Tom Hanks’ 1975 Fiat 128 Is For Sale

The Fiat 128 is perhaps most famous for the fact that Enzo Ferrari used one as his daily driver for many years. The car you see here is famous for a whole other reason, it belongs to Tom Hanks who used it in the 2017 film The Post.

Hanks is a well-known car guy who has owned an eclectic assortment of vehicles over the years, we recently featured his Airstream Model 34 and his custom FJ40 Land Cruiser.

Fast Facts – Tom Hanks’ Fiat 128

• The Fiat 128 was a revolutionary car for its time, it was fitted with an engine created by former Ferrari engine designer Aurelio Lampredi with the rest of the car designed by the great Dante Giacosa.
• The lightweight Fiat 128 was designed to be an affordable blue collar car and it succeeded at its task, with over 3,000,000 made in total between 1969 and 2003 when production finally ceased in Yugoslavia.
• Not dissimilar to the British Mini, the Fiat 128 has a transversely-mounted four-cylinder engine driving the front wheels – the layout used on almost all compact cars today.
• The 128 you see here was used in the 2017 film “The Post” starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. Hanks came to own the car after filming wrapped, and he’s now offering it for sale.

A Revolutionary New Layout

When the British Motor Corporation unveiled the Mini in 1959 it sent shockwaves throughout the motoring world. The car was tiny, as the name implied, but the reason for the incredulity of the automotive establishment was the engine. Or rather, how the engine was fitted.

The small, lightweight little Fiat 128 has had many celebrity owners over the years – including both Enzo Ferrari and Tom Hanks.

Led by Alec Issigonis, the engineering team at BMC had fitted the engine transversely, or sideways, into the front of the Mini and designed it to share a sump with the gearbox which drove the front wheels by way of a cleverly designed differential.

This meant that you no longer needed a driveshaft running under the floor of the car or a bulky rear axle. It resulted in more interior space, a simpler drivetrain, and as an unexpected bonus, the car became wildly successful in the world of rally.

The Fiat 128

By the 1960s many automakers had built their own front engine, front wheel drive cars. By the late 1960s Italian automotive giant Fiat had the car you see here in development, the 128.

In many respects the Fiat 128 improved on the original Mini design. The radiator was at the front rather than the side for example, giving it plenty of cooling airflow. The gearbox and engine had separate oil sumps, and the engine/gearbox/clutch was all much easier to work on.

The single overhead cam inline four cylinder engine was designed by the great Aurelio Lampredi, the designer of Ferrari’s first V12 and many of the company’s early Formula 1 engines.

The single overhead cam four-cylinder engine was also more advanced, thanks in no small part to the fact that it was designed by former Ferrari engine designer Aurelio Lampredi – the man who created the first Ferrari V12 and many of the company’s early Formula 1 racing engines.

The 128 uses a lightweight stamped steel unibody design with a largely flat floor inside and a surprisingly roomy interior. Over the course of the 1969 to 2003 production run the Fiat 128 was being built or assembled in 11 countries including Italy, Argentina, Egypt, Spain, Serbia, Yugoslavia, Morocco, Colombia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Poland.

A number of versions would be offered including the simple two-door, the larger four-door, the five-door estate, and even a two-door pickup. Engines included both the 1,116cc and 1,290cc versions of the same inline-four.

Over 3 million examples of the Fiat 128 would be built and they can still be seen on the streets of many of the countries where they were being assembled decades ago.

The interior of the car features a flat floor, seating for five, a simple dashboard showing you all the essentials, a 4-speed shifter and the requisite three pedals.

The 1975 Fiat 128 Shown Here

As mentioned up top, this Fiat 128 is a celebrity in its own right thanks to its inclusion in the 2017 film The Post, starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.

The car was repainted in light green for the film and it’s since been repainted a darker shade of the same color. A few modifications have been made to the car including a new grille and some (now reversed) mods under the hood for an engine swap that never eventuated.

The car is now being offered in a live auction on Bring A Trailer out of Santa Monica, California. The full sale amount, including the BaT buyer’s fee, will be donated to Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization and home to KPCC, LAist.com, and LAist Studios.

If you’d like to read more about the car or register to bid you can visit the listing here.

Images courtesy of Bring A Trailer

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The LEGO® Back to the Future Time Machine DeLorean

This is the LEGO® Back to the Future Time Machine, it’s a kit of the DeLorean DMC-12 from Back To The Future and it can be built in three different ways – to become each of the main variants of the car that were used in each of the films in the trilogy.

Whereas we typically associate Lego with kids, this model is part of a new line from the Danish company specifically designed for adults. It’s made up of 1,872 pieces and once completed it measures in at 4.5 inches (12 cm) high, 14 inches (35 cm) long and 7.5 inches (19 cm) wide.

The kit has three build options, allowing you to build it to match the DeLorean versions used in the three films. It’s made up of 1,872 pieces in total.

When building the DMC-12 you can choose version #1 which includes a lightning rod and plutonium chamber, or version #2 which features Mr. Fusion and hover conversion, or version #3 which has whitewall tires and a circuit board on the hood as seen in the third film.

The car also has opening gull doors, the tires can fold down for flight mode, and it comes with a light-up flux capacitor, a printed dashboard with the correct dates dates and an opening hood.

The kit also comes with Doc and Marty McFly Lego figurines, as well as some additional Back To The Future props including a hoverboard, a plutonium case, a light-up flux capacitor, and an “OUTATIME” license plate.

