Fiat 124 Spider goes 'viagral'

How do you launch a Japanese-built sports car with an Italian badge into the American market? Frenchman Olivier Francois, global marketing officer Fiat global, did it with the help of a diamond-shaped blue pill as a metaphor.

"My purpose today is all about the blue pill. It is about adding excitement," Francois explained at the LA motor show, while introducing the new 2017 Fiat 124 Spider in an up-tempo monologue.

"The Fiat 124 Spider has definitely been designed to turn you on," he continued. "It represents the pinnacle of everything exciting about Fiat. But let's be clear, the roadster is not a big segment. Spiders are driven by few. But fundamentally, we think that our potential is bigger than the segment."

2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the Fiat 124 Spider, and as Francois said: "It will mark our return to the open air market."

Let's call the Fiat 124 Spider what it really is: a Mazda MX-5 with a Roman nose and a tighter derriere. Yes, the Italians have reworked the loved MX-5 and Francois claims added excitement and flair. That's like saying Fiat made perfect even more perfecter. Supposedly the Italians did this before when they stole spaghetti from the Chinese.

Nonetheless, if 'more perfecter' to you means more 124 styling cues, you'll find them everywhere from the twin bonnet depressions to the sharp hips to the rectangular tail lamps. Underplaying the Fiat bodywork is the really obvious MX-5 proportions. The boys on Lygon Street may not like it.

But they may approve of the 124's 1.4-litre turbocharged engine presenting a distinctly Italian difference from Mazda's 1.5-litre or the 96kW 2.0-litre atmo engine. Australia tasted a turbocharged MX-5 in 2002 when a limited number where developed and modified in Australia. The MX-5 SP produced 157kW and 289Nm.

The MX-5 chassis easily copes gracefully with more power, and Fiat brings it.

The Fiat 1.4-litre turbocharged engine (built in Italy) producing 119kW (SAE) and 250Nm (SAE) does out muscle the MX-5's 2.0-litre. An Abarth variant is sure to come but well after Fiat launches the 124 in late 2016 or early 2017.

As we know, the Spider will be built in Hiroshima, Japan by Mazda. And according to Francois, the Fiat 124 Spider RHD variant will be revealed at the Geneva Motorshow the first week of March, and the sports car will go on sale initially in selected countries during the back half of 2016.

Not once during his speech in LA did Francois mention the 'M' word. That is Mazda. The MX-5 is so deeply ingrained in Mazda's identity that the idea of sharing it with another brand is hard to conceive. But Mazda obviously has production capacity, and the company has been searching for business partners since breaking ties with Ford in 2010.

Fiat shares a similar history. It survived a messy split with GM a decade earlier. The two companies may offer each other more in future. Mazda may find Fiat a good partner to develop the next generation Mazda2.

And Mazda can offer production line space in China where Fiat remains almost absent.