01
Origins
The Primula of 1964 is one of the most influential cars almost nobody outside Italy remembers. Dante Giacosa had long pressed Fiat to adopt front-wheel drive with a transverse engine; the corporation, cautious, let its small Autobianchi marque take the risk. The Primula duly pioneered the layout Fiat would industrialise — end-on gearbox, unequal driveshafts, engine across the nose — and added a practical tailgate on most versions, making it an early true hatchback besides. Disc brakes on all four wheels completed a startling specification for a modest family car. It sold adequately; its ideas conquered. The Fiat 128 refined the layout, the world copied the 128, and the modern front-drive car settled into the shape this quiet experiment had proven a few years ahead of everyone.
Torino Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile 087 · Zairon · CC BY-SA 4.0
