Museum Of Municipal Engineering – Fiat 125P 50th Anniversary Exhibition, Krakow, Poland
The 50th anniversary exhibition of the Fiat 125P was held at the Museum Of Municipal Engineering in Krakow, Poland. I was lucky enough to be there to see it.
The Fiat 125P was essentially responsible for the large and growing Polish auto industry and in November 2017 it was celebrating it’s 50th anniversary. Jalopy magazine just had to be there to take a look, and it was well worth our time. The museum in Krakow having completely cleared its automotive halls to put on this special exhibition.
It’s hard to believe that the shape you see in this report is as old at that. Here in England we would remember that shape being associated with the Lada Riva, the VAZ-2105. That was a version of the 124 and with us until 1997 when Lada pulled them from our marketplace.
You see, this all came about in the deal for technology and steel. FIAT wanted the metal and Russia the technology. So what everyone ended up with is an updated FIAT 130. FSO, Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych, in Warsaw was the only passenger car manufacturer in Poland. They were producing really neat little cars such as the Syrena, another Eastern European 2 stroke oddity which was getting in need of replacement.
In 1965 a deal was done to take the new body and brakes of the Fiat 125 with the older running gear from the 1300/1500. This deal also saw the inclusion of the Yugoslavians with their Zastava marque and of course VAZ in the Soviet Union.
The car’s origins below were a rather attractive three box saloon which Fiat transformed into…
This to become the 125. Notice the four square headlights, this one is the real deal from Italy.
The Birth Of FSO
The marriage of the two cars above created what we found below. The Polski Fiat name being used for the 125 before being replaced by FSO in 1983. The leaf sprung rear suspension and the older engines gave a cruder driving experience that the Fiat on which it was based and less performance. The worst part of it was the need to do so cheaply, the steel quality wasn’t very good so they had a tendency to rust. But cheaply was this car’s strong point. They were an awful lot less than equivalent British made cars. They offered something much larger for a lot less money, with a bigger engine too.
Unfortunately, the press weren’t always kind to cars like this. Usually later on in life when criticised as a cheap used banger. But, when they cost two thirds as much as the home grown stuff was entirely unfair. They even managed to produce an estate version and a pickup too, which Fiat failed to do. FSO produced a convertible version with six doors, used by the Warsaw tourist board for sightseeing.
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When the car was withdrawn from sale in the UK in 1991 it was the cheapest car on sale t £3099. The most basic fifth generation Ford Escort would have set you back over £7600…
The car was raced and rallied, not just in Poland, but wherever it was built. Thailand, Colombia, Indonesia, Egypt…. It’s quite funny that Nasr in Cairo were producing under license a variant of the 125P from FSO.
Global Automotive Success
What you are looking at is one of the greatest automotive success stories. FSO produced this car up until 1991 having made 1,455,689 of them. Even many years after it’s successor had been introduced, the Polonez below, this car was still being produced. The Polonez having a much shorter lifespan selling up until 2002, itself pretty impressive.
The museum put on a great display, it capturing the social significance of this, over the last 50 years, transforming the fortunes of the Polish nation.
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Fiat Chrysler still have an interest in Poland, and long may this continue. One of my favourite cities there still has a very large plant, no longer producing vehicles, but subassemblies, engines & gearboxes. Bielsko-Biała supplies the plant in Tychy where they are best known for a rather popular export, the Fiat 500. I bet you didn’t know the ones we have are made in Poland…
As always, there are pictures are ion the Facebook gallery here.
Simon
