FEATURE – 1953 Fiat 1100 Vignale

While the usual suspects – Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, Porsche – tend to get the limelight at premium auctions with ever-increasing record prices, it’s always interesting to see something a little bit different at a sale. This Fiat 1100 Coupe, offered at the recent Gooding & Company sale at Amelia Island in Florida, certainly meets that criteria.

Third in Line

When the third-generation Fiat 1100 arrived in 1953, it was continuing a lineage that went back to before World War II. The body on the Nuova 1100, or ‘1100/103’ as it was known, may have been an all-new monocoque with front subframe, but the mechanicals, including the 1.1-litre 40hp (30kW) four-cylinder engine, dated back to the 1930s.

Like its predecessors, the new 1100 was solid, reliable family transport, but hardly remarkable style-wise. The boxy, upright body had shades of Mk1 Ford Zephyr, pre-Farina Austin A40 and Lloyd 600 in appearance.

Fiat had a stab at their own “sports” version of the 1100 with the twin-carb 50hp (37kW) ‘TV’ (Turismo Veloce = Fast Tourer) that was offered as both a sedan and convertible, but if you wanted something really exotic wrapped around those workaday mechanical parts, you needed to look elsewhere.

Vignale Special

With Italy’s rich tradition of coachbuilding, it didn’t take long for the dowdy 1100 to be clothed in something far more chic. Vignale was quicker off the mark than most and the car presented here, simply called the ‘1100 Coupe’, was one of the first to appear.

Vignale had only been in operation since 1948, so it’s testimony to their output that they’d already established a name for themselves when their reimagining of the 1100/103 debuted at the 1953 Turin Motor Show.

Being released in early 1953, it’s possible that Vignale’s 1100 Coupe was actually built on the previous generation 1100, which was still a body-on-chassis design. This would have made any comprehensive rebodying work easier than on a monocoque - and the Vignale job was certainly comprehensive.

In place of the boxy factory body, Vignale created a sleek coupe shape, with a low roof and pronounced rounded tips to the guards at each end. 

Designed by Vignale’s Giovanni Michelotti (who would go on to much bigger and better things), the 1100 Coupe’s bonnet flowed to the grille, which was more like a pre-war design, in the upright style, while the headlights were placed low down and in oblong tunnelled openings (think Jensen CV8).

That bold, chromed grille meant there was no front bumper, just bumperettes either side of it. One period image of an 1100 Coupe shows an additional pair of bumperettes gracing the upper section of those projecting front guards.

The 1100 Coupe pictured here was one of several different bodies Vignale applied to the 1100. Most were coupes that also applied more exotic names than the original – ‘Desiree’, ‘Printemps’, ‘Charmant’ and the quite boastful ‘Wonderful’. There were a couple of wagons applied to the basic platform and even a taxi version. Some showed the 1100/103 origins, others were complete makeovers that, like the 1100 Coupe, left them barely recognisable as Fiats.

What’s interesting about the 1100 Coupe is that only two are believed to have been built in the style by Vignale, with the unit pictured spending most of its life in the US.

California Gleamin’

Documented history of this car starts in 1954, when a Mr. Harrison Godwin from California is listed as the registered owner.

Even in America’s glitzy Chrome Age back then, the 1100 Coupe would have been something special, and Godwin knew it, entering it in the 1955 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it scored a Second in Class trophy.

Back then, the coupe was finished in red with a black roof, but the colour and type of interior trim is unknown.

Godwin took the car back to Pebble Beach in 1956, but failed to improve on his runner-up award.

After that, the car was used regularly by Godwin both in his native California, as well as overseas, with period photos showing it in the northern Italian city of Trieste, still wearing its yellow-on-black Californian number plates. 

In 1967, the car was in Oregon when its engine overheated and it was stored locally awaiting repair. It apparently remained untouched in the north-western US state until an enthusiast who knew of the car and had been trying to track it down was finally able to purchase it in 1984.

Return to Glory

The 1100 Coupe lay fallow for another two decades before it passed to the next owner in 2008.

As purchased, the car was still wearing its dark red paint, but rust had eaten into the body, particularly on the driver’s side floorpan, but fortunately, most of Vignale’s hand-formed exterior sheetmetal was in good condition.

The restoration was by no means easy though, with the owner stating that his refusal to take shortcuts meant the project took far longer than originally anticipated.

Over the years, the car had acquired features not authentic to its original appearance, like a two-piece plexiglass windscreen instead of the original single-piece glass ‘screen, but the hardest parts to replace were Nardi performance accessories fitted to the car when new. These included induction parts, brakes and the steering wheel.

The original red exterior was replaced with a Velvet Green for the repaint, but the black roof was retained, while the interior was trimmed in pumpkin-coloured leather, piped in green to match the exterior.

Florida Gleamin’

The restoration of the 1100 Coupe took seven years, but the result was worth the effort.

In 2016, the Vignale-designed Fiat returned to the Pebble Beach concours and later picked up a ‘Designer’s Choice Trophy’ at the ArtCentre College of Design show in California, but that coveted first place concours trophy actually came a year later and on the other side of the country.

At the Amelia Island concours in Florida in 2017, the 1100 Coupe finally got a Best in Class trophy, which brought renewed attention to the car.

At Amelia Island this year, the 1100 Coupe returned, but this time to find a new custodian as it had been consigned for the Gooding & Company auction.

Accompanying the car were original sketches by Giovanni Michelotti of the design, as well as a comprehensive history file and FIVA certification.

How much is a 1-of-2 Fiat like this worth? Gooding & Co. put a US$400,000-US$500,000 estimate on it, which proved to be accurate, as the car sold for US$418,000 (AU$505,000 approx.). That’s a staggering price for a Fiat, but then again, this isn’t just any old Fiat, is it?