Simpatico Barchetta 595, Peter Stevens, England

The British designer Peter Stevens founded the company Simpatico in East Dereham in the county of Norfolk. Stevens had studied industrial design at the Royal College of Art, then worked for Ford and for Ogle under Tom Karen and, as a freelancer, managed projects including the Lotus Excel, Esprit and Elan; the Jaguar XJR-15 also bears his touch.

The Barchetta 595 began as a family project: two elderly Fiat 500s were to lose their roofs and become simple open runabouts. It grew into a car of its own, developed with Colin Jones of the Dove Car Company, which produced composite panels for high-performance cars. The glassfibre and Kevlar body sits on a reinforced Fiat 126 chassis from 1976 onwards; suspension, steering and drum brakes are Fiat, with a Nardi steering wheel and OZ wheels. Ready to drive, the Barchetta weighs 440 kg. The standard engine gives around 25 bhp and can reliably be taken to 40–45 bhp. In 1993 the basic kit cost £2650. Kit Car magazine tested it in September 1993 – the issue can be browsed below.

The make was Barchetta. Production ended in 1996/1997; in all, 9 to 12 cars were built, depending on the source; Mark Hill speaks of 22 bodies, 12 of them fully built factory cars and 10 kits sold to private builders. Whether the original moulds were then destroyed is disputed.