Fiat VSS prototype | Italian Car design | 1980s Cars | Concept Car | Wheels | 1981

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  • čas přidán 18. 05. 2019
  • 'Wheels' presenter Chris Goffey visits the Fiat experimental center in Turin, to take a look at the Fiat VSS concept car.
    First shown: 05/11/1981
    If you would like to license a clip from this video please e mail:
    archive@fremantle.com
    Quote: VT25515
  • Auta a dopravní prostředky

Komentáře • 82

  • @dcanmore
    @dcanmore Před 5 lety +48

    The VSS concept was the forerunner of the Tipo modular platform which made its debut in 1988. This was the beginning of the common modular platform we see today where cars share the same superstructure but hanging different body panels to what suits the badge the car is wearing. Think VW Group and PSA today, or the Type 4 programme (SAAB 9000, Alfa 64, Fiat Croma, Lancia Thema) in the 80s and early 90s. It effectively replaced badge engineering among family brands. Next up is Toyota's New Global Architecture.

  • @Romeo_GR
    @Romeo_GR Před 3 lety +3

    Beautiul years, when each european automobile brand had its own character and personality...

  • @Tealcol
    @Tealcol Před 5 lety +8

    That Fiat has a distinct look of the Škoda Favorit.

  • @ronmccullock1407
    @ronmccullock1407 Před 5 lety +3

    Absolutely fascinating

  • @Tj930
    @Tj930 Před 5 lety +6

    Chris Goffey!

  • @maartenyzer4121
    @maartenyzer4121 Před 5 lety +10

    many modern cars live 20 years now..

    • @GaryJohnWalker1
      @GaryJohnWalker1 Před 5 lety +6

      At the time it was an achievement for a Fiat (or Alfa or Lancia....) to get to the dealer in one piece rather than as a pile of red powder.

    • @6ettinold
      @6ettinold Před 5 lety

      Really? The manufacturers build them with the same life expectancy as a washing machine. Hence sealed for life gearboxes.

    • @wangdangdoodie
      @wangdangdoodie Před 5 lety

      @@6ettinold Yes indeed. It's simply not in the manufacturers interests to build cars that last 20 years or so. Where's the money in that?

    • @video99couk
      @video99couk Před 5 lety +3

      Some do. My 1994 Toyota Celica has only ever broken down once in the 21 years I've owned it. But not all cars are quite Toyota quality: www.colin99.co.uk/mycar-2018.jpg

  • @whelkboy
    @whelkboy Před 5 lety +3

    Interesting. You can see the design direction Fiat was heading in back then.

  • @DDDquick
    @DDDquick Před 5 lety +5

    That car was begging to have a handbrake turn on the test track.

  • @Le_Rennais
    @Le_Rennais Před 5 lety +31

    i can hear that FIAT concept car rusting, even if it's mainly made with plastic

  • @hoofie2002
    @hoofie2002 Před 5 lety +7

    I think as an idea it was a bit ahead of it's time. Look at Sports cars and others now with lots of carbon fibre.

  • @bipolatelly9806
    @bipolatelly9806 Před 5 lety

    So.... This is coming?
    I'm very excited.

  • @6ettinold
    @6ettinold Před 5 lety

    When I saw that prototype, I did initially think it was going to be a story about Lada acquiring the rights to build the Alfa 33!

  • @Thecrazyvaclav
    @Thecrazyvaclav Před 5 lety +11

    Front looks a bit like a fiat uno,
    Rear is skoda favorit
    All of it looks like a yugo sana

    • @dcanmore
      @dcanmore Před 5 lety +7

      You are right. The Yugo Sana is based on the Fiat Tipo which has a modular superstructure derived from the VSS prototype in the video. The Italian designer chap was spot-on about the time-line, the Tipo made it's debut in 1988.

    • @Thecrazyvaclav
      @Thecrazyvaclav Před 5 lety +1

      dcanmore id forgotten all about the tipo,now you've said it,yea it's obviously tipo

    • @timhancock6626
      @timhancock6626 Před 5 lety +2

      The Skoda Favorit was a Bertone design so...yes it does look spookily similar to that Fiat in places doesn't it.

  • @brianb-p6586
    @brianb-p6586 Před rokem

    It's sad that in the 1980's a 20-year service life was considered impressively long. The average car lasts at least 20 years now.

