Fiat 519.
These old photos were sent in by Lloyd in Australia. They both show a car that once belonged to his grandfather, a car that was known by the name of the "Red Shadow". He believes that the photo was taken in 1930 or thereabouts, near Walwa in NE Victoria Australia. A close look at this vintage tourer's radiator reveals the circular badge for Fiat.
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I sought out some advice on this one, and fellow VSCC-ers suggest that it is a Fiat 519, or possibly the 519C (Colonial) model. The latter had a higher ground clearance, which could explain the above car's ride height - an essential feature bearing in mind the rough roads that it might have had to navigate, back in the 1920s and 1930s.
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Whether the car was imported with this coachwork or not is unclear. Many vehicles that found their way to Australia were fitted with locally-built coachwork, and this fine sporting car could well have been bodied in Oz. It certainly was a sleek-looking machine no doubt about it, I wonder what happened to this Fiat, registration NSW 187-243. Can anyone date the car from this registration number?
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The Fiat 519 was built from 1922 to 1927 and powered by a six-cylinder engine of 4766cc. A short wheelbase version, the 519S, was produced, as were factory saloons, limousines and a cabriolet. Although I've been able to find photos of all the factory-built versions, I cannot find anything that matches the Fiat shown above. If anyone can shed more light on this car, please get in touch. Thanks to Lloyd for giving permission for these great photos to be reproduced here.
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Return to Old Car Photos section, Page No. 10.
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Apart from a super old photo of a Fiat 501 in a vintage workshop, most of the other Fiats featured on the site tend to be post-war classics, rather than pre-war. This page for instance features a number of Fiat 600s, and this page, various 1100b models.
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