Vintage Thing No.81 - Fiat 1500 Spéciale

This Simca 1500 Spéciale sounded big but was a docile enough machine to take to the Supermarché

How many racing cars can you use for shopping? Along with many others at the Le Mans Classic last year, we were waiting for the local supermarket to open up when something low, blue and gruff hove into few, piloted by two glamorous females who could only be French. I quickly approached and made such a fist of mangling their language they graciously chose to practice their already excellent English. In the short minutes before the stampede when the doors opened I established that they were actually competing in the races and that their blue bolide was docile enough to deal with traffic and fetch some bottled water.

"They" were Olivia and Alexandra du Boucheron who were sharing the car with their brothers, Olivier and Edouard. The car belonged to their father who'd had it for years and who let them each have a drive in the four heats for that particular plateau or grid.

It dated back to 1950 but I am uncertain whether it's been a special since then. From our brief conversation I think there might also be some Simca parentage. Simcas were French Fiats and latterly absorbed French-built Fords, too, before assuming their own identity.

The 1500cc six cylinder Fiat engine sounds much bigger than its capacity suggests and was initially something of a mystery to me. After some digging I think it's an overhead valve pre-war design with its origins in a revolutionary family car introduced at the 1935 Milan Motor Show. With a bore and stroke of 65mm x 75mm and a compression ration of 5.75:1 (later 6.2:1), this baby six put out 45 bhp @ 4,400rpm. The Fiat 1500 was the first Fiat with independent front suspension (or IFS). It used Dubonnet-type strong arms that were outboard of the kingpins with encased springs and shock absorbers that wore quickly if the oil seals leaked. The Fiat 1500 also had a backbone chassis and ground breaking aerodynamic bodywork.

Post war, Fiat introduced the 1500D and the 1500E power increasing to 47 bhp by 1950 when the essentially pre-war design bowed out to the monocoque 1400.

Even with the rather bulbous saloon bodywork, the 1500D was good for 75 mph so in stripped down form and a breathed on engine this spéciale probably goes as well as it sounds.

I'm guessing here but I don't think the laptop is being used to re-programme the engine management system.

If I see it again in 2012. I'll pay more attention to the IFS - I've never seen Dubonnet suspension before. 

I later spotted the family du Boucheron in the pits but there was so much going on I didn't ask how they were getting on. They did seem to be very happy though...

I wasn't the only one who found the Fiat 1500 spéciale fascinating.