The Fiat 127 is a small displacement passenger car that was awarded the title of 1972 European Car of the Year. It is considered to the be the precursor of today’s compact cars and was manufactured in many countries between 1971-1995. In 1973-1978 in Poland it was known as the Polski Fiat 127p.
The car has a two-compartment, two-door fastback body, with a monocoque, steel structure. It was intended to carry four or five passengers. An inline, four-cylinder, naturally aspirated petrol engine drives the front wheels of the vehicle through a four-gear transmission. All wheels are independently suspended: McPherson struts and transverse links are used at the front, with transverse links and a single transverse spring and telescopic shock absorbers at the rear. The vehicle has hydraulic servo brakes: disk brakes at the front, and drums at the rear. The system is a two-circuit arrangement equipped with a braking adjuster. A rack-and-pinion gear is used in the steering system.
The innovative form of the body was designed by Pio Manzù (Pio Manzoni’s nickname). Production of the Polski Fiat 127p was episodic – only around 6,200 cars were built. It was, however, important as a propaganda tool and it allowed precious foreign currency to be obtained for the economy. The vehicle was offered solely on the domestic market within the framework of “internal export”. Interestingly, the assembly of the cars had little to do with manufacturing – often, the finished vehicles arrived from Italy and only the labels and some pieces of equipment were replaced in Poland.