Fifty years ago, on 4 July 1957, Fiat introduced the Nuova Fiat 500, which became an icon of our times, and with which Fiat completed a revival that had begun immediately after the Second World War.

This summer, on 4 July 2007, exactly 50 years later, and once again in Turin, the company will be presenting its new Fiat 500, which will go on sale immediately after the launch. This new car will also mark an important cycle of revival for Fiat Automobiles SpA.
Developed by the Fiat Style Centre and manufactured in Fiat’s Tychy (Poland) plant, the new 500 is a 3-door model with very compact measurements: 355 cm long,
165 cm wide, 149 cm tall and a wheelbase of 230 cm. Produced with three engine options: a 75 bhp 1.3 16v MultiJet turbodiesel and two petrol engines, a 69 bhp 1.2 8v and a 100 bhp 1.4 16v, with five or six speed manual gearboxes, the new Fiat 500 is designed to be notably entertaining to drive.
The new car’s arrival confirms Fiat Automobiles SpA’s undisputed leadership in this category – a result of the company’s extraordinary heritage of technical, design and human experience accumulated over more than a century – and the new Fiat 500 takes a quality leap forward in terms of comfort and safety, technology and equipment for this segment.
The new Fiat 500 is the most up-to-date solution for motorists who ‘enjoy’ their car in complete freedom, and appreciate it for day-to-day use, but also wish to drive a vehicle that is entertaining and practical, environmentally-friendly and accessible, but also appealing and full of fun.
The new Fiat 500 will go on sale in the UK early next year.

THE FIAT 500, AN ICON OF OUR TIME

Some cars go down in history for their technological or styling innovations. Others deserve to be remembered for the role they have played in the daily life of an entire generation or an entire country. Few succeed in combining the two: technology and sentiment. They leave an indelible mark, becoming a sort of icon of their age.

The Nuova 500 is one of these. In a career lasting 18 years, from 1957 to 1975, exactly 3,893,294 were built, and it helped Italians and numerous other Europeans to satisfy a need for individual mobility that began to gain momentum from the early 1950s. The Nuova 500, even more than the 600 (1955), also brought the end of the post-war emergency period for motorisation and the automotive industry in Italy, and the start of the striving for comfort, albeit minimal and economical.

With the Nuova 500, the country of the ‘Poor but beautiful’ became, or tried to become, not quite as poor (and to a certain extent it succeeded), but above all, able to move around more freely.

The Nuova 500 also concluded the rebirth of Fiat and of its product range, after the devastation of the Second World War. Dante Giacosa, the ‘father’ of the Nuova 500, but also of the previous 500 Topolino and of numerous other models, said in his book ‘Progetti alla Fiat prima del computer’ (Design at Fiat before the computer), that when the 500 was launched on 4 July, 1957, Fiat “realised its programme of renewing its models, to replace those born before the Second World War”.

At two-year intervals, the 1400, 1900, 1100, Nuova 500 and their derivatives were launched on the international market. In just 10 years, Fiat had conceived and begun manufacture of four completely new basic models that had their roots in the technological culture that had grown up in its own offices and laboratories.

Writing about the launch of the Nuova 500, Dante Giacosa revealed that the term ‘Big little car’ was also coined at Mirafiori, but the pragmatic engineer commented that “people just called it the 500”. Fifty years after that summer of 1957, in an age when television is even available on mobile phones, with shots and reports from all over the universe, it is entertaining to read that “the launch was held in great style. National television installed itself in the Mirafiori workshop on a boiling hot evening in July, and even I was invited for a live interview on the assembly line.”

Eighteen years after that “boiling hot evening in July”, during which time almost 3.9 million cars were built, another very hot day dawned – 4 August, 1975 – the day on which the ‘last’ car, at least of the 1957-75 Nuova Fiat 500 series, was built, not at Mirafiori but at the SicilFiat plant in Termini Imerese (Palermo).

THE RECONSTRUCTION AND CONQUEST OF THE MARKET

The Nuova 500 was not just a brilliant idea by Dante Giacosa, like the 600 and the many other cars he designed. Nor was it just a model of which millions were made, which got the mission and contents just right to fall in with the company’s programmes at the time. More than anything else, the 500 was the result of a strategy to develop and revamp its range that Fiat had already embarked on during the Second World War. Vittorio Valletta, Managing Director first and then company chairman from 1946 (after the death of Senator Agnelli), asked Giacosa to start thinking of new cars that could go into production after the war, even while Turin was still being targeted by Allied air raids, and the Mirafiori offices were occupied by German ‘allies-occupiers’.

