By DAVID PIKE

For the sportscar lover, the most serious offence the Barchetta committed was that it was front wheel drive. In 1990, Fiat Centro Stile commissioned a spider on the Punto chassis while it was still in design and known as Tipo B.

In its preliminary design stage there were two concepts being considered: one code-named Marinara which was similar to the old 850, the other code named Diavola was basically an open version of the Fiat Coupe. Some may recognise these codenames as belonging to pizzas – another Italian speciality! An exaggerated concept appeared at Turin in 1993 but by then the Barchetta’s design had been finalised.

Fiat entrusted the building of the Barchetta to Maggiaore at Chivasso, making 5000-6000 a year. The design was neatly packaged with the unassuming 1747cc twin-cam, developing 98kW at 6300rpm, sitting forward in a tidy engine bay. This 16-valve all-alloy DOHC four with four valves per cylinder and fuel injection unit used variable valve timing for the first time on a Fiat production car, a hydraulic actuator twisting the inlet cam forward by up to 635mm with the onset of oil pressure. It was redlined at 7000rpm and could happily go all the way there.

Gearing was sufficiently sporty so that real acceleration could be retained at expressway speeds, at 125km/h the rev counter only showed 3800rpm. The only criticism owners seemed to have related to the flat-sounding exhaust note. The chassis was utterly conventional, using the universal MacPherson struts at the front and trailing arms at the back, with coil springs and an anti-roll bar, simple and compact. This layout was derived from the Uno and the only thing special about it was that it gave a truly independent suspension at the rear rather than a torsion beam. The use of big tyres relative to the Barchetta’s weight gave it plenty of grip – probably more than most owners ever needed.

The rack and pinion steering with power assistance seemed to be the only area where testers commented that its remoteness was off-putting. However this seems to be a common reaction to steering in many front-drivers. Owners seemed happy with the gearchange and the placement of pedals was such that much foot juggling was unnecessary. Even the all round disc brakes worked well with anti-lock in case you forgot about them.