CarBrandLogos archive · Fiat · 1899

FiatFiat 4 HP

Twenty-four cars from a Turin workshop, and the beginning of Italy's motor industry.

Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in Fiat history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Fiat 4 HP, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino was founded in 1899, and the 4 HP was what it built first. Aristide Faccioli designed it, and it belongs unmistakably to the earliest era of the motor car: a vis-a-vis body with passengers facing each other, tiller steering rather than a wheel, a 679cc two-cylinder engine mounted at the rear driving the rear wheels, and a three-speed gearbox with no reverse gear.

1899 FIAT · This photo was taken by Przemysław JahrAutorem zdjęcia jest Przemysław JahrWykorzystując zdjęcie proszę podać jako autora:Przemysław Jahr / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

Design and engineering

Twenty-four were built at the Corso Dante works in Turin across 1899 and 1900, sold to the small number of Italians wealthy enough to experiment with mechanised transport. The 6 HP replaced it almost immediately, and Fiat moved on quickly through a succession of larger models.

In production

What makes it worth noting is not the car but the company that grew from it. Within a generation Fiat was building the vehicles that put Italy on wheels, and within a century it was the country's largest industrial concern. It all traces back to twenty-four tiller-steered carriages.

At a glance