Fiat’s Coupe de Grace

If your build is more simian than hominid, you’ll enjoy the angled wheel and long arms/short legs driving position

by Rob Sass

One of the most engaging things about being an automotive bottom-feeder is figuring out where to target one’s attention when the object of first choice has appreciated beyond one’s immediate grasp.

Previously in this column, I have suggested that those with around $25,000 to spend who are looking in vain for a Big Healey should instead look for a Triumph TR250. Frustrated 289 Cobra buyers would do better to find a nice Sunbeam Tiger Mk II than a Tupperware fakey-doo Cobra.

What to do, then, if you want a great Italian sport coupe but you missed the boat on an Alfa GTV during their recent doubling in price? Rather than settling for the GTV’s successor, the homely and hopeless Alfetta Sprint, I suggest Fiat’s handsome 124 Sport Coupe.

HALF THE PRICE, MOST OF THE FUN

The similarities are certainly there. Both are airy, enclosed coupes with alloy DOHC 4-cylinder motors, four-wheel disc brakes and five-speed gearboxes (first year...