzeria Vignale on the chassis and mechanics of the Fiat 125 and shown at the Turin Motor Show of 1967. Its all-steel body seated four in what the maker's brochure calls armchair comfort, with a large luggage boot, electric window lifts, a heated rear window and electrically operated swivelling headlights. Under the bonnet sat the Fiat 125 front-mounted four-cylinder engine of 1,608 cc with twin overhead camshafts driven by a toothed belt, rated at 90 horsepower and paired with a four-speed all-synchromesh gearbox and servo-assisted disc brakes on all four wheels. The brochure quotes a top speed of 100 miles per hour. It was one of several cars Alfredo Vignale built under his own name on Fiat running gear in the 1960s, alongside the Gamine, the Eveline, the 1500 and the 850 models, and in Britain it was sold as the Vignale-Fiat Samantha by the importers F. Demetriou and Son.