1964 Fiat 500D; Anything but Goofy.(Escape Roads)(Brief Article)

Byline: PATRICK C. PATERNIE

Long before the Mini arrived, the Fiat 500 relied on personality and clever design to endear itself to the driving public. Launched in 1936, the tiny car featured a full-length folding canvas roof and streamliner styling save for headlights perched on the fenders, a la mouse ears. It was an endearing package that earned it the nickname of Topolino, or ``little mouse,'' in deference to the era's populist cinema hero, Mickey. More than 500,000 Topos were sold before it needed a redo in 1955.

Dante Giacosa was the young engineer who came up with the original Fiat 500, and it befell him to design a modern, yet equally personable, successor. In 1956, the Suez Canal crisis created oil shortages that led to the popularity of tiny ``bubble cars''-like the BMW Isetta and the Messerschmitt-throughout England and on the Continent. These micro cars were little more than motor scooters with bodies. Giacosa felt that a new Topolino could be more roadworthy, yet an equally economical alternative. (Coincidentally, Sir Alec Issigonis' design mandate for the Mini was to provide a British-built vehicle to thwart the invasion of bubble cars to the U.K.)

Dubbed the Nuova 500, the new Fiat had little in common with its more conventional front-engine, rear-drive predecessor. Besides being a foot shorter (72.4-inch wheelbase), the Nuova 500 featured Fiat's first air-cooled engine, an aluminum twin-cylinder mounted at the rear. It also eschewed the Topolino's body-on-frame construction for a unibody. The only carryovers were a transverse-leaf-spring independent front suspension, folding canvas roof and rear-hinged ``suicide'' doors.

Engine displacement in the car dropped from 569 cc to 479 cc, though output stayed at 13 hp. Its unladen weight was down 144 pounds to 1035 pounds. The car rode on tiny 12-inch wheels. It had drum brakes, a 12-volt electrical system and a semi-trailing-arm with coil-spring rear suspension. Its four-speed transaxle was also nonsynchronized. Fuel capacity topped out at 4.6 gallons, which was enough for a car that got 65 mpg.

The Nuova 500 was not ready for its anticipated debut in the spring of 1957 at Geneva. Fiat released it later that summer, accompanied by a publicity campaign that used everyone from Juan Manuel Fangio to Jayne Mansfield to Cardinal Giovanni Montini, who later became better known ...