Fiat does not build many cars like the Fiat 10 HP: a 4-seater with straight-2 1082 , built from 1901 when a car was a rich man's adventure and every maker was a workshop.
The story
The Fiat 10 HP was the fifth model of the Italian car manufacturer Fiat, produced in 1901. Together with the Fiat 8 HP, it replaced the Fiat 6 HP, being an evolution of this model. The Fiat 6 HP had in turn been based on the Fiat 3.5 HP designed for FIAT by engineer Aristide Faccioli. Both the 6 HP and the 10 HP were also designed by Faccioli. The technology remained the same. However, the seating layout was changed: while the 6 HP offered vis-à-vis seating, the 10 HP was a Phaeton with two rows of seats. While the 8 HP was specifically developed for commercial use as a taxi, there still were few private buyers for automobiles. Like the 6 HP model, the 10 HP had a 2-cylinder petrol engine with 1082 cc with two valves per cylinder.
This allowed a maximum power of 10 PS. The drive was via a 3-speed manual transmission with chain drive on the rear wheels. While a steering wheel (instead of a tiller bar) was only available as an option for the 6 HP, it was standard on the 10 HP. The price for a 10 HP with standard equipment amounted to 9,000 Italian lira. Probably due to the increase in consumption due to the higher weight the model was not a success for Fiat. Instead of 20 6 HP models, only 3 or 5 examples, depending on source, were built. In 1901 a successor model for both the 10 HP and the 8 HP was introduced, the Fiat 12 HP. The car had a straight-2 engine with 10 bhp (7.5 kW) and a top speed of 45 kilometres per hour (28 mph).
What is underneath
Under the skin sits straight-2 1082 . Kerb weight is 1150 kg. The wheelbase is 1750 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Where it sits in Fiat's history is not in doubt: it was built at Turin. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Mercedes-Benz Mercedes 35 hp, the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, the Panhard & Levassor type B tonneau. Nearby in the Fiat catalogue sit the FIAT 702 and the Fiat 1.
The money
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Fiat 10 HP has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.