Launch
The Fiat 124 was introduced to the public in 1966 by being dropped by parachute from a plane, and instantly won critical acclaim, including the following year's European Car of the Year award – the fourth winner of the award and the first from Italy. The Station Wagon and Sport Spider were unveiled in the same year at the Turin Motor show.
It was praised for its spacious interior, advanced coil spring rear suspension, disc brakes on all wheels and lightweight construction.
The car was unusual in the extent to which Oscar Montabone, the chief engineer responsible for its development, was able to start with a clean sheet. Only the all-synchromesh gear box came from an existing model, the Fiat 1500.
Read more about this topic: Fiat 124
Famous quotes containing the word launch:
“Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies
and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul
in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith
with its store of food and little cooking pans
and change of clothes,”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“I had often stood on the banks of the Concord, watching the lapse of the current, an emblem of all progress, following the same law with the system, with time, and all that is made ... and at last I resolved to launch myself on its bosom and float whither it would bear me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)