Time for a story!

The automotive world is full of rivalries, like Camaro vs Mustang, Holden (F) vs Ford Australia, BMW vs MB, but today I’m gonna talk about one of the greatest rivalries in the Italian car world.
No, I’m not talking about Ferrari vs Lamborghini.
No, I’m not talking about the Fiat 124 Spider vs the Alfa Romeo Duetto
I’m talking about something bigger, literally. This rivalry goes on from 1981, and it affects the productive and hard-working part of the Italian population. I’m talking about the Fiat Ducato versus the IVECO Daily.
Follow me in this trip down the history of the two backbones of Italy. Let’s start from the older one, shall we?

The birth of a giant

The history of IVECO starts in 1903, with the birth of Fiat Veicoli Industriali, the commercial vehicles division of Fiat. The 1st of January 1975, Fiat Veicoli Commerciali, OM (one of the oldest Italian car brands, famous for trucks like the “Lupetto” and the “Tigrotto”), Lancia Veicoli Speciali (yes, that Lancia), UNIC (a French brand, that started by producing cars in the 20’s and that in the 50’s became SIMCA’s commercial vehicles division before being bought by Fiat) and Magirus-Deutz (bought by Fiat and forced to enter the IVECO group, today is the firetruck division of IVECO) merged together to create the Industrial VEhicle COrporation, shortened in IVECO.
Three years later, in 1978, the Daily was presented to the public as the IVECO Daily, the Fiat Daily (we’ll talk about it later), the OM Grinta (that nobody remembers), the Alfa Romeo AR8 (that nobody remembers)

The first Daily was offered in two variations, Daily 35 (3.5 tons of total weight) and Daily 49 (5.0 tons of total weight), with the Daily 30, 40 and 45 arriving later into the production with three different length of wheelbase (2.8m, 3.2m and 3.6m). The Daily 49 could reach a cargo volume of 17 cubic meters, something more near to a light truck than a van.
In 1984, the Daily was fitted with 4WD, expanding its capability.
At the start, the only engine of choice was the Sofim 8140.61 inline-4 diesel engine (made by IVECO itself in the city of Foggia), a naturally-aspirated, 2.5L unit that was capable of 72hp and 150Nm at 2400rpm.
The revolution came in 1985, with the introduction of the TurboDaily (and TurboGrinta). This time the van was powered by a Sofim 8140.21 2.5L turbodiesel unit with direct injection, capable of 92hp @3800rpm and 220Nm@2200rpm paired with a 5-speed manual transmission
Fun fact, the TurboDaily was the first van ever to be fitted with a turbocharger

Time for a refresh

In 1990, since the Daily was suffering the competition from the Fiat Ducato and the Renault Mascott, it was refreshed in all aspects: the exterior design was new, the cabin was upgraded and the 2.5L Sofim engines were modernized, now putting out 75hp on the NA, 103hp on the Turbo unit and 113hp for the new Turbo Intercooler unit.
In 1996 it was restyled again, with a new front design, a refresh to the interior, especially in the materials, disc brakes on the back and new engines: the old 2.5L Sofim was enlarged to 2.8L, so now the NA unit had 85hp, the turbo one had 103hp and the turbo intercooler one 122hp. All the negines were fitted with a catalytic converter and followed EURO2 anti-pollution guidelines.
Since in 1986 Ford commercial operations entered IVECO, the 3.5 ton Daily was removed from the UK market, since it would have decimated the Transit’s sales.
In 1998 a CNG-powered version was launched, making the Daily the first CNG-powered van in history

New century, new Daily

In 1999, the 2nd-gen daily was shown to the public at Jerez de la Frontera in Spain, winning in 2000 the “Van Of The Year” award. With this generation, the name TurboDaily was dropped, since all the engines were turbocharged. It was available with either a 5 or 6-speed manual transmission or a 5-speed automatic. The CNG version remained in the lineup. This time, the popular Daily 35 was joined by the Daily 28, Daily 50, Daily 60 and Daily 65. The 3.5 ton unit was available with either a single-wheel or double-wheel rear axle, with the single-wheel version fitted with a McPherson strut in the front, that was swappable with a torsion bar strut in the double-wheel for as more firm ride. The Sofim 2.8 from the mk2 was also available on the mk3, now with common-rail injection, with three power levels (86hp, 106hp and 126hp) with a new HPT version, fitted with a variable-geometry turbocharger that putted out an earth-shattering 146hp

