In 1932 Fiat asked designer Dante Giacosa to take stab at coming up with a small car that could get two people and a hundred pounds of luggage from one place to the next in minimal comfort.
In October of 1934 the company his new prototype for the Model 500, or in Italian, Cinquecento.
Nicknamed the [TOPOLINO] or mouse the 500 was only 10½ feet long and weighed just 1200 pounds. Giacosa designed a tiny, water-cooled four-cylinder engine. The 569 cc motor produced only 13 horsepower barely enough to get the car up to 53 miles an hour.
Unlike most cars of the time the 500 had its engine mounted ahead of the front axle to maximize the passenger space which also enabled Giacosa to give the Topolino a sporty, sloping grille. Besides its Lilliputian proportions the 500 also met Fiat’s other principal goal, it was cheap introduced at the price of only 5,000 Lire, two-fifths of the cost of a Balilla.
Fiat’s bet paid off. The inexpensive Topolino was a good match for the lifestyle of the growing Italian middle-class of the twenties. Now almost any city dweller could afford a little car to take them on a seaside holiday or down the new Autostrada, Italian freeway. Fiat sold 122,000 Topolinos in the next 12 years.
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Ref: AU Fiat