Cute New Fiat 500 Spiaggina Edition Wants To Go To The Beach
There has been many a special edition Fiat 500 over the years, and the latest celebrates the original Fiat 500 Spiaggina. It’s 60 years since the Spiaggina, or Jolly, was first introduced, which featured gorgeous wicker seats and an optional parasol-like sun shelter.
The Spiaggina went on sale a year after the launch of the 500, and soon found its way to some of the most exclusive seaside resorts in the world. Amazingly, it cost double the price of the standard car, and was used by celebrities and influential people – mainly as dockside vehicles or as golf carts on country estates. Former US President Lyndon B Johnson even had one.
Despite the price, the Spiaggina didn’t feature anything as restricting as doors. In fact, guard rails weren’t even introduced until the very last models. It was powered by a 22hp two-cylinder air-cooled engine that was good for 65mph, but it’s pretty unlikely you’d have ever wanted to get up to that speed.
The new Fiat 500 Spiaggina ’58 edition offers 47hp more, an extra cylinder and an ivory-coloured folding canvas roof. All 1,958 examples produced will feature an exclusive Volare Blue paint scheme with a white belt liner and vintage-inspired 16-inch alloy wheels. Vintage Fiat badges and the italic Spiaggina ’58 script complete the transformation.
Inside features a similarly elegant upgrade. The dashboard is painted in the body colour, and the seats are a striped two-tone pattern. Fiat’s thrown plenty of kit at the new version, including the seven-inch HD touchscreen with smartphone mirroring, TomTom maps and DAB radio. Auto lights and wipers, automatic air con and rear parking sensors are included too.
If you think Fiat could’ve gone further to celebrate its iconic Spiaggina cabrio, you’re in luck. There are actually two new special edition models, and Garage Italia and Pininfarina have created the other as a one-off. This one’s much better for harbourside kudos, because it’s completely roofless. The chassis and structure has been strengthened to allow the chop, and the rear seats have been transformed into a compartment with a shower and beach essentials.
The best bit? While this concept is a one-off, you’ll be able to order a production version with all of the features shown here. Yep, even the bench seat and chopped windscreen. Fiat says it can be equipped with any of the engines currently available in the 500 range. We’re praying that that includes the Abarth engines too.
View our latest Fiat offers here: Click Here