In 2004 it was slightly redesigned in the front. This restyling saw the end of an era: the old Sofim unit was removed in favor of the new IVECO F1C 2.3L and 3.0L 16v common rail diesel engines. The 2.3 was available in two versions and 3 power levels: the HPI with a regular turbo and 96 or 116hp and the HPT with a variable-geometry turbo with 136hp; the 3.0 was available in two versions and two power levels: HPI with 136hp and HPT with 166hp

The 2006 Daily design was created by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the designer of gems such as the mk.1 Golf and the mighty Fiat Panda. Mechanically it was basically the same as the previous version. The front brakes were upgraded to ventilated discs, reducing the stopping distance at 100km/h to 42m. The engines, now following the EURO4 anti-pollution guidelines, were the same as the 2004 model, except for an increase of 11hp on the 3.0 HPT .

In 2009, the Daily was redesigned. With a new exterior, new engines arrived: the 3.0 Natural Power CNG unit, capable of 136hp in CNG mode and 82hp in petrol mode, with a torque of 230Nm using petrol and 350Nm using CNG. This engine was paired with a 6-speed manual. The F1C diesel engines got an ecologic restyling, in order to adequate them to EURO5. This restilying also expanded the Daily lineup with a new 7 ton model

Two years later, in 2011, the Daily was redesigned once again, now with a better cooling system and a new, hot 3.0L twin-turbo MultiJet with 205hp and 470Nm called “Superman”.
In 2012, IVECO launched the BEV version of his best seller, that in 2010 reached the 2 million units sold milestone. the Daily Elettrico was powered by an IVECO-designed motor, with a power of 60kW, a torque of 230Nm and a range of 120km fully loaded

Today

In 2014, the 3rd-generation Daily rolled out the production lines of Suzzara (near the italian city of Mantova). The body was totally new, but underneath it was the same as the previous model. This new van was available with over 8000 possible combinations of bodies, engines and wheelbases. In 2015 it won the “Van Of The Year” award again. The same year, it received the new Hi-Matic 8-speed automatic transmission. In 2016, the 2.3 and 3.0 engines were updated to EURO6 regulations.

In 2017, the Daily Blue Power reached the market. Body wise it has the same options as the regular Daily, but the engine and transmission choices are limited to the 3.0 Natural Power CNG unit paired with the Hi-Matic transmission or a 80kW electric motor. The Blue Power got IVECO another “Van Of The Year” award in 2018
If you want to have a bit of fun with the new Daily, you can configure one in the link down below

Now let’s talk about the Daily’s nemesis, the Fiat Ducato

The Fiat Ducato started its life as a replacement for the Fiat Daily. Technically though, the Ducato is NOT a Fiat, it’s a SEVEL. But what is SEVEL?
SEVEL (acronym for Società Europea VEicoli Leggeri, European Light Vehicles Society) is a joint-venture between Fiat and PSA created in 1981, indeed the mk1 Ducato was also sold as the Alfa Romeo AR6, the Peugeot J5, Citroen C25 and Talbot Express (back when Talbot was still a thing). Today, SEVEL has two major production plants: SEVEL Nord, in France and SEVEL Sud near Atessa, in the Abruzzo region of Italy, where the Ducato is still produced to this day. Take that Transit!

The engines available at the launch were a PSA-made 2.0L petrol inline-4 and a Fiat-made 1.9L diesel inline-4, with three trim options (base, S and SX) and five carrying capacities, Ducato 10 (1.0 tons), Ducato 13 (1.3 tons), Ducato 14 (1.4 tons) and Ducato 18 “Maxi” (1.8 tons) and the shorter and smaller Talento (2.6m of wheelbase). The 1st-gen Ducato was particularly popular as a good base chassis for campervans conversions. It was configurable with 4 wheelbases, 5 different lengths, 3 different heights and 2 different types of traction. It was also available as a panel van, a flatbed and a small MPV (with a maximum capacity of 9 people).

