Moretti 600 Gran Lusso History

When the Fiat 600 arrived in 1955, Moretti moved quickly to offer a coachbuilt version. The 600 Gran Lusso was designed by Giovanni Michelotti and distinguished by elegant elongated tailfins on the rear wings, two-tone or metallic paint, and a more refined interior — marketed at 1,195,000 lire, nearly twice the price of a standard Fiat 600 (590,000 lire).

Mechanically it retained the Fiat 600's rear-mounted 633 cc four-cylinder and four-speed gearbox but presented it in a far more stylish wrapper aimed at buyers who wanted a distinctive Italian coupe without the cost of a true sports car. Moretti went on to bodied coupes and spiders on the Fiat 1100, 1200, 1500, and larger platforms through the early 1960s.

By the late 1950s rising production costs had made building complete cars economically unviable against Fiat's enormous economies of scale, and Moretti formally transitioned to a coachbuilder role using Fiat mechanicals — with the 600 Gran Lusso as the pivot point of that transformation. Fiat 600-based Moretti coachwork (including 600D-based coupes and Michelotti spiders) continued into the early 1960s; sources vary on the exact final year of the Gran Lusso line.