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There's a lot you can do with a Fiat 500 . You can make it into an awesome beach car or roll it . If you're Studiotorino in Italy, you can use one as an homage to Italian comic hero Diabolik. In order to capture the essence of Diabolik, who is basically an Italian Omar, they've fixed it up in matte black paint, BORRANI spoked rims and a few other touches. On the inside are leather sport seats with images from the comic painted onto the material. Nothing strange about that. The photos they sent along, on the other hand, are really strange, in a weird, quasi-sexual way. galleryPost('500diabolik', 9, 'Pre Dragoned for Comfort'); We don't want to indicate that we're more pruriently-minded than others, but there's some serious car-on-chick-on-masked dude dragon action in these photos. Isn't that called a 'Lucky Puff The Magic Dragon' or something? [Studiotorino via CarScoop ]
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We knew there was going to be a Fiat 500 Convertible , but we didn’t realize Fiat was working on one of those full-length, Citroën 2CV-esque cloth sunroof things. The ahead-of-the-curve opinion-formers over at Next Autos seem to think the car will receive the clunky Cabriolet Coach designation, but we’re not sure if all those chrome letters would fit on the back of the diminutive Cinquecento. While this soft top Fiat 500 is significantly less gay than the Castagna Tender Two , like all modern retros, it’s still extremely limp-wristed. The coup de grace, in the form of a Mini Convertible-rivaling full-convertible 500 is expected to arrive some time next year. If you’re comfortable with your sexuality and you want people to know it, or you’re just a cute young girl, go for it. Just watch out for Audi Q7s headed in your direction. [via Next Autos ]
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With yacht-owning merrymakers in mind, Castagna has turned a perfectly serviceable Fiat 500 into an electric tender. To do so, they scrapped the engine in favor of an electric motor and batteries (capable of 87 mph), removed the doors and cut off the roof. Quickly discovering that the de-topped 500 had a tendency to fold in half over bumps, they raised the doorsills to brace the chassis. The interior has been redone in wood and a blue/white striped cloth, all the better to accent the Chanel sailor outfits its elderly, leather-faced owners are sure to wear. We expect to see one submerged off the Monaco pier in the near future, surrounded by fishes zapped dead by its waterlogged batteries. galleryPost('fiat500tendertwo', 3, 'Fiat 500 Tender Two'); [via Carscoop ]
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We spotted this miniature woody, a Fiat 500 C Giardiniera Belvedere, while passing through Charlevoix, Michigan. Ironically, it's still not the coolest car in town, as this place is also home to the awesome V8-powered Citroen 2CV off-roader we found at Autorama . The lakeside town is popular destination for Michiganders engaging in the summer tradition of vacationing "up north." As such, the ice cream-licking tourists were all over this little Fiat. It's hard (for me at least) to tell exactly what year this one is, but I'd say an early '50s model, as '55 was the last year for the original 500. These 'C' models were the final iterations of what many people know simply as the "Topolino," which started production in 1936. Of course, the iconic Fiat 500 that most people know was the rear-engined bubble that later came along in place of these originals. But the Topolino was no ass-engined VW-wannabe. galleryPost('fiat500c', 3, 'Fiat...
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We're going to leave Anaheim and head a few additional miles behind the Orange Curtain... to Costa Mesa, as we continue our special Down On The California Street DOTS-O-Rama. Costa Mesa, as you may recall, gets a Thomas Pynchon shout-out in Vineland , with the Great South Coast Plaza Eyeshadow Raid sequence taking place at the city's famous shopping mall . We can thank VeeArrrSix for capturing this not-very-legally-registered little yellow bomb for us; make the jump to read his description. galleryPost('DOTSBECostaMesaFiat', 3, 'Fiat 500 Abarth Down On The Costa Mesa Street'); Spotted this "lifeguard truck" yellow little guy a few weeks ago in Costa Mesa, CA, right by my office. I didn't get a chance to grab a pic, but I saw it again yesterday, sans the car cover that thwarted me last time. The owner has a Exige as his daily driver... he definitely doesn't mess around. Any idea how he gets away with a british plate in the OC? Thanks! VeeArrrSix
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We're all now apparently destined to give up our delightful gas-guzzling luxury boats (again) and dump our super-sized SUVs in favor of wearably small fuel sippers. It seems, thanks to news yesterday that the Dodge Hornet 's still in the mix and planning to head stateside, that at least a few automakers are trying to make them interesting, or are at least making them look interesting. Unfortunately none of them are yet here. But of these unbuyable-here (and in a couple of cases, anywhere) econoboxes, we're wondering which ones you're most interested in — hit the jump. Fiat 500 Fiat has been on again, off again on its plans for a return to the US, but we're hoping eventually to see the reborn Fiat 500 on domestic shores — if for no other reason than to give Mini owners something to think about. Sure, it'll need a little more scoot or a totally different torque curve to get us interested, but the car has style and a superb interior, plus it sips the fuel...