But it was only in the early 1950s, and therefore when the reconstruction of the plants was well underway, that work on the new models began in earnest at Mirafiori. In 1949 the Topolino C, the last of the series, went into production, but other ‘real’ new models arrived: the 1400, a cabrio version of the 1400, the 1900 diesel, the Nuova 1100 of 1953 and its derived versions. And in 1952, in a blaze of technology, the sporty 8 V appeared, followed a year later by a futuristic turbine-powered prototype.

The reconstruction years at Fiat and the consequent development of new cars, including the Nuova 500, reflected the situation in the country in the early 1950s, when there were growing signs that the market was becoming increasingly receptive to mass motorisation. The ‘need’ for individual mobility was answered, in Italy, from 1946 until the mid 1950s, not by cars but by two-wheeled vehicles, and particularly the scooters built by Piaggio and Innocenti, the Vespa and the Lambretta. The former, for example, from an output of 2500 units in 1946, reached its one millionth unit just 10 years later, in 1956.

In 1955, registration of two-wheeled vehicles in Italy totalled 400,000 units, an amazing record, if we think that in 1951 there were just under 40,000 licensed motor vehicles registered. The boom of the two-wheeler was an important indication of the prospects for the four-wheeled vehicle market, and prompted Fiat to speed up development of its new model. The great commitment by Fiat design engineers culminated in 1955 with the 600, Italy’s first real popular family car (between 1955 and 1970, 2,777,313 were built in Mirafiori alone) and in 1957 with the Nuova 500.

From then on, Fiat’s manufacturing volumes began to soar (from an annual total of 108,700 in 1950 – the first year in company history that the 100,000 mark was passed – to almost 513,300 in 1960, and 994,000 in 1965), as well as the daily output: 1,000 units/day in 1956, 2,000 units/day in 1960 after the 500 had been on the market for three years, and 4,000 units/day in 1965 when the 850 joined the 600 and the 500. The workforce increased from 72,000 in 1950 to almost 93,000 in 1960, and almost 185,000 in 1970.

The boom of ‘accessible’ four-wheeled vehicles heralded the start of the crisis for two-wheelers. From 1955 (the year that the 600 was launched) registrations of motorcycles and scooters began to fall off, and by 1957, when the 500 arrived, they were just above 330,000 units/year; in 1965, the year that Fiat output first exceeded one million cars in a year, registrations of motorcycles were just above 200,000 units. In other words, if Fiat had set out to win over a segment of the domestic market with its 500 and 600 to the detriment of other forms of vehicles, it had been successful. ‘Pioneering’ travel on two wheels, albeit motorised, was no longer enough in the new, more affluent Italy. The number of wheels doubled; people wanted a roof over their heads to protect them from the weather, in other words, they wanted a car.

The level of motorisation in Italy is worth mentioning; it grew from 6 vehicles/1000 inhabitants in 1950 to 32 vehicles/1000 inhabitants in 1960 (therefore in the period of greatest demand for the 600, but above all for the 500), reaching 167 vehicles/1000 inhabitants in 1970, and leaping to 330 vehicles/1000 inhabitants in 1980, in line with the rest of Western Europe. The great task of motorising the Italians and of bringing them into line with Europe in terms of car use, was certainly achieved thanks primarily to the Fiat 600 and 500, supported by the 850.

The 110 prototype for the Nuova 500

To understand ‘how’ and why the Nuova 500 was conceived, we have to think not of a mere substitute for the old Topolino (509,650 units between 1936-1955), or of a model that was able to compete with a scooter, in terms of costs and efficiency.

Giacosa wrote an interesting description of the ‘preparatory’ stage before the arrival of the car. The most important Italian automotive engineer in the second half of the 20th century, and the true father of the Nuova 500, is the best witness to these events. “While the 600 was still at the experimental stage,” he said, “I had put people back to work on a minimalist car, even smaller and more economical. The Italians wanted cars, and they were willing to make do with even less space, provided it was on four wheels. No matter how small, a car would still be more comfortable than a scooter, particularly in winter and in the rain. I had people sketch models of unconventional small cars that had to compete with the Vespa in particular.”

