The summer of 1957 saw a car debut of exceptional importance. Fiat launched the super-utility Nuova 500, a car which, according to the intentions of Turin management, was to make a significant contribution to the growth of national motoring.
Intended generically for the less affluent classes, but more concretely for the over three million Italians who are motorcyclists by necessity rather than choice, the Nuova 500 was also offered to one million families who already owned a car and perhaps wished to buy a second, smaller one to use in the already problematic urban traffic.
At first, the response was cold, but after a precipitous reformulation of its contents, made more attractive, sales began to rise, and production started to reach the figures Fiat had forecast.
In the space of eighteen years, Fiat built over four million 500, including the Giardiniera, Autobianchi and fuoriserie versions.
The author, Enzo Altorio, traces the genesis, development and evolution of this four-wheeled legend as in a great industrial romance, producing a rigorous and complete work that is also a fascinating document on recent national history.
Included are Autobianchi Bianchina, Abarth and Giannini elaborations, Steyr-Puch, and innumerable coachbuilder interpretations.
Valuable and fundamental is the direct contribution and historical advice of the car's designer, engineer Dante Giacosa, who was directly involved in the technical office and the father of 500A, familiarly known as Topolino.
Readers will not only be reminded of this distant progeny of the Nuova 500 throughout the pages of this book.
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