FIAT FIRE Engines: the Forgotten Heroes of Automotive History

Automotive history is full of forgotten “heroes”. That is only to be expected. Usually, it is the most prestigious engines, with the most overwhelming figures, that reach the “Olympus of Engines”.

That is not fair. Today, we want to challenge that rule. This Autopédia article from Razão Automóvel is devoted entirely to a small “super engine” - or, if you prefer, to an engine dynasty that ruled for decades.

Naturally, we are talking about FIAT FIRE engines.

In this article, we will explain why this engine, born in the 1980s and produced for more than 30 years, deserves recognition as one of the best ever made.

It is a journey back in time, arriving in the very week when European bodies chose to decree the death of internal-combustion engines. As far as we are concerned… long live internal-combustion engines.

FIRE engine: an excessive ambition

The FIRE engine first saw the light of day in March 1985, following almost five years of intensive, uninterrupted development at Mirafiori in Turin.

The Lancia Y10 was selected as the model that would debut this engine.

At the time, the specification for this engine was demanding - if not downright absurdly ambitious.

It had to be at least as reliable as the engine it was replacing, the FIAT 903; it needed to use less fuel, perform better and last for at least 30 years - yes, engines used to be designed to last “a lifetime”.

But the requirements did not end there. Alongside those qualities, the engine also had to be cheaper and quicker to manufacture.

As if that were not enough, FIAT’s management added another degree of difficulty: the company’s engineers had to achieve all this without compromising the final product’s quality.

Later, we will see how FIAT’s engineers met that target.

A contagious success

Needless to say, the Italians succeeded against all expectations - otherwise, we would not be reading this Autopédia article now. Following its debut in the small Lancia Y10, the FIRE engine also appeared in the Fiat Uno.

Its spread through Fiat Group products never stopped: Panda, Tipo, Punto and more - name a model. FIRE engines could be found in virtually every FIAT product.

Almost overnight, this engine family became one of the Fiat Group brands’ essential pillars. Put simply, it was an all-round workhorse.

Yet rather than focusing on the eventual success, which everyone knows about, it is worth revisiting the middle chapters of this story - chapters that left every rival reassessing its position.

Cutting-edge technology for FIAT

Although simple, the FIRE acronym stood for something genuinely innovative: Fully Integrated Robotized Engine.

For the first time in automotive engineering history, an engine was developed largely in a digital environment, using computer-based finite-element design programmes.

With these finite-element design programmes - which could simulate material stresses and resistance - FIAT engineers were able to advance further than ever before in the development of mechanical components.

The first FIRE family engine had a one-litre capacity and four cylinders in line.

The results obtained through computer simulation allowed the engineers to create a block with walls only 4 mm thick.

That decision had significant consequences for the finished product. Although the block was made from cast iron, it weighed just 18 kg. In fully working form, the engine weighed only 69 kg. At the time, only Suzuki could better that figure, with a three-cylinder block weighing 63 kg.

As well as being light, this FIRE engine was also less complex. It consisted of just 273 components, substantially enhancing its mechanical reliability.

When it first appeared, the FIRE engine’s power figures were not remarkable, at least not at first glance. It produced a modest 45 hp, exactly the same output as the FIAT 903 engine it was intended to replace.

However, FIAT wanted more even during the development stage, and prepared this unit for greater things, as the image shows.

In final production form, the engine’s power might not have been impressive - that is true. However, the torque developed by the FIRE Mille engine was far higher than that of its predecessor: 80.5 Nm versus 67 Nm.

Computers did not play a fundamental role only in the FIRE engine’s development. Engine manufacturing also became largely computer-controlled, using robotic assembly lines - something profoundly innovative in the 1980s.

After Henry Ford’s contribution, this represented one of the greatest advances in the history of car production.

From that point onwards, nothing was the same. The use of robots made manufacturing faster, more reliable and less expensive.

Thanks to every technological advance applied to production, FIAT could make the following components from a steel block weighing only 43 kg: the engine block, crankshaft, camshaft, connecting rods and valves.

When all was said and done, at the peak of FIRE engine production, FIAT could build 3000 units a day - working 12-hour daily shifts.

That meant one new engine every 20 seconds.

It would be easy to assume this speed compromised the final quality, but FIAT had considered that too. Laser technology made it possible to check every production parameter with precision.

The outcome of this investment was revolutionary technology that gave rise to an engine which was simple, affordable, reliable and efficient. Perhaps more importantly, it transformed the way engines were manufactured.

We can say that every engine we know today contains a little FIRE technology.

Spending heavily to save even more

If there was one area where FIAT spared no effort, it was the development of FIRE technology - which, as we have seen, extended beyond the engines themselves and influenced production too.

FIAT tested every solution it developed at one of the era’s most advanced facilities: the Fiat Auto Laboratories in Mirafiori, Turin.

The FIRE Mille’s own intake manifold demonstrated the technological progress FIAT was introducing into automotive manufacturing.

For the first time in a mass-produced engine, the Policast casting process, which uses a disposable expanded-polystyrene mould, was employed.

The automation and production optimisation brought by FIRE technology cut manufacturing times in half when compared with the FIAT 903 engine, predecessor to the FIRE Mille.

Fiat Group and PSA Peugeot Citroën: a long-standing courtship

What many people do not know - as documentation is scarce - is that PSA Peugeot Citroën initially supported this revolutionary technology.

Under an agreement reached between Fiat Group and PSA Peugeot Citroën in the late 1970s, the Italian and French groups assisted each other in developing a variety of solutions, including FIRE technology.

For unknown reasons - perhaps someone in our reader community can help us - PSA Peugeot Citroën chose to abandon the technology and never fitted this new engine family to any of its models.

Or did FIAT keep the rewards of this investment to itself?

The two groups “set up home together” on numerous occasions. Whether in the development and manufacture of commercial vehicles, such as the Fiat Ducato and Peugeot Boxer, or in their move into the MPV segment, with the Citroën Evasion and Fiat Ulysse among others, it took almost 40 years for their relationship to become more serious.

As we know, Fiat Group, formerly FCA, and PSA Group are now united within Stellantis, led by Portuguese executive Carlos Tavares.

FIRE engines: a long dynasty

Despite the often unfair reputation for unreliability that was associated with Italian mechanical engineering for years, FIRE engines prevailed and won over a legion of fans.

Their greatest and most difficult proof of endurance was time itself. Originally launched in 1985, FIRE engines remain in existence today, having survived every change the automotive industry has undergone since then.

FIRE engines can still be found in the Abarth range, in the form of 1.4-litre Turbo units whose outputs exceed 180 hp in the most powerful versions. That is a long way from the 45 hp delivered by the first chapter of this technology.

So, for everything they represented in technological terms, for the millions of cars they powered and for the many stories that so many of you will surely have from behind the wheel of models driven by this engine, we have no doubt that the FIRE engine deserves a special place in the “Olympus of Engines”.

We know it is a modest engine. But even the greatest war cannot be won without “ordinary soldiers”. That is why today we celebrate this pioneering engine, which can still be found in several models on our roads.

It was also an engine that marked one of the first chapters of a courtship which has now become a marriage: Stellantis.

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