Polska droga Fiata

Forced Secrecy For Fiat, the 50’s and early 60’s marked a period of tremendous organizational and technological effort focused on automotive industry to become a world leader in this most vital area for the Corporation. It was then that the first Italian car – the 1400 with a D engine – entered the market, followed by a 4x4 Campagnola designed chiefly for the military. The small-engine 600 and its Multipla version received an enthusiastic welcome selling 4 million units. They were soon joined by the Fiat 1300/1500, which was to play a decisive role in the Polish motor market. In 1965, total car production exceeded one million units, including 350,000 sold to export customers. To its know-how sales Fiat added major investment projects abroad: in Spain, Yugoslavia, Turkey, and Argentina, pouring funds into the utility vehicle sector which was rapidly turning out more and more new models. Economic boom had spread to other branches of the economy, such as aviation industry, agricultural tractors and equipment, earth-moving equipment, rolling stock, engines and turbines for the shipping industry. Fiatimpresit worked on complete industrial projects and built power plants, freeways, and bridges; it designed and erected an experimental nuclear energy research center located close to Turin. Indeed, an impressive versatility. And with such a partner Poland decided to sign a technical cooperation and license agreement. The paper, dated December 22, 1965, was signed by Mirafiori CEO Armando Fiorelli and Director Riccardo Chivino. The latter was to run the project with an 30 z Fiatem ju˝ w 1962 r. W zakładach Cˇrvena Zastava w Kragujevacu udało si´ uruchomiç produkcj´ samo- chodu małolitra˝owego 600. W nast´pnej kolejnoÊci umow´ licencyjnà rozszerzo- no na wi´kszy model 1300, wzbogacony nast´pnie we Włoszech o silnik 1500 cm 3 . Model, do którego pro- dukcji przymierzano si´ na ˚eraniu, był bardzo zbli˝o- ny do tego ostatniego, produkowanego w Jugosławii. Pozwalało to ka˝demu z krajów specjalizowaç si´ w produkcji poszczególnych zespołów wymienianych nast´pnie mi´dzy sobà. Ten jugosłowiaƒski atut został przyj´ty przez polskich decydentów, co korzystnie wpłyn´ło na zakup licencji.