Lego have included Doc and Marty McFly minifigures in the kit, as well as additional details like McFly’s hoverboard, a plutonium case, a can and a banana (for the Mr Fusion reactor), and the famous “OUTATIME” license plate.

The kit has proven so popular that Lego is currently sold out, though apparently more are being produced at the time of writing to meet demand. There are still some new kits available on Amazon so we’ve linked to them below, alternatively you can visit the Lego store listing here.

Visit The Store

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The GAZ-69: This Was The Soviet Union’s Answer To The Jeep

The GAZ-69 was developed in the late 1940s as the Soviet Union’s homegrown military 4×4, essentially their answer to the American Jeep that had proven itself to be invaluable over the course of WWII.

The Soviet Union received over 40,000 Jeeps during the war as part of the Lend Lease agreement. The GAZ-69 was developed as a replacement for the GAZ-67 4×4, it was to be a longterm military 4×4 for the Soviets and the states of the Eastern Bloc.

Fast Facts – The GAZ-69

• Due to Soviet Union’s wildly varied and often treacherous terrain, there had been many attempts at producing tough four-wheel drive vehicles. One of the first was the GAZ-61 which would be followed by the GAZ-64, the GAZ-67, and the GAZ-69 with vehicle development improving with each generation.
• GAZ (ГАЗ) stands for Gorkovsky Avtomobilnyi Zavod or “Gorky Automobile Factory.” The company was one of the largest truck and automobile producers in the Soviet Union.
• The GAZ-69 entered development in 1946, just a year after the end of WWII, but it wouldn’t enter production until 1953 due to other GAZ vehicles taking priority in the production process.
• The GAZ-69 shown here is said to have been originally used as a military radio vehicle, it was refurbished in Michigan in 2010 and it’s now being offered for sale out of Chesterland, Ohio.

The Ancestry Of The GAZ-69

The GAZ-69 would have a crucial role to fill in the armed forces of the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc states, and their allied countries. The Americans had their Jeeps, the Brits had their Land Rovers, and the Soviets had their GAZ-69s.

This is the GAZ-64, it was developed rapidly using many preexisting parts to be a local version of the American Jeep. Image courtesy of the Nevington War Museum.

Four-wheel drive military vehicles had been in development in Russia since at least the 1930s, albeit in very limited numbers. The GAZ-61 of 1938 was one of the key early examples, it was designed by V. A. Gratchev as essentially a GAZ-M1 automobile body on a four-wheel drive chassis. Fewer than 240 examples were manufactured.

The GAZ-61 was succeeded by the GAZ-64, based on the American Willys Jeep but made using many pre-existing locally produced components. The development process was said to have been just a few weeks, all led by Vitaliy Grachev.

In 1943, right in the midst of WWII, the GAZ-67 appeared. This was a larger, more powerful, and strengthened military four-wheel drive with a strong visual link to its immediate predecessor. Almost 100,000 of them were built between 1943 and 1953, when it was replaced by the considerably improved GAZ-69.

The 1964 GAZ-69 Arrives (Finally)

Lessons learned in the development and operation of the earlier Soviet four-wheel drives were all rolled into the GAZ-69. Whereas the earlier vehicles had been developed very quickly, sometimes in a matter of just weeks or months, the 69 was developed carefully and slowly over a period of years starting in 1946.

Above Video: This episode from Just Tim shows the GAZ-69 being driven, and discusses the unusual history of the model.

Prototypes of the GAZ-69 were sent to all corners of the Soviet Union through each of the four seasons. Some vehicles covered over 100,000 kilometers (62,000 miles) of testing. Once development was complete the team, headed by Grigoriy Vasserman, submitted it for production.

The 69 was given a more automobile-like front end than the 67, it used the same 55 hp 2.1 liter (130 cubic inch) inline four cylinder engine, three-speed transmission, and dual-range transfer case as its predecessor. As was standard in those days the 69 has body-on-chassis construction, with live axles on leaf springs front and back.

The time between development ending and production beginning would stretch into years, the factory was busy producing the M-20 passenger car and the GAZ-51 and GAZ-53 trucks which were seen as more important, so the GAZ-69 took a backseat.

By 1953 production finally began, though some say limited numbers were made in 1952. The numbers being built ramped up quickly, production remained at Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod from 1953 to 1955, it was then shifted to the UAZ (Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod) factory from 1955 to 1972.

The GAZ-69 has a three-speed manual gearbox and a two-speed transfer case. The top speed is said to be 56 mph (90 km/h).

Despite its slow start the GAZ-69 would be produced in far higher numbers than any of its ancestors, over 600,000 were made in total.

The GAZ-69 Shown Here

The GAZ-69 you see here was built in 1964, the same year that the Ford Mustang was released in the United States and The Beatles released their chart-topping single A Hard Day’s Night.

It’s believed that this GAZ was originally used as a military radio vehicle, a critically important function. Much of its life is lost to history but we do know that it was restored/refurbished in 2010 in Michigan, and it now presents in good condition throughout.

The vehicle is finished in olive green over green vinyl upholstery, it’s powered by a correct 2.1 liter inline-four mated to its three-speed manual transmission and dual-range transfer case. It has folding rear bench seats, front spotlights, a rear pintle hitch, and black-painted 16” steel wheels.

If you’d like to read more about this unusual Soviet answer to the Jeep you can visit the listing here, it’s being sold out of Chesterland, Ohio.

Images courtesy of Bring A Trailer

 

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