The last big coupe produced by Fiat was also the last attempt by the Turin factory to remain in the world of luxury cars: after the 130, Fiat was content to produce – at most – middle-sized sedans.

Of course, a coupe with a V6, 3.2 litre engine was not the best choice in the years at the turn of the oil crisis, and this also contributed to the failure of this initiative. In addition, the engine of this car, designed from scratch by the great Lampredi, had a major flaw, namely the in-line and parallel rather than inclined valves: if this allowed to have compact heads together with a low case to house the engine with space underneath the hood for the peripheral organs, however, it worsened performance and consumption. Even the greatest occasionally make mistakes.

This 130 Coupé has two major advantages: the first concerns that of being equipped with a manual transmission, a rare option on a model produced mainly with the automatic transmission; the second concerns the condition of this car which seems untouched: the seller declares 34,500 kms done and, although this is not scientifically proven, we notice that the car’s interiors still have part of the original protective plastics with which it was delivered when new: rarely we have seen this. Find it for sale at €18,700 (today $21,000) here in Montecatini Terme, Italy.