Before it’s time to get this Easter done with, here’s a very pretty eggshell white 1965 Fiat 1300 saloon. You almost never see Fiats like this driving around except for club meetings; most old Fiats are 600:s or other rear-engined little tiddlers. The 1300 is a good-looking, tall-sided family saloon that has a hint of old Renault styling about it. Or do I see a hint of Corvair in the sideline chrome?

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It’s a good job somebody had put a linoleum sheet or two underneath it, otherwise it would be half-indistinquishable from the snowy ground.

I especially like this corner. I do like the later 124 saloon that replaced the 1300, but these are just that much prettier. The chrome on the car looks flawless, too. Note how under the left taillight there’s the filler cap, on the right side there’s the reversing light.

As a powerplant, the Fiat has the near-titular 1295cc OHV four that cranks out 68 horses at 5200rpm. Sounds like you need to drive it like an old Italian car. The car has discs all round, which is a kind of a big deal in a car from the early ’60s.

I don’t know if it’s a restoration project or a well-preserved original, but there’s very little rust anywhere. Some of the seams are cracking and the fenders at least must’ve been redone at some point as they’re closer to Championship White than Alpinweiss, but as a fixer-upper it must be at least reasonable. Of course, I have no idea how the floorpans are doing. I do dig the neon green insect screen on the front grille.

There’s something inescapably Baltic about the scene here. Apartment blocks in the background, old metal fence, stuff accumulated against a wooden wall. It could be from any country around these parts, Sweden, Estonia as well as Finland. Just replace the Fiat with a Lada and it could be Russian.

 

[Images: Copyright 2012 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]