As far back as 1939, Fiat had already done some work on ‘minimalist’ cars that had remained at the experimental stage because of the war, which is what happened to the
first type 100 with front-wheel drive and a 500 cc transverse engine, designed in 1947,
which was never built.

During the war, a prototype, known as the Gregoire, appeared in France, attracting a great deal of attention, but again, nothing came of it. But at Mirafiori, Fiat engineers knew that in Germany they were designing small cars like the BMW Isetta, which Giacosa called “half-way between a car and a motorcycle”, and attempts were being made to restart manufacture of the people’s car, the Volkswagen, in viable numbers. The Deutsche Fiat company had a sort of technological antenna in Germany through its headquarters in Heilbronn and its assembly plant in Weinsberg. A technician called Hans Peter Bauhof worked there, whom Dante Giacosa defined as a man with a “fervid imagination, animated by a restless spirit of initiative”, adding, in what resembled a note to the personnel department, that he was “shy and modest, but ingenious, tenacious and hard-working”.

In 1953, the technician from Heilbronn submitted his proposal (which appears somewhat rustic from the pictures that still remain) for a small car with a single cylinder, 2-stroke engine derived from a motorcycle which, in Giacosa’s words, was “unsuitable for the car that Fiat wanted to build”. But Bauhof’s ideas for the construction of the bodywork were appreciated in Turin. Bauhof also sent a prototype to Turin, which Giacosa found “interesting for its simplicity”, but the rest of the company considered it too superficial and insufficient as a car.

When Bauhof’s proposal to use a motorcycle engine had been discarded, Giacosa continued to work on the 500 project. In 1954 he decided “that the engine had to be a
4-stroke, with two cylinders in line, which is the simplest, most economical engine, and that it should be air-cooled. It may be positioned transversely, it is simple and has a high mechanical efficiency”. He entrusted the actual design to the engineer Giovanni Torrazza, “the only graduate working for me who knew how to draw”, and designed the bodywork himself, because “I was so worried about giving the car an attractive shape, a structure that was as light as possible but sturdy, and simple but economical to build”. Giacosa prepared two plaster models, one very similar to the 600 and the other entirely new. “I tried to make the sheet metal surface as small as possible”, he wrote in his book, “in order to limit the weight and the cost, much as I had done for the 600”.

His description of the presentation of the two 500 mock-ups is involuntarily comic because, as Giacosa recalled, “when I presented the two mock-ups to the Professor (Vittorio Valletta, Fiat Chairman at the time) and to the small Executive Committee, they were silent and perplexed, although they gradually relaxed when they understood the various reasons for things. And because they had to take a decision, they decided to support me, and approved the new version”.

The start of development
Giacosa went on to say that “once the bodywork was approved, the new model 110 (Fiat internal number-code name for the Nuova 500 project which adopted the ‘hundreds-based’ numbering system for the various ‘types’ and models) was discussed for the first time at the New types meeting of 18 October, 1954, attended by Giacosa, Vittorio Valletta (Chairman and Managing Director of Fiat), Gaudenzio Bono (also Managing Director and General Manager), Luigi Gajal de la Chenaje (Vice Chairman and Commercial Manager) and other representatives of company management. And on that occasion, the new car shed its project number and was given its first name, or number, the 400.

At the meeting it was decided that the new model would have a power delivery of 13 bhp, a capacity of 480 cc with overhead or side valves, a top speed of 85 km/h, fuel consumption of 4.5 litres for 100 km, a weight of 370 kg and would carry two passengers. The prototype was to be approved on 30 June, 1955 so that production could start in mid 1956. At the same time, a prototype with four seats instead of two was also approved, as well as another prototype “but with a different, more luxurious body” for Autobianchi (a company created out of the former Edoardo Bianchi company, set up in 1955 with capital from Fiat, Pirelli and Bianchi).

