San Francisco Street Sighting - 1962 Fiat Ghia 1500 GT

This post marks my 600th street sighting feature. I thought that I might as well pick something truly rare and unusual, so here we have a 1962 Fiat 1500 GT by Ghia.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1971 Fiat 500L

This is the third classic Fiat 500 we've looked at here, and the third to have been photographed on the streets of San Francisco. This one is fairly interesting, since it participates in the annual California Melee road rally and other events.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1972 Fiat 850 Sport Spider

The Fiat 850 is a rather interesting car. A lot of older Italian family cars feature expanded lineups with several unique products on the same chassis, and the 850 is a great example of this. It was offered as a two-door Berlina sedan, two-door Familiare wagon, Furgonata small van, coupe and Spider roadster. Two versions of certain models were available, the mainstream Normale and higher-performance Super. Coupe and Spider models received a special engine tuned for even greater power (47 horsepower instead of the Normale's 34 and Super's 37). All models came with a four-speed stick, rear engine and rear-wheel drive. American 850s got a smaller-displacement, 49.8 cubic inch engine to evade federal emissions regulations applying to engines of 50 ci and larger -- pretty sneaky.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1969 Fiat 124 Sport Coupe

I'm hesitant to photograph Fiats most of the time because all I ever come across are the Fiat 124 Sport Spiders. They're cute little cars and all, but they're common enough that I really just don't care (The same is generally true with the Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce). Then once in a while something different pops up and here we go. This is still a Fiat 124, but it's the unusual 124 Sport Coupe.

Berkeley Street Sighting - 1957 Fiat 600 Multipla

Can we all agree that specialized repair shops are awesome? One hidden gem in the odd, anti-car People's Republic of Berkeley is an unassuming little corrugated aluminum building with no sign, located next to a creepy-looking old house with the word "eternal" painted on it. This is Conrad Stevenson Restorations, a treasure trove for lovers of vintage Alfa Romeos, Fiats and the occasional classic Ferrari or Lancia. This is a man who builds race cars and races them, too, whether it's for the 24 Hours of LeMons or the Monterey Historics. But he has an eye for the unusual as well. Naturally, he has a Fiat 600 Multipla. Scratch that, he has at least two.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1972 Fiat 500L

One of the very first cars I started photographing in depth when I began attending university was this 1972 Fiat 500L. It helped that the car was often parked one block from the building where most of my classes were held, and the fact it's the color of macaroni and cheese also helped the diminutive Fiat stand out. Where would one find the quintessential Italian city car? Why, in front of an Italian restaurant, of course! This car was featured by Murilee Martin on Jalopnik's Down on the Street series a few years ago and was described as belonging to the owner of the Umbria restaurant on the corner of Second and Howard Streets in San Francisco. He purchased the car for $500 in Italy and had it shipped over and registered with the custom license plate "FOLIGNO". Foligno is a city in Italy, which fittingly is located in the Umbria region.

San Francisco Street Sighting - Fiat Giannini 500 TV

I noticed I've featured a long streak of American cars with very few imported vehicles sprinkled here and there. So here's something utterly, undeniably Italian: the venerable Fiat 500. Fiat's "Cinquecento" (500) city car is one of the more recognizable designs to come from the country shaped like a boot, up there with the prides and joy of Maranello and Sant'Agata. Produced from 1957 until 1975, the 500 was perfect for the narrow alleys and congested streets of Rome and Turin. Outside of Italy, in cities all over the world where parking space was at a premium, one could probably find a Fiat 500.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1970 Fiat 125 Special

In the US, a lot of people seem to forget that they used to be able to buy Fiats outside of a Chrysler dealership. Those who did buy them, either seem to still have them, or got rid of theirs after they got tired of fixing it. There's a reason why Italian cars have a crummy reputation in the States and why none of the mainstream Italian brands have been sold here for about 15 years. In an amusingly ironic twist, Fiat now calls the shots at Chrysler.

I'd guess that the average American could look at this Fiat 125 Special and mistake it for a Russian Lada. That's understandable, I suppose, since if you watch movies taking place anywhere in the former Soviet Union, you're bound to see a Lada or five. Or ten. The Lada (VAZ 2101) is a licensed version of the older Fiat 124.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1965 Fiat 600D

It's funny how certain vehicles are unique enough that you can search for them on Flickr. Go ahead, type 'san francisco fiat' in the Flickr search box. This car is a veritable rock star compared to most vehicles in The City. It shows up at least 13 times on Flickr from a variety of photographers. In several of them, it's misidentified as the more well-known Fiat 500. It's actually a Fiat 600, and as best I can tell, it's a 1965 600D.