Fiat 124 Spider EM Electric

A modest middle-class car, a comfortable four-seater sedan created to move Italians in the 1960s with discreet ease and verve. This is the Fiat 124, but the version that interests us is not the sedan, but the counterpart that took off, the Sport Spider.

And it is not out of place to talk about take off, for this small convertible, because its shapes derive from those of the Corvette Rondine prototype, designed by Tom Tjaarda. Yes, you read that right, it was a concept car designed for the American market, a proposal that Chevrolet does not produce and remains in the Pininfarina atelier. Not for long, because the patron Sergio immediately turns the project to Fiat, which was looking for a design for a spider to be produced on the shortened chassis of its nascent medium sedan. Adapted to the new proportions and simplified at the front with round headlights in place of the prototype’s pop-up headlights, the 124 Sport Spider conquers the Italians, but also the Americans, who had a weakness for convertibles. So much so that the small sports car remained in production for almost 20 years, until 1985, and with different engines and equipment. In fact, realizing the potential of the car, Fiat soon commissioned Abarth to derive a version for Group 4 competitions. The 124 Abarth Rally presented itself at the starting blocks with a new look, including lightened matt black bonnets, widened fenders and additional lights, and with a larger displacement engine and revised suspensions. And the victories were not long in coming, with the conquest of various Italian and European championships by the top drivers Lele Pinto and Gino Macaluso.

This was the inspiration of Officine Amarcord, the starting point for the creation of an object out of time, which does not deny the past but which pushes towards the future. 124 Spider EM pays homage to the history of this glorious model by offering a seamless design between interiors and exteriors: the bright metallic red color of the bodywork is interspersed with the central black band, which wraps around the entire body and leaves its mark also in the interior, upholstered in black full-grain leather with red stitching. The powerful fenders have the task of containing the large 17-inch wheels, and, together with the enclosed grille in body color, the fully LED lights both front and rear with an exclusive design, and the integrated roll bars, are the aesthetic changes which allow the 124 Spider EM to stand out from other electrified cars. It goes without saying, in fact, that Officine Amarcord also leaves its mark here with its own electric technology, represented by zero-emission engines, whose information is repeated in a digital instrumentation that peeks out from a dashboard with programmed transparency.

Revolution in respect of tradition: 124 Spider EM is the epitome of the restomod, a celebration of automotive history through future technologies.