Eccentric Fiat 850 Spiaggetta car with wicker interior to be auctioned
Originally owned by the Augusta family – of helicopter manufacturing fame – a truly eccentric Fiat is to be auctioned in Monaco on the 14th May with an estimate of £47,000 to £63,000 ($69,000 to $92,000 or €60,000 to €80,000).
The pure white 1970 Fiat 850 Spiaggetta by Michelotti offered is one of just eighty made and it comes complete with a wicker interior with durable red cloth cushions and matching red carpeting. Its internal doors are described as being as “reminiscent of a rowboat” and are timbered and the vehicle, amazingly, is said to be capable of driving “comfortably at 60mph” despite its flimsy appearance.
Fitted with “luxury features” of a stereo and heater, other examples of the car were owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the Dutch royal family. They were typically used as tenders for yachts and on seaside estates and auctioneers RM Sotheby’s describe the example they offer as: “The perfect automobile for the man or woman who really does have everything”.
Update: 15th May 2016: Sold close to lower estimate for £48,600 ($69,700 or €61,600).
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A heap of junk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Send it to the scrap yard!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The price is mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If someone could please scrap Rod, we’d all be eternally grateful! (Note: One exclamation mark, you moron)
This would have suited Marisa Masters. I could have seen her driving it down the Kings Road wreaking havoc. May she RIP.
The price seems crazy but the fact that it inspired a Ferrari speaks volumes as to the quality of this little whackjob.
Were I to live in St Tropez I would adore to drive this car
One would be the envy of all and turning down profits on a daily basis
Rod – there is an unreal world out there
Well you would have to be a BASKET case to pay that sort of dosh for it, although I could see myself WEAVING in and out of the scooters down St Tropez way, sorry.
Rod, you are starting to even annoy me now, please no more.
Did this car belong to Alan Whicker, TV groveller to the rich and famous, or is it in fact made of wicker ?
It would have most definitely have suited Alan Whicker but no, it sadly did not belong to him. He was a fantastic man and anything but a groveller.
Fun, fun and more fun. Worth every penny.
Charming little runabout. Almost looks like it was styled after a boat, with a bit more design effort they could have made it an amphibious vehicle, now that really would have made it worth the money!
Yet again the Aussie idiot annoys more and more STEEPLE TIMES readers. It is not so much his childish use of exclamation marks. It is the unremitting banality of his stupid, unfunny comments. To think this idiot comes from the same land as Clive James and Barry Humphreys. Strewth!
Yet again scourge on society Glenmore Trenear annoys. What is wrong with you Glenda? Someone thrown you off a cruise darling? Still pretending to be an expert on absolutely everything about absolutely bloody absolutely everything? I remember meeting you on the high seas and I remember your less than petit stature getting in the way of others at the captain’s table. You fat meringue, you lump of lard. Strewth! Go play with the icebergs!
I can do 10% final offer