Fiat video tape

[doug schellinger <dsac@domain.elided>]

Subject: Video Tape
Daniel Roach wrote:
Anyone out there seen the tape advertised in the FLU magazine for a
compilation of Fiat commercials?   It's $24.95, is it worth it?
>

I thought I would answer as I supply the tape.  Fiat utilized an early Beta
machine in a showroom console and provided both customer sales presentations
and training tapes for technicians. I've condensed all the tapes on to one.
Quality is "good", but certainly not state of the art. The original tapes
are 17 years old. The price includes the shipping. 

It consists of the following -
1981 TV commercials on Spider, Brava, X1/9 and Strada.  Each commercial is
30 seconds followed by a several minute presentation of each car. The X1/9
is shown driving around the Laguna Seca race track.  

Next is a several minute presentation on the 1981 Turbo Spider for customers
to watch, followed by a salesman's film about the cars special features.

After this is a film on Fiat safety research where they crash test various
Fiats, mostly 130 or 132 sedans with smaller Fiats ; and there is a nice
sequence of a 128 barrel rolling several times. No Spiders and X's are crash
tested. 

There is a long segment on 1980ish pre-delivery inspection where they go
around and check and tighten all the things the dealer never did. Each model
is shown in detail. It's b-o-r-i-n-g. You can take a nap through this, but
it took a special early Beta player to dub to VHS, and I only had posession
of the player one time; so what the heck, I taped it. 

One of the better segments is the Strada at Bondurant Driving School at
Sears Point.  Fiat did a ride and drive where they compared the Strada to
it's competition on the track, driven by Western region salesmen. They have
nice in car footage of Bondurant flogging the Strada in the wet. This
segment has some deterioration of the video in the last minute of it. 

Lastly, I've included two 67 Fiat Dino commercials. One is of the Coupe, one
of the Spider. I'm told they were shown on Italian television.  

And if you ask me, I'll throw on the mid 1970's Remi Julienne Fiat stunts.
These were the ones where he drove a 124 sedan in a chase, jumping the car
from one rooftop to another; rolling an X1/9 down a hill and driving away,
driving a 131 over a waterfall, and jumping a 124 Spider through a moving
railroad boxcar.