Solved - NEH 5558: Pininfarina design for Fiat 130 fastback for US market

[Carnut]

What's this car, for 1 point?:

Remember - solving puzzles using 'Google Search by Image' is BANNED on AutoPuzzles!

[alltag]

Pinifarina?

[Carnut]

I believe it is, yes..

[alltag]

The designer is Paolo Martin. His NSU Ro 80 show car from 1971 has the same front design.

A sketch for a British manufacturer?

[Carnut]

Yes, Paolo Martin it is.

[alltag]

Sketch of a Fiat 130 Coupé with fadtback?

[Carnut]

Yes it is.
Can you elaborate a bit on it though please?
Locked for you.

[alltag]

I seem to remember that in the early 1970s Fiat wanted to launch the Fiat 130 Coupe with a special hatchback body for the United States.  Concept sketches by Paolo Martin were done at Pininfarina.  Then came the oil crisis and the plans were dropped.

[Carnut]

That's right, yes.
Quite why they specifically wanted a hatchback for the USA is very odd, since they didn't sell well there, Americans preferring cars with a bootlid (like the Fiat 130 coupé they already made!)

[gte4289]

That's right, yes.
Quite why they specifically wanted a hatchback for the USA is very odd, since they didn't sell well there, Americans preferring cars with a bootlid (like the Fiat 130 coupé they already made!)

Hatchbacks were all the rage here in the 1970s! AMC's Gremelin and Pacer, Ford's Pinto and Mustang II, Chevy's Monza, Vega, Chevette, etc were all introduced in reaction to Americans' sudden rush to buy hatchbacks from Japanese and European automakers. Of course, hatchbacks would eventually be vilified in the U.S., like everything else we embraced in the 1970s (disco music, bell-bottom jeans, shag carpeting, etc).