Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Fiat

When I first saw this car, I assumed it was a Fiat 500, but Fiat, in fact, also built a Fiat 600, which looked very similar, as this one does. The 600 actually predated the second generation of the 500 (which is the one everyone knows) by 2 years. The 500 was actually a scaled-down 600 intended as one of the world's first "city cars" designed to be as small as possible. The Fiat 600, like the 500, always came with an air-cooled I-4 engine, in a rear/rear layout. The engine was longitudinally mounted behind the rear axle, showing the influence of the Volkswagen Beetle in the design process. Displacement of the engine varied, but was always less than a liter, being available, in various years, at 633cc, 767cc, and 843cc displacement. Predictably, it was a very slow car for 1955, with a top speed of only 95Km/h (59 m.p.h.), much slower than every variant of the Volkswagen Beetle, as well as most other economy cars at the time. For that matter, it was slower than a Ford Model A. Its other numbers are similarly bad, except for that its small size does make it ideal of a city. As this photo illustrates, the Fiat 600 does have enough of a fan following to be found in preservation, possibly being due to it's somewhat unusual design (although, as I said, the better-known Fiat 500 is based on it).

After walking through Fantova Kavarna, I got lost in the construction, and ended up on Nastupiste (Platform) 1, where this Pendolino was sitting. Given that I don't get a shot of these every day, I took the picture even though my Ikoflex was empty and so I only had the cameraphone (as was the case with the earlier Hlavni Nadrazi shots in this series).

This was a less blurred and distorted shot of a Pendolino passing us, but I still didn't get the number because the coupler cover was open, and this is normally where the number is.

This was a closeup I did to get the number. I guess it can be left up to the viewer to decide if this one is any good. I think the lightpost blocks the view of the nose too much, but I decided to include this one anyway.

I also spotted the Pendolino, or rather #682003-9, one of several Pendolino tilt trains on Ceske Drahy, sitting in another platform.

This is a crop of the previous shot, illustrating the advantages of film, although I feel like I could have focused it better. I'm a little bit skeptical about the adjustment of the eyepiece of my camera (it adjusts to your glasses prescription, and I don't know how to set it 100% right).

This is a shot I got from the old bridge on the old Linka 011. Obviously, when I saw the chance for a shot of the Pendolino I didn't turn it down.

I took this at the start of a trip I took with my aforementioned friend to Hradec Kralove. We had decided on it more or less on a whim, almost cancelling the trip because of massive flooding the previous day, which was still being cleaned up. Ultimately, although Moravia was badly damaged, Bohemia escaped well enough so that trains were running on the 26th of June, when we left. This wasn't our train, though, as Pendolinos to the East run via Pardubice, rather than Hradec, and in any case this one was for Vienna (Wien). This was the first time I had seen one in Hlavni Nadrazi, so me and my friend took several minutes to get photos and video of it. Luckily, I also had my real camera again, since I decided the occasion was worth adding to the backlog of film.

I spotted this old Fiat Panda customised with spray paint on Ujezd. I see odd cars a lot in Prague, but I don't usually post the photos. This one is an exception....

It took this shot for the same reason as the last one. I saw the opportunity, and I took it. I also don't photograph the Pendolino everyday, so that was another reason.

This is a sectioned, but real, Fiat 126P, on display in the science and technology museum in the Palace of Culture and Science. As you might have guessed, "P," stands for "Poland," as Fiat had an agreement with Lada of the Soviet Union to produce cars in the East, in exchange for access to Soviet steel. Lada in turn got the rights to produce the Fiat 124, which became the classic Lada 1500 sedan that you can see elsewhere in my photos.