"Mummy, look at that old car!" says a small child as the little Fiat pulls up at the red light of the pedestrian crossing on Hyde Park Corner. The noise of some hundred other people, and some hundred other cars, fills the air, but as the light turns green, the Fiat pulls forward with both a silence and an urgency unlike any normal 500 at just a brush of the throttle. "Oh my God, it's electric!" exclaims the child's parent.
You'd struggle to come up with a car more likely to gather approval from passers-by than this cheeky Fiat. In a delightful pastel blue, the Italian combines diminutive cuteness with stylish chic. Only a Mini gets close to this level of classless urbanity, but the tiny Fiat one-ups the legendary British compact by replacing the lingering, Bovril-infused stuffiness of mid-century BMC with Torinese elegance.
That's true of any Nuova 500, but whereas the typical edition of Dante Giacosa's minuscule masterpiece might draw ire in the 21st century for the noise of its clattering twin-cylinder engine and its nitrous-oxide-rich exhaust fumes, this Fiat does no such thing. Cars are often said to ruin cities, whether through visual clutter, noise or air pollution, but this electricconverted 500 avoids all three sins to a degree not even a modern-day Tesla can match.
That's particularly welcome on a warm day, when the Fiat reflects its Mediterranean origins: once its windows are open and the cloth sunroof flung back with ease, those inside become part of the community of a given street as much as a pedestrian, cyclist, street-seller or dog-walker. Even the most ardent car-hating city-dweller can't resist this 500's charm, and it's equally guilt-free to drive.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 2023 من Classic & Sports Car.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 2023 من Classic & Sports Car.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
A Breath of Fresh Air- Alfa Romeo's exotic, V8-powered Montreal was like nothing the marque had made before, but can it compare with a Porsche masterpiece, the 911S 2.4?
The stereotype of the ItaloGermanic automotive rivalry is that the Latin car will be brilliant to drive, but poorly built and ergonomically flawed, while the Teutonic will be the opposite. Yet these 2+2 sports coupés both ran against orthodoxy. In the Montreal, Alfa Romeo created an outlandish-looking two-door more comfortable, more powerful and more refined than anything it had produced for decades. Meanwhile, Porsche continued to refine its back-to-front, austere and increasingly aged 911. Neither took a traditional development path, but both created thrilling and individual cars that have echoed through the decades.
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ICON.
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