Rendered Speculation: Fiat Topolino
Earlier this month we brought you news of Fiat's acquisition of Zastava and the Italian automaker's plans to use the retooled Serbian plant to produce a new city car reviving the old Topolino nameplate. Auto Express has brought its resources to bear and cooked up a pair of renderings of what form it thinks the new micro-car could take.
Looking something like a cross between a 500 and a new Renault Twingo, the Topolino rendering suggests a melding of the 500's retro touches with more modern lines. Although the car is expected to be based on the Panda platform, Auto Express suggests the Topolino will have a rear-engine/rear-drive layout, along the lines of the Smart ForTwo, Volkswagen up! and Toyota iQ, three models which the little Fiat would go up against in the marketplace. Innovative seating is tipped to help maximize its compact interior dimensions. Fiat has a wide array of compact engines that could appear in the Topolino, including the upcoming 0.9-liter two-cylinder gasoline engine previewed by the Panda Aria concept. With a DSG and start-stop system, the Topolino would help Fiat lower its range-wide carbon footprint.
[Source: Auto Express]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sean 6:52PM (5/23/2008)
.9 liter 2 cylinder?
My girlfriend has a .... er...
My tractor lawn mower has a bigger engine than that!
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fsx 7:13PM (5/23/2008)
If you people want fuel economy, you can't have that kind of reactions every time you look at Europe's engine sizes.
And if your girlfriend has a..... with an engine bigger than that, you've got some thinking to do ;)
Flea 7:47PM (5/23/2008)
Your lawn mower has 90-110 hp? Because that's what Fiat's 0.9 engine will develop. And last time I checked that's about the same amount you get from a Mini One's 1.4...
txdesign 7:27PM (5/23/2008)
It's nice to see Fiat producing original designs again. I would like to know if Frank Stephenson, the designer of the R53 Mini, had a hand in this since he was working on the Fiat 500. Too bad they screwed up the Mini redesign after he left.
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Colin Smith 4:40AM (5/24/2008)
And 90-110bhp with 60+mpg in the turbo, and 80+ mpg in the 65bhp no-turbo, all with sub 100 grams per mile CO2 emissions, sounds like nippy economical fun to me - and affordability - which matters!
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franke 7:35PM (5/24/2008)
Did you all miss that it is going to be RWD?! How cool is that?
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André 4:26PM (6/16/2008)
The Toyota iQ is FF. Let's correct the text, replacing it with "Mitsubishi i" or "Tata Nano".
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Egisto Soldi 12:42PM (5/24/2008)
Oh my God, that's horrible. I hope Fiat Topolino will not be so bad: froma Italy http://autoinsight.blogosfere.it/2008/05/fiat-topolino-se-sei-cosi-orribile-non-vendi.html
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Colin Smith 8:32PM (5/24/2008)
Fiat is on a roll and I don't think it will look anything like this dull derivative potoshop thing, but with a little rear engine and the right chassis it'll be brilliant, whatever it looks like.
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Paul Tan 1:29PM (5/25/2008)
That looks chopped from a Honda Jazz. Nice effort.
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