Barrett's #312 - solved - NSU-Fiat Type 07 'Austria', 1960

[barrett]

I don't have much information on this one, but I need the names of the two companies involved in the project. More information is, as usual, very welcome and a very comprehensive reply might even be worth a second point....

[morphly]

Is it Suzuki related?

[barrett]

No

[frederick59]

Daihatsu?

[barrett]

No!

[richard fridd]

Honda?

[barrett]

No!

[Zerk]

After staring at this car for a while I began to see the BMC in it 
I've never heard of such merged projects before, but I must ask; is this a BMC variant?

[barrett]

No BMC connection here.

As usual I've lost track of my puzzles, so up this one (belatedly) goes

[sixtee5cuda]

From Europe?

[barrett]

Yes

[Julien1A]

anadol?

[barrett]

Nope

[Julien1A]

Southern europe?

[qwaszx]

fiat 600 hubcaps: fiat 600 based?

[barrett]

I don't know if it's 600-based but it is (partly) a Fiat!

I'll lock this for 24 hours to see if you can guess the other party involved and perhaps dig up some more information

[qwaszx]

Of course most 500's and 600's all had their engines at the back. All nifty carrozzeria special-bodies kept the engines wisely there and concentrated on remarkable dressings and nose jobs. Some of them put the engine in the front, though. Moretti for instance.
Caprera and CAP made it just look as if it had the engine in the front and gave its 600/750 a huge chrome-plated grill.
No clue what this could be...
So maybe its just Fiat 1100 based with 600's hubcaps!

[barrett]

I'm inclined to believe this car is front engined.

The other company involved are not Italian...

Still locked for you

[qwaszx]

So guessing...
Clean ones: italian and simple -as in Michelotti 1963. Could be for foreign client. Not NSU/Neckar?

[barrett]

NSU is correct! It's a prototype for an NSU-Fiat small car from the 1960s.

That's all the information I have, and I've searched the web a bit with no luck. I have some more photos which I'll add later, meanwhile can anyone add anymore to the story?

[Allemano]

Darn! I knew I've seen it somewhere before! It's a scan from Dante Giacosa's phantastic book "40 years of Design with Fiat" (I have it in German). It's called the Type 07 "Austria" and dates from 1960. First it was equipped with a 2-cyl. boxer engine from Steyr-Puch. Later studies got a water-cooled 600cc 4-cyl. engine.

[Wendax]

I would like to object to the statement that two companies were involved. This car was not developed in a cooperation between NSU and Fiat, but by NSU-Fiat which was the German branch of Fiat. Fiat took over the NSU car production in 1929. The cars were called NSU-Fiat from now on. Soon they turned to produce Fiats under licence in Germany. In 1960 NSU-Fiat changed the company name to Neckar to avoid confusion with the still existant NSU company which built motorcycles all the time through and added cars to their range in 1958. The NSU-Fiat cars changed their name in 1966. In 1968 the Neckar brand was dropped and the cars became just Fiats. Despite the historic links there was no cooperation between NSU-Fiat and NSU.

[Allemano]

Darn! I knew I've seen it somewhere before! It's a scan from Dante Giacosa's phantastic book "40 years of Design with Fiat" (I have it in German). It's called the Type 07 "Austria" and dates from 1960. First it was equipped with a 2-cyl. boxer engine from Steyr-Puch. Later studies got a water-cooled 600cc 4-cyl. engine.

[barrett]

Wendax - I agree with all you've said, but it's a question of semantics. If I'd asked for one company name many will have suggested Fiat, and some probably NSU, but I doubt anyone would have guessed NSU-Fiat.

Allemano - point added! I'll update the topic title too. Here are the rest of the images I have

[Allemano]

Nice pictures! It was obviousely a street legal car!