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Topless Fiat fans rejoice, a Cinquecento drop top is on the way. No word on when exactly we (or Europe, rather) will get it, but expect to be able to enjoy the wind in your hair, the sun on your face and the mocking stares of homophobic passersby combined with retro Italian styling by next summer. The 500 god-we're-hoping-they-don't-call-it-Spyder will wear a cloth top, chosen to keep both price and center of gravity low, which is good news for J erry Seinfeld 's East Hampton neighbors.[via J ustAuto ]
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newVideoPlayer("Fiat500Girl_Jalopnik.flv", 506, 423,""); Apparently, the babes pumping pedals craze never gets old. But where we previously brought you video of a young woman shifting in a dinky Citroen hatchback, we've been hipped to a site run by, who else, the Italians. This time it's scantily clad girls in Bimmers, Porsches, Ferraris and even a Seven. All that being said, the video of "Bonnie" in a short dress shifting gears in a Fiat 500D "driving, accelerating, shifting, pedal pumping" all of a sudden moves us out of neutral. This is completely safe-for-work, though people might think you're strange. (h/t Al Navarro ) [ Fast Driving Girls ]
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Having a vehicle that looks too plastic-y is never a good thing, but the latest and advanced plastic manufacturers like Borealis and Sabic are looking to the auto-world to help further their cause of plastic. Borealis is using the Fiat 500 as its test vehicle for TPO. TPO is polypropylene-based Daplen thermoplastic olefins, whatever the hell that means. It really just translates to plastic that is very scratch resistant and has the ability to achieve uniform thickness. Opel is getting in on the high-tech plastic game, as well. Sabic is implementing its plastics technology, Visualfx, in an Opel Corsa. This type of plastic uses two-shot molding and hydrographics. The nice part of this technology is that it allows for hardware and wires to be embedded between layers of plastic resin, making running wires a completely different ballgame. Bring on the plastic! [ Core77 ]
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Remember when the AP reported that Jerry Seinfeld rolled his 1967 Fiat BTM because of faulty brakes. They were almost right, except Seinfeld's car didn't roll but rather just "sort of fell over on its side." And Seinfeld's mystery Fiat was not a Dino coupe, but rather a a sexy Fiat 500 . Mystery solved. That's what we get for trusting the New York Times , which has posted a piece on the new Fiat 500 as some sort of journalistic penance. This is a fun game, we wonder what he'll safely crash next. [ Automobile , Photo: Wikipedia ]
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We already knew Fiat's Alfa Romeo was bringing the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione to the US and using the Maserati distribution network to do it. We'd also heard one option Fiat was discussing was creation of a new plant in Mexico to supply North America with volume models like the 159 sedan and upcoming Mi.To and 149 hatchbacks. But what we didn't know, if the coy allusions made in an article appearing in today's Financial Times are to be believed, is that Fiat CEO Sergio "March Madness" Marchionne may be looking at snatching up excess capacity at US automakers. If you think about it, such a deal would be a marriage made in convenience heaven, especially given the current value of the US Dollar against the Euro. We're also fairly certain the US automakers would be eager to part ways with the cash black hole of unused auto plants. So putting the two together would be a profit-making proposal we could easily see happening. We're only hoping the UAW labor won't...
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So there I was, just walking near the salt mine office in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, when here's this bright orange Fiat 500 just sitting there , being dwarfed by Civics and Sentras and begging me to take its photograph. I didn't have my camera handy (and, yes, I should carry it with me at all times), so out came the Blur-O-Matic™ cellphone camera. The car's owner is the owner of the restaurant in the background , and he came out to tell me all about his car. Turns out he picked it up in Italy for $500, shipped it back here, and has been using it as his daily driver ever since. This guy definitely gets the Jalopnik Stamp Of Approval! galleryPost('DOTSBESFFiat500', 6, '1970 Fiat 500 Down On The San Francisco Street');
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While we feel as if we're no stranger to the new Abarth-tuned Fiat 500 -- we've seen all the press shots , seen all the leaked specs and even seen a gigantic Fiat-pooping 500 -- it doesn't compare to seeing it in person. Here's our first glimpse at the tarted-up Abarth 500, and although not as cute as the cinquecento, it's still as adorable as the base model. And now there's even 33% more power to love as the folks at the Turin-founded and now Fiat-owned Abarth have turbo'ed that 1.4-liter gas engine, bumping the power up from the meek 100 bhp (as Ben found out in his test drive of Fiat's 2007 small hotness ) to 135 bhp at 5500 rpm. That power-play gives the 500 a 0-to-62 mph grade of 8.2 seconds. Not too shabby and definitely allows the remnants of the Abarth family to rest easy knowing the "small but wicked" past continues into the present. Full press release after the jump. galleryPost('abarth500geneva', 12, 'The Small Fiat 500 Abarth...
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[via Fiat's Flickr page ]
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Our impromptu review of the 2007 Fiat 500 revealed few weaknesses in the little car but chief among them was the less than satisfying engine performance. Well, now Abarth has announced production for the repowered reborn Cinquecento. The 1.4L gas engine gets a turbo which works to provide a much needed bump in power from 100 bhp to 155 bhp at 5500 rpm. That 55% increase in power pushes acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h down to a passable 8.2 seconds. Along with the power, the new Abarth 500 gets a revised nose and snazzy paint jobs as well as bigger wheels and tires. We'll be waiting for Abarth to send us one just like we asked for in December. High res version of the above press shot available here . 18/02/2008 Abarth The return of the Abarth brand continues to bring new challenges. The 'Scorpion' philosophy, which is conveyed in all the brand's activities with passion and tradition, continues to excite sports car lovers everywhere. As envisaged by the plans to revive the...
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