The Fiat Coupé turns 30 years old and remains one of the most interesting cars of the 90s

The fastest Fiat ever was the protagonist of the nineties. Presented at the end of 1993 and actually arriving in dealerships in February 1994, the Fiat Coupé remains one of the most interesting cars of its era and also deserves a special place in the history of the Turin brand.

Fiat out of the box

Its most unusual line is due to the American Chris Bangle who would later become famous as the head of BMW design. On a technical level, however, it was born on the same basis as the Tipo and production was handled by Pininfarina.

Under the bonnet you can have a 2.0 4-cylinder 16-valve in an expected 140 HP version and a 190 HP turbo version, the latter version being a very close relative of the Lancia Delta Integrale.

With about 14 quintals of mass car and front wheel, accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h took 9.2 and 7.5 seconds respectively, while the top speed was 208 and 230 km/h.

How the T20 Coupe is made

Two years later new engines arrived, including a 220 HP 5-cylinder in-line engine that made the T20 Coupé jump to 250 km/h, while going from 0 to 100 km/h took just 6.3 seconds. With these numbers it was the fastest Fiat ever.

Even compared to its competitors of the time, the T20 Coupé was proud of its chest. In comparison, it was faster and faster than the first Porsche Boxster 2.5 and 225 HP Audi TT quattro, even if on the track it was slower than both, both due to the front wheel drive and the uneven distribution of weight of more than 65% in front. The engine, however, was a real bomb. It also had a Venturi effect intake pipe that started from the filter box and at high speed created a high force effect. But the beauty of this 5 cylinder was also its smooth operation, similar to that of the 6 cylinder.