Fiat Topolino
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Fiat 600
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Fiat 500 Nuova
The 4th of July 1957, Fiat’s designer Dante Giacosa surprised the world with the 500 Nuova. The story goes that prominent people admired the 500 Nuova exitting the factory in a total of 500 linep up cars. Later on the Nuova was presented to the public at the square Saint-Pieters in Rome. It seems unlikely, but the cute little car was at first emotionlessly accepted. To not weaken the succes of the Fiat 600, the 500 was decorated spartanly: the Nuova didn’t had a gas gauge, windowscreens couldn’t be opened and the squeegees didn’t went automatically back to starting position. The first models didn’t have a backseat and buyers couldn’t have either the chrome accents, nor headlightrings and hub-caps. The noisy Nuova shared his engine with the Topolino of 1936, a 13,5hp wasn’t simply enough to propel the 470 kilo weighing car, thru the mountainous Italian landscape. The gastank only contained 20 liter and was assembled in the fronttrunk, making it dangerous with frontal collisions. The first 500 did had a big sunrooftop, which only stopped above the bonnet at the back. In that time the Nuova was retailed at 490.000 lire, which is 100.000 lire less than the 600. Due to the high price and its simple finish, the selling succes which Fiat was hoping for, remained absent.

November 1957: 500 Economica & 500 Normale
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December 1957
Fiat attempts to introduce the 500 to the American market. Due to the regulations in American carlegislation, Fiat is forced to reinforce the bumpers and to assemble bigger headlights.

1957: Abarth 500

June 1958: 500 Sport
The 500 Sport highlighted, Fiat’s sportive ambitions. Typical features were the red sidelines and dito rims, which contrasted nicely with the off-white carpaint. The sunrooftop was altered to a firm vast roof to reinforce the body work. Sometimes later the 500 was also deliverable with the typical sunrooftop. As in the Nuova the backseat were removed. Under the bonnet the engine was enlarged to 499,5 cc producing a 21,5hp and giving it a topspeed of 105 km/h. These days, the 500 sport has become a real collectorsitem.

1958: Jolly Ghia
“Ghia”, today property of Ford, was back in the days a famous coachbuilder, creating the “Jolly” range based on the 500, 600 and Giardiniera platform. Italy, surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, knew innumerable beachfront cities and resorts. A big trade in beach buggy conversions came into existence, to get yacht tenders to their boats or to animate golfers on the court. This explains the low milage on the speedometers nowadays. The Italian name “Spiaggina”, translated “beach-ette”, was changed worldwide into “Jolly”, meaning “Joker” or “light”, “fun” and “pretty” in several languages. Ghia produced 650 Jolly’s from 1958 till 1966, always in typical colors such as rose, coral-red, white, soft yellow and light blue. Only 100 Jolly’s remain today and offcourse they are big money! The technic was standard to the 500 Nuova but the more expensive Jolly had cut-down sides and windscreen, a striped and fringed Surrey top, chromed pipe work, “frog-eye” headlights and wicker seats. In 1964, the cheaper Jolly didn’t had wicker seats, but some plastic seats in wicker motive, less chrome and some other small esthetic details.

March 1959: Tetto aprilbile
The first “facelift” of the 500 introduced a modified front with round flashlights underneath the headlights and a smaller sunrooftop. Passagers could count on a improved heat generator and more leg space thanks to the deeper platform. The optimised extra space started the beginning of the 500’s, huge selling success. The engine was optimised with a new coolingsystem and stronger dynamo, that now produced a 16,5hp.

May 1960: 500 K Giardieniera
In 1955 Fiat stopped the production of the Fiat 500 C Belvedere (Topolino). To recomplete the range, Fiat introduced the Fiat 500 K Giardiniera. This Giardiniera was the bigger brother of the family offering more space, thanks to a longer wheelbase, a higher and longer roof and a big tailgate. The backseat was foldable and was easy to reach due to the famous suicidedoors. It is remarkable how Giacosa managed to create a small delivery van out of the same compact dimensions as the Nuova (the Giardieniera was only 21 cm longer.) The engine was redesigned totally to save space. The height of the engine motor unit measured only 35 cm and fitted perfectly below the cargo space in the back, allthough causing some small thermic and acoustic issues.

October 1960: 500 D Berlina
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October 1963: Abarth 595

February 1964: Abarth 595 SS

March 1964: Abarth 695

November 1964: Abarth 695 SS

March 1965: 500 F
For the first time in models’ history, the doors opened to the front to improve the rigidity of the coachwork. Also for this reason the roof was now fused in stead of screwed. The windowsurfaces are enlarged, the sills decreased. Again Fiat was obligated to modify the gastank. The total weight and fuel consumption increased to respectively 520 kilo and 5,5l/100 km. To compensate the increase in weight the engine capacity rised up to 18hp. The 500 F arised as the most succesfull 500 model at that time.

August 1968: 500 L Lusso
The positive economic climate, cultivated the demand for a more luxurous model. The Fiat marketing department introduced therefore the 500 L Lusso (Luxe), which was mechanically identical to the 500 F. In the time people whispered that the 500 L was built to approach a female public. The chrome nudge bars above the front-and rearbumper corresponded to the new legislation about standard bumperheights. From now on the new upright red logo showed off on the front. The windows were decorated with chrome frame edging. The renewed dashboard got a black lining, a wide speed speedometer (combi instrument) and a fuel gauge. The 500 L has been produced till 1972 and together with the 500 F, a whopping 2.272.092 models were sold.

Fiat 126
The Fiat 126 was supposed to be as succesfull as the 500, but as sales were low, Fiat decided to reintroduce the 500 Rinnovata. Both cars were produced in parallel, whereby the 126 shared some parts with the 500 R. The 126 was presented during the Turin carshow in 1972. It was manufactured in Fiat’s carassembly factory in Cassino and Termini Imerese. From 1973 the production was moved to Poland in Tychy and Bielsko-Biala. Although its Italian roots, the 126 is often seen as a Polisch product as the name changed to 126p. In Poland the 126p got the nickname “Maluch”, meaning “something small”. In 1976, the first extensive facelift introduced plastic bumpers, plastic rubber strips, different wheelsrims, mirrors and other details. In 1977, the engine capacity was raised from 594cc to 652cc. In 1981, one million 126p’s were already produced, in 1993 a staggering three million! The engine was replaced in 1987 by a water cooled version of 704cc. In 1990, Fiat forsaw the end of the 126 and began to built a successor known as the Fiat Cinquecento. While Fiat gave birth to the new Cinquecento model, the Polish production of the 126p, only stopped in 2000. The 126 also appeared as the “FSM Niki 126”, an export product for the Austrian market (1989 – 1992) and as the “Seat 133”, produced by Seat in Spain (1974 – 1979).

November 1972: 500 R Rinnovata
To counter the disappointing selling results of the Fiat 126, the 500 R Rinnovata was reintroduced by Fiat. The 500 R Rinnovata got the new Fiat logo with its typical four windows. The luxurous dashboard of the 500 L was no longer applied in the R version, as well as the chrome nudgebars and multiple chrome accents. The engine capacity was raised to a 23hp thanks to the new 594cc engine and even in the last years of production the newest Fiat 126 engine was also available. In 1975, production was stopped for the Fiat 500. In those days Dante Giacosa could never have dreamed how his favourable 500 would become a true historical car icon.