Fiat 131 Mirafiori (1974-1984): Do you remember?

It was probably the first Fiat I ever consciously recognised: From the window of my childhood bedroom, I saw a neighbour drive his 131 Mirafiori out of the garage almost every day. Others know the model more as a rally champion, from holidays in Turkey or from the cinema. Now the "miracle flower", translated to English, is 40 years old.

In 1974, the Fiat 131 Mirafiori inherited the legendary 124, initially as a saloon with two or four doors. The "Familiare" estate version followed in 1975. The 131 owed its additional name to its production site: Mirafiori near Turin, the location of the largest Fiat factory at the time. In the USA, Fiat christened the car "Brava", a name that returned in the 1990s.

Gallery: Fiat 131 (1974-1984)

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The angular exterior was designed to be as functional as possible, placing the 131 in the tradition of its predecessor. And that was not all: the drivetrain was essentially taken over from the 124. The four-cylinder engine installed at the front drove the rear axle via a four-speed gearbox and a split cardan shaft. It was rigidly guided via four trailing arms and a Panhard rod.

The front suspension with MacPherson struts, wishbones and stabiliser bar was new. There was also a brake system with discs at the front and drum brakes at the rear as well as rack-and-pinion steering. An engine with an overhead camshaft (OHV) and timing belt drive was developed from the engine block of the Fiat 132. So solid ingredients, but unfortunately rust decimated the 131 mercilessly. This was the fate of many cars of the time made of cheap recycled steel and lacking rust prevention.

The 131 came onto the market in October 1974. This first series was characterised by smaller rectangular (in the basic version) or round twin headlights, T-shaped tail lights rotated by 90 degrees and chrome-plated bumpers with plastic corners. The 131 was the first vehicle to use a central light source in conjunction with fibre-optic light guides to illuminate certain elements of the dashboard (switches for auxiliary functions, heating controls).

This was followed in March 1975 by the estate version called Familiare. From January 1976 to July 1980, a small series of 400 vehicles called the "131 Abarth Rally" (also known as the "Abarth Stradale"), whose bodywork was modified by Bertone and whose technology was modified by Abarth, was built on the basis of the two-door saloon for homologation reasons.

The vehicles were fitted with a 16V engine with a capacity of 1995 cc, which produced 140 PS in the road version and up to 210 PS (carburettor engine) or 235 PS (engine with Kugelfischer injection) in the rally works version, as well as a rear axle with independent suspension.

Fiat won the one-make world championship with the 131 Abarth Rally in 1977, 1978 and 1980. In the 1980 season, Walter Röhrl became world rally champion for the first time with the Fiat 131 Abarth Rally. The Alitalia paintwork in the Italian national colours became legendary; this version was often available as a toy car.

The Fiat 131 Abarth Rally was built in collaboration with Bertone in a run of 400 units. Two-door bodyshells rolled off the production line in Mirafiori, which were completed at Bertone with plastic parts for the front and rear wings, boot lid and bonnet.

Bertone also fitted support struts and stiffeners for the rear independent suspension for this sports version. The vehicles were then painted, fitted with an interior and transported to the Fiat Rivalta plant, where they were completed with drive and chassis technology.

A further developed version of the 16V Lampredi engine from the Fiat 124 Spider Abarth served as the drive unit. The gearbox came from the standard 131, but the synchroniser rings were removed, as the rally regulations only permitted an unsynchronised gearbox, as preferred in motorsport, if all 400 homologation cars built also had an unsynchronised gearbox.

In addition, the undersized brake system of the Fiat 127 was installed on the front axle. This severely restricted the everyday usability of the homologation models, but this was irrelevant for competition use, as the components mentioned were replaced by motorsport parts anyway.

The rear axle was a further developed version of the 124 Abarth Spider with wishbones, trailing arms and suspension struts; the differential was derived from the Fiat 130 but had an aluminium housing.

In March 1978, the 131 underwent its first facelift. From then on, the 131 received large, rectangular headlights (with the exception of the Racing models and the later diesel versions, which had round twin headlights), a black plastic radiator grille, reinforced plastic bumpers and larger, rectangular tail lights. The estate was now called the Panorama.

The two-door "Racing" (in Germany, Austria and Great Britain "Sport") followed in June 1978. The most important innovation was the conversion of the 1.3 and 1.6-litre petrol engines of the Supermirafiori models to two overhead camshafts. They were driven by a timing belt. In the course of the model's history, all other petrol engines installed in the Fiat 131 were gradually converted to overhead camshafts, and in 1981 the engine with side camshaft was only available in the weakest version of the estate called Panorama.

The third and final series appeared in April 1981, recognisable by even more plastic on the body and a new dashboard. From this point onwards, all Fiat 131 models had a five-speed gearbox (5speed) as standard and, in the "Supermirafiori" version, an above-average level of standard equipment for the time, including electric front windows and electric central locking. The 131 Sport was withdrawn from the programme in January 1982.

Around 200 two-door "Sport" bodies were taken to the Abarth plant in Corse Marche after the end of production, where a small "131 Racing Volumetrico Abarth" series was produced, together with a small "131 Supermirafiori Volumetrico Abarth" series based on the third series of the Supermirafiori, which had just been launched.

These vehicles were equipped with a supercharger and produced 140 PS. The Volumetrico variants were only available in Italy until 1981. In total, just over 200 of the two- and four-door versions were built.

In September 1983, the Regata notchback saloon with front-wheel drive and transverse engine based on the Fiat Ritmo appeared, which completely replaced the 131 after its production ended in December 1984. Three months earlier, the Regata Weekend had already been launched on the market.

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Licensed versions of the 131 were built by Seat (Spain) and Tofas (Turkey) in more or less modified form. The Seat 131 Mirafiori was succeeded from the beginning of 1985 by the Seat Malaga, which was an independent development from Fiat but was modelled on the Regata.

From 1976 to 2001, the Tofas was offered in Turkey under the model name Murat 131, later in the simple version as Sahin, in the upscale version as Dogan and in the estate version as Kartal. The Mirafiori even made it to the GDR, but only in very small numbers. And in the cinema: in the 1981 film "The Professional", Jean-Paul Belmondo took part in a wild car chase aboard a 131.