The meeting in the Park at Stupinigi

Nowadays, carmakers try to hide their new models, keeping them even from the eyes of employees, or they organise ultra-secret clinic tests, and Dante Giacosa’s description of the presentation of the entire new range of Fiat models, including the 500, is another curious sign of the half-century that has passed. It all took place not in a secluded spot, but in the park of the Royal Hunting Lodge at Stupinigi, just outside Turin. The park is open to the public and no manufacturer would use it today to present its entire range of future models to company managers, and also to its major stockholder, since ‘Avvocato’ Gianni Agnelli, Vice Chairman of the company, was also present at the meeting on 18 October, 1955.

“Someone expressed the fear that the public might find the Autobianchi more attractive and appealing than the Fiat, and prefer it”, said Giacosa in his book, “but we decided to set a higher price, closer to the 600, in order to limit demand to no more than 50 cars/day, since Desio (the Autobianchi plant) could not exceed that figure”. At the same meeting, a manager whose name is not known, even proposed giving the 500 to Autobianchi to produce, while Fiat built the Bianchina, but the proposal never got off the ground.

An investment of 7 billion lire was earmarked for the project, with an output of 300 cars/day. “Valletta persuaded us to turn out 500 units/day of mechanical parts and bodies, but only 300 cars/day worth of other parts that were built in the subsidiary workshops in Lingotto”. The 200 per day not assembled but manufactured and available on hand were used to build up the parts stocks, and if necessary, would be assembled to create the so-called end-of-line ‘store’. The months leading up to the launch were intense, with road tests, particularly to reduce vibration and engine noise, and to increase reliability and driveability. But at the beginning of the summer of 1957, the Nuova 500 was ready for the market.

-Profile of the protagonists-

Dante Giacosa - Born in Rome on 3 January, 1905, but his family was originally from Piedmont. He took a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Turin Polytechnic in 1927 when he was just 22, and immediately joined Fiat, having answered an advertisement in the paper. He was taken on as a design engineer and went on to become one of the greatest designers in the company’s history. In 1933 he became Car Engineering Manager, in 1955 head of the Vehicle Engineering department, and in 1966 Division Manager and Member of the Executive Committee. During his career he dealt not only with engineering but also with car design, as in the case of the Nuova 500 in 1957, which won him the Golden Compass award in 1959. He left Fiat in 1970 but remained a consultant ‘for life’. The cars created by Giacosa included: the Topolino in 1936, the 1400, 1900, Campagnola, the various versions of the 1100, the 600 and 600 Multipla, the Nuova 500, 1800, 2300 and 2300 coupé, the Autobianchi Bianchina, the Autobianchi Primula (the first Italian car with front-wheel drive and a transverse engine), the Autobianchi A112, the Fiat 124, 125, 126 and 128, and he also collaborated with Pio Manzù on the development of the Fiat 127. He died in Turin on 31 March, 1996.

Vittorio Valletta - Born in Genoa on July 28, 1883. He moved to Turin where he studied Accountancy at night school, followed by a diploma at the Institute of Commerce, also at evening classes. He taught in an institute of accountancy, and he worked for a tax and business consultant, and for the Chiribiri company, a Turin carmaker that has now vanished. In 1921, the ‘Professor’ was appointed to the Fiat top management by Fiat founder Senator Giovanni Agnelli, becoming General Manager in 1928. He was appointed Fiat Managing Director in 1939, and after being suspended for a short period in 1945 when the company went into administration at the end of the second world war, he became company Chairman in 1946, a position that he held for 20 years, until 1966. He died in Pietrasanta (Lucca) on 10 August, 1967.

THE VERSIONS FROM 1957 TO 1975

The Nuova 500 (1957 - 1960)
Output: over 181,000 units
(including the ‘economica’: ‘normale and ‘Sport versions)
Launch price: 465,000 lire

The Fiat Nuova 500 made its debut in the summer of 1957, with an excessively spartan specification: just two seats and a rear bench. The car could only accommodate two people, but could carry 70 kg of luggage (very important at the time).

The 500 was 2.97 metres long, 1.32 metres wide and 1.325 metres tall. It had a wheelbase of 1.84 metres. Empty it weighed 470 kg, and fully laden 680 kg. The rounded, well-proportioned lines recalled an egg, and one distinctive feature was the canvas roof that opened right to the rear of the vehicle, like the one on the 500 Topolino. The roof incorporated a transparent plastic rear window. The Nuova 500 won its designer, Dante Giacosa, the prestigious Golden Compass award for industrial design in 1959.