  • @matthewgodwin3050
    @matthewgodwin3050 Před 5 lety +7

    Hanging body panels onto a base-frame? A new idea? Er, Rover did it 20 years previously with the P6 and Citroen did it even earlier with the DS. Sorry Fiat, but it's already been done.

    • @KaptainKhaos1
      @KaptainKhaos1 Před 5 lety +2

      Not sure they claimed to be the first.

    • @RoadCone411
      @RoadCone411 Před 5 lety +1

      Neither Rover nor Citroen did it with plastic! I would guess GM’s Pontiac Fiero was one of the first mainstream cars from a major manufacturer to use plastic body panels.

    • @itstheterranaut
      @itstheterranaut Před 5 lety +2

      No, you're missing the point.
      This was to allow *different* cars to be made from the same basic shell.

    • @matthewgodwin3050
      @matthewgodwin3050 Před 5 lety +2

      @@itstheterranaut Rover originally designed the base frame construction with the intention of being able to reskin the P6 at a later stage in the model's production. As it turned out, the car continued to sell strongly and they were able to get away with a mild facelift rather than a complete reskin. I'm reading James Taylor's"The Classic Rovers" at the mo. Well worth a read if you're interested in the design and production of Rover cars. Was written quite a while ago, so it only goes as far as the P6, but it's a mine of information and very well written. As for Citroen though, I'm afraid I know very little about the DS and their reasons for base frame construction, but I know that car sold strongly too and had a very long production run with very little change to the basic body design.

    • @itstheterranaut
      @itstheterranaut Před 5 lety +1

      @@matthewgodwin3050 Interesting, thanks- and thanks for the recommendation on the book.

  • @drsidiyengar
    @drsidiyengar Před 5 lety +2

    Ultimately bean counters won and some of ideas have become mainstream.

  • @paulmivvi7828
    @paulmivvi7828 Před 5 lety

    126 styling finished in chocolate river brown I present the "Fiat Gloop".

    • @QuadMochaMatti
      @QuadMochaMatti Před 5 lety

      Augustus enjoys being chaufferred by a team of Oompa Loompas, while Mike Teevee takes up residence in the boot.

  • @marshalllucky
    @marshalllucky Před 5 lety +1

    I am real excited about these new automobiles from Fiat, when will they commence to produce these new auto ?

    • @fishbmw
      @fishbmw Před 5 lety

      This was filmed in 1981

    • @marshalllucky
      @marshalllucky Před 5 lety

      @@fishbmw so you can buy these car already?

    • @marshalllucky
      @marshalllucky Před 5 lety

      @@fishbmw I will be head straight to there flat dealer to see if he still has these new car :-(

    • @kamrankhan-lj1ng
      @kamrankhan-lj1ng Před 4 lety

      about 1985 says the italian project manager.

  • @billwarron7547
    @billwarron7547 Před 5 lety

    00:28 Stephen Mangan in the 80s

  • @theharbingerofconflation

    Looking at the thumbnail.. „so it came with hydraulics from the factory?“

  • @jasoncarpp7742
    @jasoncarpp7742 Před 5 lety

    For some reason, Fiat discontinued cars in the USA in the early 1980s. It took another 30 years before Fiat brought back their cars.

    • @williamwoods8022
      @williamwoods8022 Před 5 lety

      @Jody Owen Oh Dear! The Original Classic Mini was FWD/Front Engine a decade before the FIAT 128 appeared so not very revolutionary then.

    • @ghvtg
      @ghvtg Před 5 lety

      @@williamwoods8022 why do people like you have to sound arsy? What's the 'oh dear' all about? Can't you just politely point out the that the Mini beat the 128 timeline wise.

    • @paulrenowden8617
      @paulrenowden8617 Před 5 lety +1

      @@williamwoods8022 The Mini package was flawed with the gearbox in the sump. How many manufacturers have used that layout since? Exactly. The 128/Autobianchi layout designed by Giacosa with the seperate end-on gearbox and unequal length driveshafts is the blueprint for the modern front wheel drive car.

  • @brendonhedrick3219
    @brendonhedrick3219 Před 5 lety +2

    It looks like they struggled to make the plastic panels with the precision of steel ones. That prototype would have been hand assembled with all the parts carefully placed and yet the panel gaps and overall fit and finish looks pretty poor. That said, they should have done a dent test and I am sure that car is very hard to dent.

    • @nlpnt
      @nlpnt Před 5 lety +1

      Plastics expand and contract more with temperature changes than sheetmetal. Road tests of Saturns always talked about how wide their panel gaps were, not at all like a Toyota or Honda from the '90s/00s, but they were a technical necessity.

  • @yanuchiuchihaanimegamesand3907

    Kinda sad they didn't went trough with it...

  • @Johnconno
    @Johnconno Před 5 lety

    'Mr Scalari was very disappointed by your attitude. Please go with these men in the black Alfa Romeo... Grazia...'

  • @HFStuart
    @HFStuart Před 5 lety

    Father of Danny Goffey of Supergrass fame. The facial hair must be hereditary.

  • @MonkeyHunch1
    @MonkeyHunch1 Před 5 lety +4

    tha weighta saving asa 20% up to 90 percenta whena the cage rottas and alla the plastic falla offa!

    • @JohnSmith-qq8tx
      @JohnSmith-qq8tx Před 5 lety +1

      MonkeyHunch1 😂🤣😂🤣😅😅😄😃🤣😂😂😂😂

    • @JohnSmith-qq8tx
      @JohnSmith-qq8tx Před 5 lety +1

      You won the internet this month. Drinking tears 😂🤣 😂 here

    • @RazSux
      @RazSux Před 5 lety +1

      LOL!

    • @patcom1013
      @patcom1013 Před 5 lety +1

      Ah Shaddapa Ya Face !!!

    • @MonkeyHunch1
      @MonkeyHunch1 Před 5 lety

      @@JohnSmith-qq8tx Cheers :)

  • @nopowerlaboratory
    @nopowerlaboratory Před 4 lety

    approximately

  • @mjgillespie91
    @mjgillespie91 Před 5 lety

    Looks like golf mk 2

  • @felix_five
    @felix_five Před 5 lety

    “Ironmongery”

  • @terra2805
    @terra2805 Před 5 lety +7

    This wouldn't fly today with the current plastic crisis. Even McDonalds have switched to paper straws now. Lol.

    • @autofox1744
      @autofox1744 Před 5 lety

      Yeah but you could use this same concept with conventional stamped sheet metal just as easily.

  • @Beethoven80
    @Beethoven80 Před 5 lety +1

    Well, how useless if the cage tends to rust as hell.

    • @QuadMochaMatti
      @QuadMochaMatti Před 5 lety

      Was this really the inspiration for that awful track by the infernal grunge garbage group, Soundgarden?

  • @sirkastic
    @sirkastic Před 5 lety

    Looks like a Ford Ka+

  • @jezb9762
    @jezb9762 Před 5 lety +6

    If you look very carefully you can still see it rusting before your eyes.

  • @johnstairs
    @johnstairs Před 5 lety

    I can use this video as an alternative to my nightly mug of Horlicks

  • @Skoda130
    @Skoda130 Před 3 lety

    Whatta mistaka to maka.

  • @philipcurnow7990
    @philipcurnow7990 Před 5 lety

    Open University.

  • @charitycharity3316
    @charitycharity3316 Před 5 lety +3

    He spent 3 years on that, BL did that in 3 months, what a great idea deweight it fill it with Italian plastic watch it break up and then buy a better car

  • @elbownesdam4024
    @elbownesdam4024 Před 5 lety

    Guess what we got he asks rhetorically? I answer -a standard Fiat rust bucket covered in cheap melting plastic during the lightest impact

    • @sotirismp2883
      @sotirismp2883 Před 4 lety +1

      The result of this was the most rust proof 90s vehicle actually

  • @andrewsmactips
    @andrewsmactips Před 5 lety

    Well, that didn't work.

    • @jazzhands7771
      @jazzhands7771 Před 5 lety +5

      It did; the Tipo and Tempra ranges were the direct result of this

  • @yamahattr6006
    @yamahattr6006 Před 5 lety +2

    The plastic fiat will rust lol

  • @k.j.g.9601
    @k.j.g.9601 Před 5 lety

    I don't a knowa Real Italiana, I justa speaka de broken De English

  • @dieterjohansen5670
    @dieterjohansen5670 Před 5 lety +1

    one time FIAT never FIAT

    • @TheOnlyVistosi
      @TheOnlyVistosi Před 2 lety

      If it was a stilo mk1 it is impossibile to not agree

  • @dirtydave2691
    @dirtydave2691 Před 4 lety

    Nice injection molded body, but same crappy unreliable engine and transmission. I guess you can live in it when the motor goes tits up a few Kilometers from the dealer.