Progress report: Fiat Barchetta vs Fiat 124 Spider

Want a fascinating stat? Fiat sold 751 Barchettas during the roadster’s ten years in the UK. In the 124 Spider’s first year on sale, Fiat has shifted 1,194.

There are no doubt numerous reasons for this – the Barchetta was a left-hand-drive curio, after all – but the Mazda MX-5’s role feels central.

Images: Drew Gibson

Leaf through car magazines from the mid Nineties and while the Barchetta won praise for its pretty styling, it was always beaten by the more fun Mazda (not to mention the MGF). ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’, some say, and two decades later Fiat’s roadster is an MX-5, at least under the skin.

Get the two together, though, and you’ll conclude the Barchetta had a tougher time than it deserved. It looks brilliant, especially in the orangey launch colour of this 1996 example lent to us by Aldo Diana. It’s so much more petite than the 124, whose long overhangs appear clunkier than ever. On looks alone, the Barchetta walks it.

You’d expect the 124 to bring the scores level when it comes to driving. It uses a boosty 1.4 turbo engine with 138bhp, while the Barchetta uses a naturally aspirated 1.7 with 130bhp.

More crucially, the older car drives its front wheels on a platform apparently related to the mk1 Fiat Punto. I have fond memories of driving such a Punto aged 17, but I’ll concede it operated in a different universe to a rear-driven MX-5.

Yet the gap between their driving experiences is surprisingly small. It helps we’ve got a stunningly warm day, so just about any convertible car would offer a feel-good experience.

But while the Barchetta is particularly entertaining for FWD, the 124 is particularly plain for RWD. It’s designed to be more comfortable than the MX-5, and so isn’t an immediate entertainer. It gets a bit scrappy when you do want to drive it harder.

Front-drive cars simply encourage greater confidence and commitment, too, as they’re unlikely to bite as hard if you carry too much speed into a corner. The Barchetta really does egg you on, and while it may have the steering wheel on the wrong side, it’s so titchy that visibility and road placement are never issues.

Its performance is modest enough that you can feel like you’re driving flat out quite a lot of the time, and the engine loves to rev. It makes a brilliantly raspy noise as it does so, while the Barchetta’s supremely sharp throttle response embarrasses the turbocharged 124’s.

There’s a flash of colour and character in its interior that the 124 is sorely missing, too. With FWD, the Barchetta requires no transmission tunnel, so it’s much roomier than its younger relation. And full of stereotypical Italian foibles.

The manual roof is tremendously fiddly to operate, the fuel gauge has ’50 litres’ written at its maximum when the tank barely takes 30 and the Veglia Borletti speedo and rev counter are minor works of art, but very hard to decipher when you actually need them.

Borrowing Mazda’s know-how means the 124 suffers no such ergonomic quirks. The roof is a doddle to use, the dials easily read and the media and nav system shows us how far technology has come in 20 years. But while everything may operate slickly, it does so via an interior that’s sombre in comparison.

Indeed, Fiat’s decision to call a truce with Mazda has made the 124 a far more complete car, but a less charming one. The Barchetta may not have beaten the MX-5 when new, but I wonder how a comparison between used examples would turn out. I knew the older, rarer car of our pair would be pretty, but this test has revealed talent beyond its looks.

1995 Fiat Barchetta

Engine: 1747cc 4cyl, 130bhp, 117lb ft
Transmission: five-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Performance: 0-62mph in 8.7secs, 118mph top speed
Economy: 33.6mpg, 198g/km CO2
Weight: 1056kg
Price: £4,000-8,000 (used)

2017 Fiat 124 Spider

Engine: 1368cc 4cyl turbo, 138bhp, 177lb ft
Transmission: six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Performance: 0-62mph in 7.5secs, 134mph top speed
Ecomomy: 44.1mpg, 148g/km CO2
Weight: 1050kg
Price: £23,295 (new)