The engine of the 500 was a new petrol engine with two cylinders in line and air-cooled (it was Fiat’s first air-cooled engine) with a capacity of 479 cc, delivering 13 bhp. The gearbox had four speeds with synchromesh on 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Braking was hydraulically assisted on all four wheels. The transmission was of the oscillating axle shaft type and drive was to the rear wheels, with the engine positioned at the rear of the car, the second time in Fiat history, after the 600 launched in 1955. Top speed was 85 km/h and average fuel consumption was 4.5 litres /100 km.

The front suspension was independent with upper cross links, a transverse lower leaf spring and telescopic dampers at the front, and independent, with cross links, large coil springs and telescopic dampers at the rear. Because there was no other space available, the 20-litre barrel-shaped fuel tank was located under the front bonnet.

One of the characteristic features of the Nuova 500 were the pressed metal wheels without hub caps that were painted a light colour; the headlights were recessed flush with the body at the front, and oval at the rear. There were no direction indicators on the front, these being replaced by the large drop-shaped indicators on the sides. On the front was the Fiat logo, surrounded by a sort of grille with two chrome-plated ‘whiskers’. The doors were hinged at the rear.

The equipment and fittings were kept to a minimum; for example, the windscreen wiper did not have an automatic return, and the few tools provided, such as the jack, were kept in a canvas bag in the boot.

The Nuova 500 received its first revisions at the 1957 Turin Motor Show (i.e. just three months after its launch). It had not been a great success with the public. The clientele found it much too basic, and two seats were considered too few. In other words, the improvement over the scooter (and a costly one at that) was not yet perceived or perceivable by the clientele. That was not all: the difference in price with respect to the basic 600 (launched in 1955) penalised the new Fiat. The 600 had a more powerful engine (633 cc, 21.5 bhp and a top speed of 95 km/h) and carried 4 passengers + 30 kg of luggage. It also had better equipment, was more of a car, and cost 590,000 lire, just 125,000 lire more than the 500.

So Fiat was quick to act, introducing two modified versions, which it called the 500 ‘Normale’ and 500 ‘Economica’. Although their names seemed to indicate the opposite, they offered more equipment, could seat four thanks to a ‘real’, homologated rear seat that was also slightly padded, and had a more powerful engine, but cost 25,000 lire less than the first 500. The comparison with the 600 improved.

The additions to the car included chrome-plated shields to the front headlights, front quarter lights, lateral trims, improved facia controls, chrome-plated hubcaps, and a new rear model tag. The canvas roof stopped at the rear edge of the roof, and remained like that on subsequent versions of the car. The engine was also boosted by increasing the compression ratio, and adopting a new carburettor and camshaft. Power delivery increased from 13 to 15 bhp, and the top speed to 90 km/h (+5 km/h).

The price was 490,000 lire, therefore more than the first 500, and just 100,000 lire less than the 600 with which it was compared.

Nuova 500 Sport saloon and open roof (1958 - 1960)
Price: 560,000 lire (saloon) and 495,000 (open roof)

In the summer of 1958 Fiat launched the Sport version to differentiate and further strengthen the 500 range. The engine was more powerful, and the capacity increased to 499.5 cc, delivering 21.5 bhp, for a top speed of 105 km/h (+10 km/h). Consumption also increased, but only marginally, to 4.8 litres/100 km. But it returned to the 2-seat layout, with a rear bench that was not suitable for passengers. However the luggage capacity increased to 70 kg once again.

In 1959 an open-roofed version of the Sport appeared, with a canvas roof that stopped just behind the front seats. The doors were still hinged at the rear and, where styling was concerned, the tyres no longer had white walls (synonymous with elegance at the time) but were plain black, more gutsy but also less expensive, and the seats were made of a washable solid tone fabric (mainly red) with a red band at the top.

The 500 Giardiniera (1960 – 1977)
Output 458,000 units
(including the cars built by Autobianchi)
Launch price: 565,000 lire

The Giardiniera, the station wagon version of the 500, was launched in May 1960. The car had a 499.5 cc engine delivering 17.5 bhp, which took this mini estate to 95 km/h, with fuel consumption of 5.2 litres/100 km. The most important element, technically, was the different positioning of the twin-cylinder engine which was laid on its side ‘like a sole’, as they said at Fiat, so that it could fit under the flat loading surface. This same engine also powered the 126 in the latter days of its life, on the Bis version of the late 1980s which had a rear opening tailgate, and even on the first Cinquecento in 1991, suitably modified and developed.

