Chassis No. 103G115001971

Introduced at the Turin Motor Show in November 1957, the Fiat 1200 TV Trasformabile arrived as the sportier, more glamorous answer to the outgoing 1100 TV, its swept bodywork the work of Fabio Luigi Rapi, head of Fiat's special coachwork department. Beneath the boulevard-styled skin sat a torquier 1,221cc overhead-valve four, good for roughly 55 horsepower and mated to a four-speed manual driving the rear wheels, while inside, occupants were treated to a strip speedometer, a wood-rimmed alloy-spoke wheel, and swiveling front seats designed to ease entry and exit. These details lent the Trasformabile a level of theater few entry-level roadsters of the period could match. Fewer than 2,400 examples were built before Pininfarina's redesigned Cabriolet took over the model line in 1959, making surviving cars a scarce sight today.

This example, chassis number 1036115001971, was dispatched new to the United States, where it surfaced in San Diego, California in the 1990s. There it remained until February 1995, when it was acquired by Detlef Schöne of Beckum, Germany, and shipped across the Atlantic, arriving in Germany by May 1995. Schöne's ownership eventually went to Norbert Büttgen of Buschhausen, who kept the car until June 2009, at which point it passed to Hans-Dieter Kita of Dinslaken. Kita undertook a comprehensive restoration of the Fiat between 2009 and 2012, returning it to the road before parting with the car on September 2013 to its present owner, who has retained it since. Under current ownership the Trasformabile was campaigned on the 2015 Hamburg-Berlin Klassik rally, a fitting outing for a car built to be driven and admired in equal measure.

Well-presented today, this Fiat 1200 TV Trasformabile offers a rare opportunity to acquire one of the more theatrical small-displacement Italian roadsters of the 1950s. Eligible for entry into any of the numerous concours and touring events on the growing European and American colanders, this Trasformabile is sure to be enjoyed wherever it goes.