Friday,
December 28, 2007
"Fiat 500" Back for Third Time,
to Capture more Hearts
The
ANNOTICO Report
In
November Green Car Journal awarded the overall title of "European Car of
the Year" for 2008 to the new Fiat 500, a snazzily
updated version of the tiny Italian classic. (see
Annotico Report of December 2nd.) Some models of the Fiat 500, will get 88 mpg !!!!
With
the "New" 2008 Fiat introduced, it's interesting to review the
previous two Fiat 500 versions that stole so many Italian Hearts.
The original Fiat 500 "Topolino"
(little mouse), built from 1936 to 1948. one-half million
were produced.
The
"nuovo" Fiat 500 was produced from
1957 to 1975, with more than 3.6 million built.
National
Post
CanWest
News Service
Friday,
December 28, 2007
The original Fiat
500 "Topolino" (little mouse), built from
1936 to 1948, was revered by Italian drivers. Although it was a tiny car, the
two-passenger coupe had many of the engineering attributes of larger cars. Its
front-mounted, water-cooled, four-cylinder, 13-horsepower engine drove the rear
wheels through a four-speed manual transmission. Performance was adequate and
fuel economy was outstanding.
Over the pre-and
post-Second World War periods of its production, more than a half-million Topolinos were built. But when it was discontinued in 1948,
there would be no immediate successor, Fiat having apparently decided there was
no longer a need for such a small "people's car."
But many rural
Italians of modest means and city dwellers who valued compact dimensions for
the congested streets and limited parking thought otherwise. Fiat finally
relented, and a replacement nuovo Fiat 500 arrived in
1957. It was designed by engineer Dante Giacosa, who
had also engineered the Topolino.
The new 500,
although still small, was quite different from the original and more practical.
Rather than being a two-passenger coupe, it was a two-door sedan that could
carry four people -- although it would help if the
riders in the rear were small. The doors were hinged at the rear, suicide
style.
The 500 was
really diminutive. While the BMC Mini that would arrive in 1959 was considered
a very small car, the 500 was even smaller. Its wheelbase was only 1,839 millimetres, which was 193 mm shorter than the Mini's.
Overall length was 2,972 mm, which was 76 mm less than the Mini, and it weighed
just more than 454 kilograms, compared with the Mini's 608 kg.
Unlike the
original frontengined Topolino,
the new 500 had its engine behind the rear axle. It was an air-cooled,
479-cubic-centimetre, 13-hp, overhead-valve, in-line two-cylinder with an
aluminum cylinder block and head. It drove the rear wheels through a four-speed
manual transmission. This transmission was not synchronized, unusual for a car
of that era, but contemporary road test reports indicated that, in spite of
this, shifting the non-synchro gearbox was
surprisingly easy.
Suspension was by
A-arms and a transverse leaf spring at the front and coil springs with swing
axles and trailing arms at the rear. In spite of these rather straightforward
underpinnings, testers reported that the 500 was a remarkably well-handling
car.
The little
unit-construction body was strictly functional, the only adornment being the
Fiat badging. Early cars had all windows fixed, with
the only ventilation coming from the large sunroof.
This was soon
rectified with wind-down windows in the doors. The spare tire and gasoline tank
were under the front hood, leaving limited room for luggage.
As would be
expected from an engine of less than half a litre,
performance was modest. Top speed was about 85 kilometres
an hour for the standard version. Road & Track (5/'59) tested a hotter
21.5-hp model and reported a zero-to-96-km/h time of 37.2 seconds and a top
speed of 106 km/h. Fuel economy was, of course, outstanding at 5.6 litres per 100 km.
To provide a
little more performance, the Fiat 500 had its standard engine increased
slightly to 495 cc in 1960. Horsepower was now up to 17.5 and top speed was
increased to 95 km/h.
Despite its
modest performance and limited carrying capacity, the Fiat 500 was exported to
It was at the
opposite end of the automotive spectrum from the typical American car. Needless
to say, it made a startling contrast to the huge, chrome-and-fins behemoths
that prowled the highways in the land of cheap gasoline. Even though it was
priced around $1,200, it met with limited sales success.
The year 1965
brought more changes. The suicide doors were changed to a conventional front-hinged
design on the sedan, and the previously external hinges were concealed. Fiat
also introduced a more spacious station wagon version of the 500 but, for some
reason, left it with the rear-hinged doors. Its carrying capacity could be
increased by folding the rear seatbacks forward.
To allow the
station wagon's floor to extend flat and level through to the rear, the upright
engine was replaced by a new two-cylinder, horizontally opposed design. It was
engineered specifically for the wagon and was a clever way to provide a
continuous load-carrying platform.
For beach
cruisers, there was also an open, whimsically cute Jolly "beach
buggy" model with a soft top that was truly a "surrey with the fringe
on top." It continued the theme with basket-weave seats.
The Fiat 500 was
produced from 1957 to 1975, during which more than 3.6 million were built,
proving that there indeed had been a market for a small, robust, fun-to-drive
car for less well-to-do motorists. There are still quite a few 500s around, and
there are clubs devoted to their enjoyment and preservation.
The
ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:
Italia
Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com (3 years)
Annotico
Email: annotico@earthlink.net