1972 F I AT E. S .V. 150 0
You might recognise Fiat 126 doors and windows in this oddball bumper car, which
was actually based on the preceding 500. An Experimental Safety Vehicle built by
Fiat in the early 1970s, it was a response to the US’s National Highway Safety Bureau
project exploring safer cars for the 1980s. Besides Fiat’s multi-car effort, Toyota,
British Leyland, Nissan, Volvo and Mercedes also built prototypes. This Fiat’s extra
reinforcements, soft cladding and interior padding pushed its weight to 680kg, or
1500lbs – hence the name – which may have been making a political point. Fiat built 13.
1971 FIAT 130 FAMILIARE
This wagon is one of four specially built
for the Agnelli family that owned and ran
Fiat. The 130 saloon was one of a number
of m o d e l s to e sta b l i sh th e i d e a th a t Fi at
was not so good at developing large cars.60 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 24 APRIL 2 019
Δ relishes the proximity of all this
h i s t or y. “ T he ide a i s not t o b e a ble t o
c op y de t a i l s f r om pr e v iou s mo de l s
but to be aware of the weight of the
past,” he says. “Every day I will pick
one car to look at. It’s a good way to
r e c h a r ge t he bat t e r ie s. T h i s w i l l
give me a lot of joy.”
That joy is the result of the
efforts of former design chief and
Cinquecento designer Roberto
Giolito, now head of FCA’s Italian
heritage activities. Giolito and his
team have conceived the space not
merely as a place in which to store
cars but a building in which new
ideas might be inspired. “It’s about
creating an atmosphere. The aim is to
interconnect different departments,”
he says, envisaging walk-arounds
with designers and engineers. “We
w a nt t o c r e at e h i g h v a lue i n t e r m s
of r e s u lt s. It ’s a t i me le s s pl a c e of
contemplation.”
There’s certainly plenty to
contemplate. Apart from several long
r ow s of c a r s a r r a n ge d i n e c he lon s ,
the centre of the building houses
eight themed exhibitions of cars.
Among them are ‘Archistars’ –
segment-defining models such as
the 1936 Fiat Topolino, 1955 Fiat
600 and the 1980 Fiat Panda, as well
as Concept and Personalised cars,
Eco and Sustainable concepts, rally
cars, racers, style landmarks, safety
car concepts and cars that have
e mba rk e d up on e pic jou r ne y s.
It’s astonishing to realise how
many cars FCA has been squirrelling
away, its collecting habit further
fuelled by the decision, taken in
2015, to keep the first example
of every new model made, says
Giolito. The themes will change over
time, of course, keeping this truly
impressive exhibition fresh for the
p e ople it ’s de si g ne d t o i n s pi r e a nd
for the public who might visit. And
i f y ou’r e i n Tu r i n , it ’s w e l l w or t h t he
effort. In the meantime, we can wait
to hear, hopefully, about the ideas
germinated amid all this history. L
`
Every day I will
pick one car to
look at. This will
give me joy
a
LINE OF LANCIAS
There are Lancias from the beginning to what is now not quite the end (it turns out
that the current Ypsilon supermini will be replaced after all). There are landmark
models like the Lambda, the first production car with a monocoque body, the Aurelia,
the Fulvia and the Delta Integrale, as well as various incarnations of the Beta, the
model whose bodywork’s urge to return to earth dealt Lancia a near mortal blow.
1957 FIAT 500
Several varieties of Fiat’s most famous
model include this twin-cylinder charmer
as well as the current version.
2009 A L FA R O M EO 8 C S P I D E R
This one’s for sale, with no refurbishment required, having covered a handful of kilometres during its life within the company.
Checked over by Heritage and issued with a certificate of authenticity, it is in effect a new car. The 444bhp 8C was a limited-
edition model appearing first as the Competizione coupé and then a Spider. Maserati built 500 of each for Alfa.
1955 FIAT 600
T h i s i s a p r o d u c t i o n 600, of w h i ch a l m ost
five million were built. When the millionth
was made in 1961, Fiat was manufacturing
the car at the rate of 1000 a day. It was
also built in Chile, Malaysia, Australia
and Colombia, and its manufacture by
Zastava contributed almost one million
units to the 2.7 million built by Fiat.
Roberto^ Giolito^ now^ run
s the Heritage^ Hub