There’s something about the strangely matte beige of this 1957 Fiat 1100 that just blends in with its sun-baked, desert-y environment so well, that if you told me this was actually a secret Italian military project to develop environmentally-triggered camaleontessa color-changing paint, I’d have believed you.
I mean, why wouldn’t I trust you about this? You told me you were in charge of the Italian army’s mid-century stealth programs, which is why I agreed to give you my Social Security number in the first place. Also, I don’t get why you need my bank PIN code, but I guess you know what you’re doing, right?
I’ve always loved the little 1100! The later ones can be still found for pretty reasonable prices and they’re pretty reliable and simple to work on! The later styling loses a bit of the cool 50s design though.
Fun fact, there was a factory option for ONE center-mounted foglight!
https://www.denittoclassics.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2019/10/classic_fiat_500foto-1–750×400.jpg
Or as seen in this pic from a period brochure (on the right)! 😀
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Fiat-1100-103.jpg
Why Dutch? I found the brochure in English and Italian, but no, Torchy goes dutch on us!
And what of the Turismo Veloce, with a blistering top speed of 84mph and extended wings with different taillights?
Clearly I’ve been down the rabbit hole again, Thanks Jason!
Karma chameleon?
Suicide doors!
(Or maybe extreme self-harm doors.)
I love the unequal length grille bars.
Looks ready for “Bring A Trailer”.
An acquaintance of mine built a hot rod out of a 1959 Fiat 1100 station wagon fitted out with a MOPAR 360 V8. It is a totally pointless automobile, but I love it.
That car color looks familiar – several times/year our local reclamation facility has people bring in their old house paints and such, and mixes the safe (non-lead, latex) ones together to make “institutional paint”.
Is it matte or just non-metallic paint? I like the returned trend of shiny, non-metallic paints. I do wish automakers would expand the palette though.
Obviously we have learned nothing in 65 years
+1 simply for correct use of “palette” (vs pallet or palate)
La “1100 familiare” is beautiful
Top speed of *more than* 71 miles per hour!?! Geez, maybe you should just leave earlier, buddy…
Seems more than fast enough in that Fiat.
I don’t know if the doors are clever or weird or both.
They certainly are interesting. One of the first things did after reading this was search for an image of the front and rear door open at the same time, and it looked as weird as I thought it would.
This is the original postwar Fiat 1100 (Type 103); according to Wikipedia by ’57 they had moved on to the first facelift but is unclear whether or not the base-base model continued through MY1957 with this car’s 1953-era detailing. For model year 1958 there was a major facelift just in time for the 1958-60 import car boom in America.
Those tires are literal pizza cutters. It makes me feel like the rest of the car is paper-thin.
I caught that, too. I’ve seen bicycles with fatter tires than that.
I’m always baffled by people today complaining all cars looks the same, but back then, look at that, is it a Morris Minor? Is it a Peugeot 403? A Simca? No it’s a Fiat.
As a Morris Minor owner I thought Peugeot 403
I don’t complain that cars look the same. I complain that so many are so ugly these days.
I have rode in many of these in India! They were rebadged as the Premier Padmini per India’s local production laws during their very socialist years.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_Padmini
Why is everyone averting their gaze away from the car?
They are actually looking for the car. It is so well camouflaged, they can’t see it.
Shame.
This one’s also a good example of the “Oddly Posed Models in Advertising” series.
Yeah, woman in red is looking at his crotch, he’s saying “oh, please”.