Fiat 3.5hp

Key facts

Year

1899
Country

Italy
Capacity

697cc
Cylinders

2
Performance

22mph
Price new

Not quoted
Loaned by

Private Owner
Manufacturer

Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino

This Fiat 3.5hp is one of the earliest surviving Fiats, and the oldest in Britain. Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (FIAT) was founded by a group of Turin investors in July 1899 and began assembling cars in a temporary factory. This Fiat seats two adults in comfort, plus two children facing the driver, a layout known as vis-à-vis.

The newly founded company absorbed two smaller businesses one of which was a bicycle manufacturer which already had a prototype car, called the ‘Welleyes’. The first dozen or so cars manufactured by Fiat in 1899 were derived from this prototype. A new purpose-built factory started producing cars from March 1900. Fiat grew to be an industrial giant and one of the world’s largest motor manufacturers.