Technically, the FIAT 500 name has been rebooted twice. The first 500, released before the outbreak of Second World War, was better known as a Topolino, or ‘Little Mouse’, with a sweeping radiator grille, tiny but spacious body and reverse-hinge ‘suicide’ doors. Scramble regulars will have seen one dwarfed by a tractor at the snowy Scramble in January.
The 500 properly appeared in the 1950s, though, fittingly announced as the Nuova 500 in July 1957. The 500 N didn’t instantly win the hearts and minds of Italians as the country’s genuine People’s Car, having been launched into the shadow of its larger 600 sibling, but its time certainly came.
Its charm has also endured – as did those suicide doors initially – thanks in no small part to its timeless looks and buzzy, 15bhp two-cylinder engine bolted into the back.
All manner of variants flowed from Turin, including an even more charming doorless ‘Jolly’ with wicker seats and roll-top roof. There was the Giardiniera estate car – the extra 10cm edging the 500 past the 3m-long mark – and indie-turned-factory tuner Abarth spiced things up for road and race.
The output crept up and 100 mph was at times achievable, while front-hinged doors appeared in 1965 with the common 500F. Three years later came luxury in the Lusso model and the R offered a rorty 600cc, but the boxier 126 was released in 1972 and 500 bowed out by 1975.
But the world, and FIAT, was not done with the 500 and 50 years on from that mixed first launch it was revived, the bubble aesthetic and pastiche interior paying tribute to the original. It was a productionised version of the three-and-a-half seat Trepiuno concept shown at Geneva in 2004. The name translated to Three Plus One, its fourth seat a small rear seat squeezed behind the driver and beside the single rear passenger.
Remarkably, the car launched in 2007 under the watchful eye of design director Frank Stephenson is still available today, little changed. Or rather incrementally changed, but it is still similar enough to be ploughing on with the same 18-year-old concept.
Like the original, its styling has aged well enough to need only minor facelifts over the years and refinements and enhancements beneath the bonnet to keep up with the competition, including the high-revving TwinAir and VVT MultiAir. Today there’s an electric variant, too, roll-top roof is an option but thankfully no suicide doors.
Compare new and old on the Reboots & Restomods display at the Scramble on Sunday 5 October.