The FIAT Emblem - 1904
From 1903 onwards, Fiat increasingly came to play a leading role amongst car manufacturers, exporting its vehicles not only to France and England, but to America too, achieving an output for 134 for the 12 HP model that year.
By this time the acronym didn't just represent the product but the entire Company, as is clear from the new 1904 trademark, which no longer featured the full company name or the chassis number. This trademark was the famous oval emblem that was to remain in use until 1926 and had a similar design to the previous one, with a stylised Liberty design showing a rising sun on a Prussian blue background. The characters making up the acronym were also the same as those of the 1901 logo, being thicker but having the same curve as the letter A. Featuring spartan decorations, this emblem soon became established as the Company's logo, such that even the Company's official stationery showed the sun illuminating the Fiat name from behind. What's more, the oval trademark was given a fixed, uniform location on top of the radiator on all the Turin Company's vehicles from the Fiat 24-32 HP onwards. 400 examples of this vehicle were manufactured, with purchasers being offered a choice of three wheelbases: short, medium and long. The 24-32 HP was not only the first Fiat 'Landaulet' bodied motor vehicle but also the first to feature a pedal accelerator, multiple disc clutch and four-speed gearbox.
Other cars were subsequently given the new trademark. Amongst these was the famous Brevetti, 1,500 of which were made between 1905 and 1912. This vehicle, which was created after Fiat took over Officine Ansaldi in 1905, had a 3052 cc four-cylinder engine with an output of 20 bhp at 1200 rpm and could reach 60 kilometres per hour. During the same year the oval trademark was also placed on the radiator of the 100 HP Corsa, the vehicle with the largest engine ever manufactured by the Turin Company, having a displacement of over 16 litres. This vehicle was to win the Company its first sporting successes, although Fiat had in fact already competed on international racing tracks with the 24 HP Corsa in 1902, the 60 HP Corsa in 1903 and the 75 HP Corsa in 1904.
We need to wait until 1912 before seeing the first change to the oval trademark. Created flat, it was made with a slight curve to suit the new 'pear-shaped' radiators. The first vehicle to be graced with this emblem was the Fiat Zero, which was also the Company's first car with a modest displacement (1847 cc) to be mass produced. Over two thousand were made between 1912 and 1915.
This logo continued to be used until 1926, when the Fiat 501 and 502 went out of production. In the meantime, from 1921 to be precise, a new round trademark had already been introduced on a number of vehicles.