UPDATE: Added some photos of the 147 UTE and the 147 Rallye ;)
Sorry for the delay, this is more a Samba Sunday than a Feijoada Friday. Probably, during the next weeks, this will happen more... I just discovered I have only until February 8th to finish my thesis, and I barely began! So, here we go, the story behind the first 100% alcohol powered car in Brazil!
The 1973 oil crisis hit our country very hard. Most of our fuel was imported, even though we produced a lot of oil. So, in 1975, the government decided to fund a project to design a engine capable of running with something we produced. Since we produce a lot of sugarcane and sugar, fermenting and distilling it a bit longer produces cachaça and finally sugarcane ethanol fuel. At the time the sugar prices in the international market were very low, so it was best for the farmers to produce alcohol than sugar.
The “fathers” of the ethanol engine were the engineers Lamartine Navarro Júnio, Cícero Junqueira Franco, Urbano Ernesto Stumpf and the physicist José Walter Bautista Vidal. This last name was also minister for Science and Technology during president Geisel’s term.
Many materials were tested for making ethanol: Sugarcane and cassava were the two bests, but the sugar/cachaça infrastructure was way bigger than the cassava production, and the distillation of the garapa (a broth made from sugarcane, used to produce sugar, melado, cachaça and ethanol) was way more efficient.
Many prototypes were quickly made to test the new sugarcane ethanol produced. In October 19th in 1976, three prototypes went for a 8,500 km run for testing: A Dodge 1800 (actually a Hillman Avenger GT, produced here under the Dodge badge), a Fusca 1,300cc and a Gurgel Xavante (with a Fusca 1,300cc engine).
But the first tests in ‘75 showed that the alcohol furiously attacked many engine parts: It corroded the carburettors and fuel lines like if that wasn’t a tomorrow, and the car wouldn’t start in cold days. The fuel pump was plated with a very safe and good for your health metal: cadmium!
But those ‘76 prototypes corrected all these problems. The pro-álcool caravan was such a success that the government ordered the convertion of lots of state-run company cars to alcohol! They converted almost 800 cars in ‘76 and ‘77 alone.
With the success, the companies decided to invest on alcohol engines for their cars. Pretty much everybody was designed theirs, but who managed to finish everything before the others was Fiat, and in 1979 the Fiat 147 Álcool was available for everyone to buy!
Fiat started its operations in Brazil in July 9th, 1976, initially to build the 147, derived from the Italian 127. The foundation of Fiat Automóveis S.A. was such a big event that event president Geisel was present! For introducing the 147 and showing its power and reliability they travelled from Belo Horizonte to Ouro Preto and back (a 200km long path climbing up steep hills). They also built the first car factory outside São Paulo, in Betim, Minas Gerais. They still produce cars there!
To prove to the press how good a FWD car could be (at the time everything was RWD), and how reliable was this new player in Brazilian game, the factory drove prototypes for more than a million kilometers. It was completely different from everything we had, and many people didn’t liked them: They said it was too small, looked too flimsy and the exhaust note was too loud.
But with the time it proved it’s value. It was frugal on fuel, easy to drive on the cities, easy to park... For a time it was the best selling car in Brazil, beating the Fusca! The very short wheelbase, the low center of gravity and the independent suspension at each wheel helped its stability to the point of the Brazilian press saying it beated many sports cars on this subject. With only 3.83 meters of length, 800 kg and a 2.2 meters wheelbase, it was some 40 cm shorter than a Fusca!
The engine was designed by Aurelio Lampredi, who also designed Ferrari engines (!!!). It was a 1,049 cc unit that developed 50 cv @ 5800 RPM, with a top speed of 135 km/h. It made more than 14 km per liter, an impressive number for the 70’s. Even if it was the smallest car available, its project was so well made that you could put 5 people there with more comfort than in a Fusca or a Chevette, its rivals. In 1978 Fiat introduced the 147 Pickup, a lovely looking compact UTE, and the 147 Rallye, the sportier version that looked awesome.
And, finally, in ‘79, the first alcohol powered car, the 147 Álcool, with a 1,300 cc engine with 60 cv! Brazilians, ever so jokingly, nicknamed it the cachacinha (little cachaça, or someone who loves cachaça). It was faster and accelerated better than the gasoline powered, but made much less mpgs.
In 1980 Fiat introduced the wagon version, the Panorama. But the history of the Panorama and the rest of the history of the 147 will have to wait until a next episode!
Bonus photos:
This is the real Fiat 147 Pickup. They’re so expensive now! I want one so I can put a powerful engine on the trunk, exposed, and make this a true pocket rocket. It’s also called saboneteira (soap dish) here, because the bed is so small you can’t put much stuff in it
Fiat 147 Rallye: The sporty version. It’s so cool!
Fiat 147 Fiorino: Looks like a popemobile, huh?
Bonus ads:
At last, a big small car!
To compete is important, but to win is better (and a huge list of races and rallyes won by the 147 below)
May your first alcohol car be the first alcohol car in the world
Today the alcohol car is on the news. But four years before few cared about this. In november, ‘76, Fiat introduced to the public the first alcohol car in the world. And went ahead of everybody, testing exhaustively its engine, making it endure hard races. In ‘76 the Fiat/Álcool crossed the country.
It won the 1st and 2nd Brazil International Rallye, in ‘79 and ‘80. The Fiat/Álcool won. So it knows its ways.
Sources: