Description

1973 Zastava 750

Proceeds to Medecins Sans Frontieres; well-sorted Fiat 600 built under licence; sports seats; recent work; a regular driver being sold for a very good cause...

The Zastava concern came into existence making cannons, progressed to assembling Ford trucks in WWII before embracing their near neighbours in Italy, making exact FIAT copies under licence.

They chose well, for the Fiats of the '60s and '70s were very good indeed, Zastava's line up including the Fiat 600 and 1100/1300 which eventually morphed into a 125-based car. Zastava sold CKD kits of this for manufacture in Poland - sold as the Polski Fiat 125p across most of Europe including the UK.

The base model, the 600-based Zastava 750, was produced in significant numbers between 1955 and 1984, with nearly one million being turned out of the Serbian factory - which was subsequently bombed into submission during the Kosovo war in the late '90s. Since then, FIAT have started a new venture on the same site.

This baby blue 750 dates from 1973 and was imported into the UK in around 2009 from Slovenia. It lived in London, arriving in Herefordshire in 2020.

Previous MOTs show that work was required to some of the underside of the car, and we are told it has had a new partial floorpan in recent history. Its last MOT was undertaken in September 2020 by which time there was no mention of corrosion, just three advisories for slight wear in the N/S kingpin, wear in a drag link and a minor oil leak.

Since then, in February 2021, the car has been with Cozz Autos in Hereford for a thorough service and check over costing £665, including new belts, a new timing case gasket (presumably the cause of the slight oil leak), fresh coolant and an electrionic ignition system. The drive shafts o-rings were also replaced and new brake fluid in the new reservoir etc.

Since then, it has been used regularly and proved entirely reliable and fun to drive.

Being a relatively early example, it retains the lovely fixtures and fittings which got lost on the later models, aligning it very closely indeed with a late '50s Fiat 600...in fact everything is pretty well interchangeable and available to order online. The only non-standard fittings we can see are the front seats, which have been replaced with some sporty buckets, the rest of the car presenting well. It comes with a current red UK V5C, old MOTs, some invoices and two nice books on Abarth and a Haynes Manual for the Fiat 600.

On offer from a deceased' estate, the proceeds from the sale are being dontated to Medecins Sans Frontieres so bid strongly, as not only will you end up with a super little car, but will be supporting a most worthy charity into the bargain......

HUBNUT vlogger Ian Seabrook has been to our site and produced a video on his YouTube channel, about this car. His wonderful video is available to view on this page, by clicking the link. Any opinion given in his video is not part of the contract of sale, just to say.

Contact matthew.parkin@brightwells.com