the car uses a fiberglass body with two-seats and a mid-mounted engine, either from volkswagen do brasil or from fiat automóveis. the fiat-engined car was the first one to appear and has a single overhead cam of 1.3 litres with which was also used in the fiat spazio tr and uno sx. it was called the "ml 929" to honor the mother of alfio russo, maria luisa, who was born in 1929. the more powerful "ts 1.6" appeared in april 1981 and uses the engine (and badging) from the volkswagen passat ts, it has . both models have a four-speed manual transmission, but as is the case for their donor cars the ts 1.6 has a longitudinally mounted engine while the ml 929's engine is mounted transversally. in 1984 the "beta" appeared, very similar to the ts 1.6 but fitted with 1.8 or 2.0 liter engines from the chevrolet monza (a brazilian-built opel ascona c). a year later a convertible version of the beta was also added to the pricelist. a version of the beta/spider, fitted with chrysler's 2.2 litre "turbo i" engine, was meant to spearhead farus' entry into the us market. however, although 1,500 reservations were taken after showing the car at the 1987 new york auto show, the investments needed to enter series production were too high and the project ended up cancelled. meanwhile, the mid-engined farus' also became available with the 2.0 liter volkswagen engines (petrol or alcohol) used in the volkswagen santana.