1952 Bizzarrini 500 Macchinetta
Bizzarrini 500 Coupe
Young Giotto Bizzarrini's college car at the University of Pisa was a step up from the average student's. The original Fiat 500--nicknamed "Topolino" (little mouse) both for its diminutive size and similarity to the cartoon car driven by Disney's Mickey--was the world's first "people's car"; the Topolino became available to the public in 1936, while both the Volkswagen and Citroen 2CV had to wait until after the war to reach the public.
The first series 500 A had run its course by the time Giotto came along, so he bought himself a Fiat 500 B. These Topolinos, introduced in 1948, were marginally better than the As; the tiny 569cc two-main-bearing engine now had overhead valves (instead of side valves) and 16.5 hp instead of the A's measly 13 hp. If you find it hard to believe the future creator of a 400hp Italo-American hybrid would settle for that kind of horsepower, you're right: Bizzarrini fitted his new B with a special cylinder head from Turin-based "hot-rodder" Siata. He also bought the special barchetta body--the word means "little boat" and aptly describes the rounded silhouette that resulted when you chopped the top off the little Topolino sedan.
Even with these improvements, the car was fairly commonplace. Everybody who could afford it modified these bare bones automobiles--in fact, the list of fuoriserie (custom-built) Topolinos is so long it fills an entire book! But as Bizzarrini neared graduation, his little Topolino seemed the perfect palate for demonstrating his skills in automotive engineering.
First, he designed a closed coupe body using a tubular structure similar to that used on the fascinating new Ferrari coupes. His aerodynamic studies suggested that the "teardrop" slipped through air the best; thus the egg shape on this unique little coupe.
Bizzarrini tested his budding theory on engine placement in this car by removing the engine from the front (in the standard Topolino it rides over the front wheels) and pushing it back into the center of the frame, almost inside the passenger compartment.
For extra power Bizzarrini removed the tiny original carburetor and installed two Dell'Orto motorcycle-like twin carburetors. These were still too simple, though; Bizzarrini thus developed a "pneumatic injection" system that allowed the driver to enrich the fuel supply in the two carburetors by activating a pear-shaped push-button inside the cockpit.
The completed car, painted in its original light blue, no doubt impressed Bizzarrini's supervisors at Alfa Romeo. They let him run the little coupe on the company test track, where he pegged 155 km/h (about 95 mph), equal to the speeds posted by Alfa's own 1900 saloon! When Enzo Ferrari heard about Giotto Bizzarrini and the odd car he drove, he reportedly said, "Anyone crazy enough to drive such a strange car is surely fit for working in Maranello!"
Bizzarrini himself was pleased to learn of the car's resurrection and restoration in 1992. "I worked out this car according to the same principals I used with the Ferrari GTO and with the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada," he said. "They all bear my technical signature."
Today, the car competes regularly in the Mille Miglia Storico, a tribute both to the versatility and diversity of Fiat 500-based automobiles and to the talents of one of Italy's greatest freelance engineers, Giotto Bizzarrini.