Bravo and BRAVO!?
A chance meeting at Northcote Point
There aren't many Fiat Bravo HGT on the road in NZ*. Heading to a suburban cinema for a festival film, I get the last free angle park on the left in a side street, hopped out of the car and looked back to see this van** across the road all framed and ready to photograph. What are the odds!
* There are probably fewer than six—rare but worth little as few, if any, care—Bravo HGT left on the road in NZ. I think only my 155HGT model as the rest were the earlier Mk1 147's. They are so rare in Britain, also just six on the road there, that 'Ian HubNut' reckoned it was worth taking the time to drive mine (sadly with a mid-range intermittent engine stumble due to a small, long since fixed, intake manifold gasket leak) while on holiday in New Zealand.
That was six years ago when it had only done 256,000km. It has just clocked up 291,000km—including a 6,000km North-South Island drive in 2021-22 and 2,500km from Northland to the Wairarapa in summer 2025—and still on all original drivetrain, including the factory clutch!
"Prepare for the warble! Fiat created a little gem in the form of the Bravo HGT, cramming in the five-cylinder motor from the Fiat Coupe. But what is the rest of the car like?" | HubNut
** I don't know Bravo! Builders but like the projects shown on their site, especially the Garden Rd, Piha one:
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