In 1983, only two years after the launch, the Ducato was redesigned in the front, with a new grille now including the new Fiat 5-bars logo. This restyling also gave the small van a greater engine choice, now including three petrol units made by the French (a carburetted 1.8 with 69hp and 136Nm, a carburetted 2.0L with 75hp and 147Nm and a fuel-injected 2.0L with 84hp, 160Nm and a catalytic converter) and four diesel units made by Fiat and Sofim ( a NA 1.9L with 69hp and 120Nm, a NA 2.5L with 72hp and 162Nm, a turbocharged 1.9L with 82hp and 131Nm and a turbocharged 2.5L with 95hp and 216Nm). In 1992, an electric version of this humble van was presented to the public. The Ducato Elettra was powered by a 43kW, Leroy-Somer T29C DC motor. The batteries were lead-acid units, that weighted over 800kg and guaranteed a range of 70km with a payload of 750kg

At the 1993 Geneva motor show the 2nd generation of the Ducato was unveiled with his French siblings (the Peugeot Boxer and Citroen Jumper). The body, designed by Italdesign, had a drag coefficient of 0.35, which is a very good result for a van. One year later, the van was awarded with the “Van Of The Year” award.

From the start, the engine choice was pretty big, with 7 engines available: a PSA-made 2.0L petrol with multi-point EFi, 109hp and 168Nm and 6 diesel units made by Fiat and IVECO/Sofim (NA 1.9L with 69hp and 120Nm, turbocharged 1.9L 82hp and 180Nm, NA 2.5L with 84hp and 164Nm, turbocharged 2.5L with direct injection, 116hp and 245Nm, NA 2.8L with 87hp and 180Nm and turbocharged 2.8L with direct injection, 122hp and 285Nm). The available variants were the same as the previous generation, except for the Talento, that got replaced by the Scudo, which was completely different from the Ducato.
In 2000, the new common-rail 2.0L and 2.8L JTD were added to the engines’ lineup

In 2002, our Daily’s nemesis was updated, with a different body design, an improved interior and new engines: the good ol’ PSA 2.0L petrol unit was given the choice of CNG or LPG power in the Ducato Natural Power and G Power. The diesel section of the engines’ lineup was also upgraded, with the new 2.2L HDi PSA, 2.3L JTD and 2.8L JTD, all with common-rail injection and a turbocharger. Model designations also changed to reflect maximum gross weight: Ducato 29 (2.9 tons), Ducato 30 (3.0 tons), Ducato 33 (3.3 tons) and Ducato Maxi 35 (3.5 tons).

The 3rd generation Ducato arrived in 2006 (like the Peugeot Boxer and Citroen Jumper) and a year later, it was paired with a new brand, Fiat Professional, that from 2007 sells all the more work-focused Fiat models such as the Fullback pickup and the Doblò small van. Weights were again increased, with a consequent change in denomination: Ducato 30 (3 tons), Ducato 33 (3.3 tons), Ducato Maxi 35 (3.5 tons) and Ducato Maxi 40 (4 tons). In van configuration, the vehicle is available in three wheelbases, three heights and three wheelbases, finally making the best Fiat van ever a good rival for the Daily
You american petrolheads may reckon this as the Ram ProMaster. The only real difference between the European Ducato and the ProMaster is the engine, since the Ram uses the 3.6L Chrysler Pentastar V6.
This time, the van had four MultiJet engines (100, 120, 130 and 160hp) and a 140hp, Natural Power CNG unit. In 2010, all the diesel engines were upgraded in power and torque, so now the base one was the 115 MultiJet, the 120 became the 130, the 130 became the 150 and the 160 became the 180. The 140 Natural Power remained as it was.

In 2014, the Ducato was upgraded once again, now featuring a totally new front end and interior, but engineering wise it’s the exact same as the 2006 one.
If you have some spare time, you can configure the Ducato and all the other Fiat Professional vehicles in the link down below

This probably isn’t what you were expecting, but I still hope that at least somebody will appreciate this voyage into the history of Italy’s best vans. Let me know if you are team Daily or team Ducato in the comments!
Have a good day/night/whatever!
Random Corolla

Credits: Wikipedia; IVECO.it; Italian logo museum; Fiat Professional; Centro Storico Fiat