Fiat 500 Club meeting, Messina Sicily, 18-Sept

[mdsalemi]

While the attached pictures hardly do it justice, in the main Piazza Duomo in Messina this past Sunday, 18-Sept-22, there was a meet of the Fiat 500 (a/k/a Cinquacenta) Club. There were dozens of cars on display, each one as colorful as their owners!  Many have been modified, restored-mods, Abarth, etc. Clearly a lot of non-standard colors and modifications. A lot of fun...especially when the meet was over and they all went screeching out of the area on their respective rides home. They made a LOT of noise in doing so!

I left my 100 year old father sitting on a shady bench while fellow member Mauro Pisani and I, along with my wife, climbed the 225+ steps up the clock tower. Sure enough, my very social dad had found an old Sicilian gentleman to speak with in the old Sicilian dialect.

[Peter van Es]

Have you seen the Cinquecento's modified for racing... an oil cooler in the back and the rear lid open to improve the airflow, better carburettors...

Where there any? They are amazing at classic car races, like the modded Mini's...

[JamesL]

It was a small gathering…


Abarth used to build race versions. You know it when you hear it…

[mdsalemi]

…and the rear lid open to improve the airflow, better carburettors...

Where there any? They are amazing at classic car races, like the modded Mini's...

Nearly every one of them had a contraption to keep the rear lid open. Only a few were stock and the majority were modified. Lots with Abarth emblazoned on them, though I couldn’t tell you if they were Abarth cars or stickers.

It was great fun. How could you not smile?

[MikeSimon]

The Austrian company Steyr also modded the 500 into a hot-rod, Steyr Daimler Puch. They were often seen at hill-climb races in Germany in the 70s. One of the pictures shows an Abarth.

[neelyrc]

My son-in-law snapped this one in Naperville, IL a few days ago.  Salerno, Italy license plates,the rear one covered by a current Illinois plate.

[neelyrc]

…..Abarth used to build race versions. You know it when you hear it…

….and they still do - - in the modern cinquecento version and they can be extremely loud.

A cult has developed around these also.  Last Sunday the Genova Abarth Club held a rally in our town of Lavagna.  They had about 50 participants some being the high end limited edition models. There were also some extremely loud modified examples. 

[MikeSimon]

They are selling- at least they were - an Abarth version of the new 500 in the U.S. Don't know if it had a souped-up engine, though. Of course, the new version does no longer have 500cc, the origin of the name.

[neelyrc]

The “500” diesel version is 1248cc and the gasoline version is 1368cc.  Various configurations of the 1368cc gasoline engine are offered in the Fiat and related Abarth models here in Italy.