When Aurelio Lampredi develops a completely new engine for the Fiat 124 in the mid-sixties, he cannot imagine that he is thus laying the foundation for a world champion. Moreover, it turns out that ‘his’ engine has enough rack to last for almost four decades.
As a successor to the 1300/1500 series, Fiat presents the sleek 124 at the Geneva motor show in March 1966. Under the hood of the four-door sedan is an entirely new engine, internally referred to as the 124.A.000. With its push rods and aluminum cylinder head, the cast-iron four-cylinder in-line engine is completely up to date at that time. The machine is the brainchild of Aurelio Lampredi. Indeed, the same Lampredi that has made a name for itself at Ferrari with legendary V12s. Since 1955 he has been responsible for the development of new engines at Fiat. This also applies to the new Fiat 124, which is completely state-of-the-art at that time. With a bore and stroke of 73.0 and 71.5 millimeters respectively, the four-cylinder has a capacity of 1,197 cc, from which 60 hp can be squeezed. Numerous variations have appeared over the years, for which Fiat plays with the bore and stroke to its heart’s content. One of the first variants appears in 1968 with a displacement of 1,438 cc and 70 hp in the Fiat 124 Special. Abarth also takes care of the 124 power source, which is used in the Abarth 1300 Scorpione with an adapted cylinder capacity. When the Fiat 131 succeeds the 124 in 1974, that new car simply gets a further developed 124 engine.
Fiat 124 Sport Spider
There’s more than just bore and stroke to play with. This is already apparent in October 1966, when the Fiat 124 Sport Spider appears. For this open-top car, Lampredi and his people not only drilled down the displacement to 1,438 cc, they also traded in the pushrods for a new cylinder head with two overhead camshafts, driven by a timing belt. Thanks to this intervention, the power increases to 90 hp. Initially, this engine (with different displacement volumes) is also used in the Fiats 124 Coupé, 125 and 132. But this is only the beginning, because the engine is being further developed and appears at Fiat also in the Ritmo, Croma, Tipo and until 1999 in the Tempra. In addition to Fiat itself, the DOHC engine is also used in Lancia and Alfa Romeo. The latter includes the 164 Turbo and the 155 Q4. Lancia spoons the engine into a long list of models, from the Beta to the Thema and from the Trevi (as a VX even with a Volumex compressor) to the Kappa. When the Fiat Croma 1.9 Di id appears in 1986, as the first passenger car with a direct injection diesel engine, the roots of that engine also appear to lie with the Lampredi Twin Cam. And, not unimportant, Lancia wins the World Rally Championship no fewer than seven times with the further developed DOHC version. The engine is first in the rear of the Rally 037 (with 350 hp in Group B specification) and then six times in the front of the Delta (with eventually 365 hp in Group A trim). The DOHC also finds its way outside the Fiat group: in the mid-eighties Morgan mounts it in the Plus 4.
Lancia Rally 037
Remarkably, the 124 engine is not mounted in the Lada 1200. Although the Lada is a Fiat 124 built under license, the Russian gets a Fiat four-cylinder that has never been used by the Italians themselves. The Indian 124 from Premier Automobiles even has a Nissan engine. Other license-built 124s do get the 124 engine, such as the Fiat-Kia 124 built in Korea by Asia Motors and the Tofas Murat 124 from Turkey. Then there is of course the Spanish link with Seat, which uses the four-cylinder first. in the Seat Ritmo and then in the Seat Ronda. In the mid-seventies, the Brazilian branch of the Fiat group also took care of the 124 engine. The Brazilians build numerous variants with not only larger, but also smaller stroke volumes. They are also developing a cylinder head with a single overhead camshaft (SOHC). They don’t just keep it for themselves in South America, because it is also shipped to Italy where it ends up in the Fiat 131 and even in the Croma. In addition, Fiat do Brasil uses the power source as the basis for a number of diesel variants of the Panda, Uno and Fiorino; the last two also appear on the market with us. It was only in 2004 that the stretch was gone; when the last Fiats Mille and Palio come off the production line in Brazil, the 124 engine is gone.
This article originally appeared in AutoWeek Classics issue 9 of 2016.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl