Recommending an older Fiat to anyone in the UAE is like advising an Inuit to swap his yak for a good, sturdy camel. But one of the best little roadsters of the Nineties can be had for way cheaper than 20,000 dirhams, and even closer to Dh10,000 if you like to live dangerously. So we just can’t keep on ignoring the Fiat Barchetta…
The fact that these adorably named cars — barchetta means ‘little boat’ in Italian — were made for a decade between 1995 and 2005 means that if you pick up a later model you’re driving a proper modern classic.
Its period rivals include the venerable Mazda MX-5 as well as some more ambitious competitors such as the first-generation BMW Z3 and Mercedes-Benz SLK, but also the mid-engined MG TF, which you can ignore because we’ve only ever seen one on the road in our many years in Dubai.
The Barchetta owes its lauded dynamic success to a light weight of just over 1,000kg, a very short wheelbase and good weight distribution, with the transversely mounted engine sitting further back in the bay. A five-speed manual transmission (exclusively) drives the front wheels, which exhibit immediate response and sprightly handling.
Later on in the Barchetta’s long lifespan it got heavier, cresting 1,100kg — even though post 2002 the car got shorter, more standard equipment meant more weight.
A simple 1.7-litre four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine (essentially a proven Lancia five-pot with a cylinder lobbed off) revs well past seven thou (with variable valve timing for the first time in a Fiat) and provides about 130bhp, which is enough for a respectable 0-100khp time of less than nine seconds.
There are a couple for sale at the moment on the UAE’s online classifieds for around Dh15K, and if it makes you feel any better, wheels’ mate Digby ‘Diggers’ Taylor from Gulf News Broadcasting’s Radio 2 drove a Barchetta for years (yes, even throughout the summers) before he upgraded to a Boxster S. But even a Porsche couldn’t replace a little Fiat Barchetta — the slinky Italian still occupies pride of place on Diggers’ driveway.
