1969 Iso Fidia
The Iso Fidia (or Iso Rivolta Fidia), initially Iso Rivolta S4, is a four-door sedan which was produced by the Italian automobile maker Iso Automoveicoli S.p.A. from 1967 to 1975. The Fidia, first presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1967, was the only four-door model from Iso. Production only got underway some time after the initial presentation of the car, and its European press launch which took place in Athens, came more than a year later, in February 1969. At the time of the press launch 15 cars had already been built, but it was only in February 1969 that the car swapped its “S4” name for the more euphonious “Fidia”. The car was marketed as a unique combination of comfort and sporting performance, and the slogan that appeared in sales material was “Le quattro poltrone piu veloci del mondo“ (“the four fastest seats in the world”).
This 1969 Iso Fidia finished gold / brown metallic combined with a cognac leather interior and light brown carpet. The Iso Fidia is very rare, only 192 examples were built from 1967 until 1974. The Iso Fidia designed by Giugiaro at Ghia and the Fidia was one of the fastest four-door saloon cars of the period.
The Fidia, like other Iso cars, was originally powered by a Chevrolet V8 engine, and was quite quick off the line (0-60 mph in around 7 seconds). By 1973, after General Motors demanded payment in advance of shipment, the engine supplier had been switched and cars were delivered with a Ford 5.8 litre V8, matched with a ZF five speed manual gear box or with Ford’s own ‘Cruise-O-Matic’ automatic gearbox. In the rarefied market segment that it occupied, the car tended to find itself overshadowed by the Maserati Quattroporte, itself never a mass seller. Until Maserati in effect retreated from the market in response the economic shock that saw massive oil price increases, the Fidia was comfortably outsold by its Modenese competitor.
The Fidia received a new interior, which essentially brought it into line with the Iso Lele. The wooden dashboard was replaced by a leather one, which commentators found more elegant but also less practical. The instruments now appeared more randomly scattered than on the earlier cars. In effectively ‘as new’ condition, repainted in its original Grigio Zandvoort livery with tan leather interior. A single windscreen wiper (as fitted to later models) and ZF power assisted steering are the only notified deviations from factory specification.
The car is fitted with wonderful original alloy wheels, Pirelli P4000 tyres and a top class 1970s Becker Mexico stereo cassette radio. This is an excellent example of the very rare Iso Rivolta Fidia.
The closet meaning of the word Fidia we could find is “trust” and this is where you can certainly trust the Chevy small block under the hood, but you aren’t going to have the same feeling for the questionable 50+ year old Italian switchgear inside the Fidia.