For the Giardiniera, the engineers at Mirafiori increased the wheelbase by 10 centimetres to boost load capacity. This made the car 3.182 metres long, 1.323 metres wide and 1.354 metres tall with a wheelbase of 1.940 metres. Empty, the car weighed 555 kg and fully laden 875 kg. In terms of engineering, the brakes were still hydraulic on all four wheels, the gearbox still had four speeds with synchromesh on 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and the suspension design also remained the same.

The Giardiniera had a payload of 4 adults + 40 kg of luggage, but the rear seat squab folded down to increase load capacity. With only the driver on board, the 500 Giardiniera could carry up to 200 kg of luggage.

The styling was typical of a small station wagon of its day, with the rounded lines of the 500 saloon at the front and the addition of two round direction indicators, while those at the side were smaller, with two front doors (still rear-hinged), and a small rear tailgate that opened from right to left, being hinged on the left. The rear side windows slid open to improve ventilation and circulate the air. There was a long canvas sunroof. The Giardiniera was initially built at Mirafiori, on the same assembly lines as the saloon, but in 1966 it was transferred to Desio and built by Autobianchi. A total of 327,000 Fiat 500 Giardinieras were built (and at the end of its life, some appeared with only the Autobianchi name and without the Fiat logo on the front and rear).

The 500 D (1960 – 1965)
Output: over 642,000 units
Launch price: 450.000 lire

The new 500 series D was launched in the Autumn of 1960. Engine capacity was increased to 499.5 cc, and this version inherited the engine of the Sport version, which was taken off the market. It had a power output of 17.5 bhp, a top speed of 95 km/h and average consumption of 4.8 litres/100 km. The car was homologated for four people with 40 kg of luggage. The unladen weight also increased to 500 kg (the first 500 of 1957 weighed 470, and this reflected an important increase in content and stronger materials) and 820 kg fully laden.

The styling did not change, and the doors were still hinged at the rear but the design of the front and side direction indicators changed, adopting those on the Giardiniera. The rear light clusters changed and the canvas roof was now sturdier, easier to open and slightly smaller. White ‘walls’ returned on the tyres.

The fuel tank on the 500 D lost its barrel shape but remained in the front; its new less bulky form took up a little less space in the boot although it increased in size from 20 to 22 litres. A fold-down rear squab was adopted.

500 F (1965 – 1972)
Output: 2,272,000 (including the 500 L)
Launch price: 475,000 lire

The 500 F made its debut in March 1965 (it was joined by the 500 ‘Lusso’ in 1968), and was the first version to feature front-hinged doors which were safer in an accident, and made it possible to hide the ugly door hinges for the first time. In terms of engineering, the transmission was made more robust, with a number of improvements to the clutch, drive shafts and differential.

The engine still had a capacity of 499.5 cc, but now delivered 18 bhp, taking the 500 F to a top speed of 95 km/h. Fuel consumption also increased compared to previous versions, to 5.5 litres/100 km. The weight rose to 520 kg empty and 840 km fully laden. The car maintained its 4-seat homologation, with a maximum 40 kg of luggage. The gradient negotiable was now 26% compared to 23% on the first series.

Inside, there were a number of improvements and additional equipment and materials. With the 500 F, Fiat began to differentiate the range by price, styling and content. The
engineers at Mirafiori designed a ‘basic’ version, the 500 F, and a better equipped version, the 500 ‘Lusso’, which was launched in 1968.

500 L – ‘Lusso’ (1968 – 1972)
Output: 2,272,000 units (including the 500F)
Launch price: 525,000 lire

This version, which appeared in September 1968, had a clear mission: to meet the demands of customers looking for a car that was more comprehensive, more customised and more ‘luxurious’. These motorists were prepared to spend as much as 525,000 lire, in other words, 100,000 lire more than the 500 F. Marketing, evolving tastes and changing lifestyles were leading Fiat to develop a car that was a small status symbol for its day. The age of the basic car was already coming to an end, because customers wanted more.

