Test drive Fiat Bravo 1995 - 2001 hatchback
Car of the year against a car of the year
Of course, the winning cars have common family features: headlight design, radiator cladding and other little things. Surely, many Bravo units were put on TIPO, because over the past years he has been a platform for testing the nodes of many famous cars, for example, Alfa Romeo 155. A person who does not condemn in automobile design will surely call a new car a brutal of the old. Like, they took Tipo, smoothed the corners, twisted the planes - it turned out to be Bravo. Someone may not like the new hatchback precisely because of his rounded forms. This, of course, is a matter of taste, but it is impossible to say that Bravo is a converted Tipo. It’s just that Fiat Styling Center always sought to harmoniously combine avant -garde motives with traditional ones. In size, Bravo/A differs little from TIPO. The wheelbase is the same - 2540 \u003d mm, the track increased by 30 \u003d mm in front and 50 \u003d mm behind. The car has become a little longer: in a 5-door version of 220 \u003d mm, in 3-door-60 \u003d mm. Bravo is higher than the predecessor by 20 mm, and its road clearance remained the same - 150 \u003d mm. The sizes of the salon, according to our sensations, have not changed much. Tipo, however, has very thin doors, so it seems that it is more spacious. Tipo and Bravo/A seats externally differ slightly from each other - it is difficult to come up with something original with the shape of the seats. But the difference can feel good with your back.
On TIPO, the middle part of the back of the passenger seat, which has only two standard manual adjustments, unpleasantly rests against the spine. And the Brava seat does not have such a shortage, in addition, lateral support and height are adjusted. The front panel of the car was completely processed. At the TIPO starting point, when constructing it, the driver's place served. On Bravo/A - the central console. Here, as usual, there are control knobs of the heating system, just above - two ventilation holes, even higher - the radio. All this in the complex is very reminiscent of a growth on birch. Such an environmental design solution is not only for Italians - something similar is found in cars of other companies. To the left of the growth is the instrument panel. On the right - plastic stamping, similar to it in shape. Everything is done soundly and tastefully.
Now about the governing bodies. Modern automakers were so carried away by design that they forgot that the car should not only look good, but also ride well. In some new cars, the pedals fail when pressing, and the programs are turned on fuzzy. You can rant as much as you like about original design solutions, but if the car did not drive better, they are meaningless. The elegant Fiat Brava does not have the following shortcomings - everything works very clearly, like Tipo. Such clarity is perhaps only BMW 3rd \u003d series.
Tipo and Bravo/A engines are approximately the same. But, firstly, in all power units, Bravo/A has a multi-valve technology.
Secondly, the archaic carburetor gave way to multi-point injection. This made it possible to increase power: in 1.4 liters. engine up to 80 liters. With. Against 71 l. p., in 1.6 liters - up to 103 liters. With. Against 76 l. With. A 1.8 liter engine was replaced by a 1.7 liter motor and a capacity of 113 liters. With. A 2-liter 16-valve 115-horsepower power unit gave way to a 5-cylinder 207-liter with a 207-liter. With. There is also a diesel. Progress is evident.
It cannot be said that Tipo had few modifications, but so much ... Of course, when Fiat rolled out all the modifications of Bravo/A, no one had any doubts that they would receive a reward, ”said one of the jury members. After all, the main, if not the main one, the selection criterion is the modification series of the proposed machine. And even if you multiply the number of engines by the number of the proposed bodies, you get 10 \u003d modifications. And also different finishes, equipment ... And it went, and went. So from the point of view of the possibilities of choosing, Bravo/A looks much more solid than Tipo.
Finally, handling. We took two medium cars with 1.6 \u003d liter engines. 5-door TIPO and 5-door BRAVA (as you remember, the youth 3-door version is called Bravo). I will immediately make a reservation that an amendment was made for a slightly blabbed suspension of the old Tipo old man.
The assumption was confirmed that in the new model the center of gravity is located higher than that of the predecessor. This has its pros and cons. The higher the center of gravity, the earlier the demolition of the front axis occurs, but it is more smooth. In TIPO, in a steep turn, the front -line breaks very sharply, which prevents the car from directing the car to the true path: at this moment it reacts quite sluggishly to the discharge of gas. A longer BRAVA, although it breaks off at a larger radius, is perfectly tucked into the turn of the gas, obediently bringing the ass. A more powerful and with a large torque (144 versus 128 \u003d Nm) the engine easier pulls out the car out of the drift. So in extreme situations that often arise on our roads, Brava is preferable.
Brava suspension is worse and with a shorter stroke. We do not know whether it will be as steadfast as TIPO to transfer Russian potholes, but, looking at it more closely, we did not find any elements whose complexity or design could fail. The Bravo suspension device remains almost the same as Tipo, and she showed herself as a rather reliable.
Well, the two winners turned out to be very similar and almost as different as the first crew with a gasoline engine and the latest concept. Progress is a paradoxical thing.
Text: Dmitry Noskov, Savva Simonov
A source: Motor magazine [No. 6/2002]