The 500 L did not change where engineering and performance were concerned (engine capacity of 499.5 cc, 18 bhp, top speed of 95 km/h), but fuel consumption was down to 5.3 litres/100 km from 5.5 litres/100 km on the 500 F. The interior and exterior styling of the 500 L was new. Chrome nudge bars on the front and rear bumpers increased the length to 3.025 metres compared to 2.970 metres on the 500 F (the weight also increased by 10 kg to 530 km empty). The front and rear light clusters changed radically, and the two round front headlights, the direction indicators and the rear lights were all larger.

The Fiat logo on the front also changed, becoming rectangular, whereas on the 500 F it was still surrounded by a grille, with two chrome-silver painted plastic ‘whiskers’. Chrome-plated trim appeared on the roof drip channels for the first time. At the rear, the model name in italics used on previous series was abandoned in favour of new rhomboid-shaped brand and model graphics with black upper case lettering, positioned horizontally and no longer transversely on the bonnet, surrounded by squares with a metallic grey background which recalled the rhomboids of the Fiat trademark, that were used on all Fiat models from 1968.

But it was inside that the 500 L lived up to its name as the ‘luxury’ version. A number of interior details were redesigned, and the seats were upholstered in leather cloth with vertical quilting, usually in a light hide colour or red. The seats themselves were better padded with reclining squabs, and the number and size of the storage compartments increased (for example in the doors).

But the 500 L was a sort of swansong for the model. In 1972, when it was taken off the market, there was a new small Fiat, the 126, and from 1972 to 1975 only one version of the 500 was still in production, the last, and most basic version, the 500 R.

500 R (from 1972 to 1975)
Output: over 340,000 units
Launch price: 600,000 lire

Simultaneously, with the presentation of its successor, the 126, the last 500 was launched in 1972 at the Turin Motor Show. The car concluded the story begun 15 years earlier, in 1957, with a total of 3,893,294 units built at Mirafiori, at the Autobianchi plant in Desio and, finally, at the SicilFiat plant in Termini Imerese (Palermo), where the last 500 came off the assembly line in the Summer of 1975.

In the last three years of production, the 500 R (meaning ‘Rinnovata’, renewed) used the 594 cc engine of the 126, downgraded to 18 bhp from the 23 of the 126, but it kept the old 500 gearbox. Top speed was increased to 100 km/h, but the interiors had less equipment than the previous 500 L.

The age of the rounded curves of the 500 was over, and Italy was no longer the same country that had motorised itself in the space of 15 years (1957-1972), thanks in part to the small car designed by Dante Giacosa.

The production of various versions of the 500 exceeded even the 600, another car created by Giacosa, which closed its career with a total of 2,677,313 in 15 years of life, from 1955 to 1970.

The 500 Topolino, which was built in Lingotto from 1936 to 1955, reached little more than 509,000 units, partly because of the War. So for many years, until the Uno, Panda and Punto passed the one million mark, the legendary 500 of 1957-1972 remained the biggest selling and most built Fiat car.

The Autobianchis

The story of the 500 cannot be told without mentioning Autobianchi. In 1955, the Edoardo Bianchi company became part of Autobianchi, a joint-stock company, with capital from Fiat and Pirelli. In 1967 Autobianchi was in turn taken over by Fiat. When the company was transformed in the mid-Fifties, it stopped building its own cars and became a brand that produced variants of Fiat models. One such case was the Bianchina, which was basically a ‘diversified’ 500, also designed by Giacosa, which made its debut in 1957, costing a little more than its Fiat ‘cousin’, to avoid overlapping and ‘cannibalisation’ within the group for the saloon version. The subsequent Bianchina Panoramica, was a 500 Giardiniera ‘dressed up’ by Autobianchi.

In 1964, the Milan-based company launched the Primula (the first Italian saloon with front-wheel drive and a transversely mounted engine, the result of Giacosa’s ingenuity), followed by the A 111 and the legendary A 112. The 500 Giardiniera was built in Desio, at the Autobianchi plant, until the 1970s.

Autobianchi output grew from just 141 cars registered in 1957, to 12,233 in 1960, and 74,397 in 1970. Output of the Bianchina Cabrio was significant for its time, and a total of 9,000 were built in just four years from 1957.