June 2007 marked the Fiat Bambina’s 50th anniversary. Todd Niall discusses the history of this iconic micro-car, and outlines his book — Bambina: The Fiat 500 in New Zealand
The 500, with its twin cylinder air-cooled engine, became the most successful of the post-Second World War mini-cars which flourished briefly across Europe. Ironically, a design which has become something of a icon in Italy had some of its origins in Germany.
France, Germany, Italy and England were all exploring cheap and simple micro-cars as Europe rebuilt itself during the 1950s. Fiat’s Italian moves to replace the ageing (1930s) Topolino had been scuttled in the war when a prototype was destroyed in bombing.
Fiat’s Dante Giacosa had masterminded the 600, which was launched in 1955, but while successful, this car was still out of reach for many Italians. However, ideas were flowing from Fiat’s German subsidiary NSU-Fiat, in Heilbronn, and one prototype built in Germany and sent to Turin was for a compact and simple two-seater with a two-stroke engine directly over the rear wheels. It is a design which Giacosa has acknowledged as influencing the eventual 500.
In July 1957, 120 of the new Nuova 500s were paraded around Fiat’s home city of Turin. Its eventual success and cult status were slow coming, with the early models deemed too Spartan, and the in 9.6kW (13hp) 479cc engine underpowered. Fiat moved quickly though, bringing through variants with more power from 11kW engines, opening quarter-lights and other creature comforts. The introduction of the 500D model in 1960 hit most of the right spots, and sales began to climb.
Iconic charmer
Charming and iconic though the 500 had become, by 1972 its ’50s design was just a little too passe. Fiat kept a bob each way, bringing in the more modern-looking 126 using a similar platform, while continuing a domestic version of the 500, the 500R. The R used the new 594cc version of the 500 engine, and kept the model alive until 1975.
Fiat itself hit a financial and sales crisis in the early part of the new century, and its decision to launch a ‘new’ 500 later this year looks set to follow the path taken by VW and Mini to try to revive the buzz of their past achievements. The new 500 will, of course, be an entirely new and modern car, but one that recaptures the styling cues of its famous predecessor.
The Fiat 500 in NZ
New Zealand was the car market furthest removed from its birthplace in Turin, northern Italy. On top of that claim to fame, the often strange world of ’60s New Zealand saw the Italian icon lead a life its creators would never have imagined.
Nuova 500s arrived officially in New Zealand — almost two years to the day following the model’s Italian launch — when the freighter Sumbawa tied up at Auckland’s wharves. Until then, it had been the 600 and the teardrop-shaped people mover, the Multipla, which had sustained the three distributors which carved the local market up between them.
The drive to boost the number and variety of cars in local assembly led to the first Fiat 500Ds rolling out of the VW Motors plant in Auckland’s Otahuhu at the end of 1960.
The 500D was the cheapest car on the local market, and in contrast to the market-leading British Mini, was generally available off the showroom floor with no waiting, and no preference to stump up some of the price in overseas currency.
Cheapness was a powerful argument in trying to squeeze more import licences out of the Government, and eventually the 500 was being built at the rate of 800 a year. That was after the slightly underhanded acquisition of the Fiat franchise by Torino Motors’ Noel Turner (who jointly owned the VW Motors plant), who saw the Fiat 500 take on a pioneering role in the evolution of the regulations which bound up every aspect of the New Zealand motor industry.
This article is from Classic Car issue 195. Click here to check it out.
Turner and Italian diplomats had lobbied hard for the granting of the import licences they needed to initially build 300 of the baby Fiats a year. The fact that the cars were less of a burden on New Zealand overseas currency reserves helped, as did the calculation which found the 500 had the highest level of New Zealand content of any car.
Stylish newcomer
Local content meant jobs and business for component suppliers, and was a vital criterion in the granting of import licences. For the Fiat 500, the fact it reached a local content level approaching 50 per cent would be waved around for years as a goal that other manufacturers should be achieving.
Starved of cars, New Zealanders quickly took to the stylish newcomer. Women especially fancied it — partly because they didn’t face a wait of months or years for a Mini.
This was trend spotted by Torino Motors, which provided the car as part of the prize package in the Miss New Zealand beauty pageant. Thus 1966 saw Aucklander Heather Gettings become the first title winner to receive a car. A Bambina was given as a beauty pageant prize for three years, and the model was used extensively in the nationwide promotion of the pageant, with dealers assembling convoys of cars to carry parades of contestants through the main streets.
Torino Motors also entered an all-women team in the 1965 Wills Six Hour production saloon car race at Pukekohe. The Wills was one of the prestige race events, and was for cars in showroom trim. The women’s team of Margaret Hough and Evelyn Hadfield was supported by an all-women crew of refuellers, mechanics and supporters. Like the men who ran a 500 in the previous two years, the women finished last — but they finished, retaining the 500’s 100 per cent reliability record.
The Fiat 500 in New Zealand
A major Kiwi claim to fame is the name ‘Bambina.’ The 500 was given that name in New Zealand during 1965 with the introduction of the upgraded 500F model. Rob Elliot, the managing director of Torino Motors, decided it should be sold as a Fiat Bambina. The name stuck, and has since become one of the most widely recognised in the local market — it has been applied generically to all Fiat 500s, even earlier models sold before the name was devised. Bambina has joined Mini and Beetle as one of those instantly recognisable car brands.
A Fiat 500 was even sent to Scott Base in 1964 for use by New Zealand’s scientific team in the Antarctic. It was used as transport between New Zealand’s Scott Base and the US base at McMurdo Sound, but its narrow tyres made it unsuitable and it was flown back to New Zealand, cleaned and sold as a second-hand car.
More than 5000 of the 500s made it to New Zealand, but today fewer than 400 are registered on our roads as its global cult status and high value saw hundreds of ‘our’ cars being shipped to Japan and the US during the ’90s.
The lifespan of the 500 in New Zealand followed a similar trend to that in Europe, although the reasons were different. A devaluation of the New Zealand dollar in the ’60s, the punitive 45 per cent import tariff on European cars, and finally the arrival of modern and well-equipped Japanese micros from Suzuki, Honda and Daihatsu saw local production end in 1969.
Torino Motors wanted to do something more profitable with the import licence, and it brought the 850 Sport Coupe onto the market in its place. Fully built-up models continued for several years, including the ultimate right hand drive evolution — the 500L.
One of those cars remains in my hands — a 1968 Bambina which I bought as a first car more than 30 years ago, and it is still a regular commuter on Auckland’s Northwestern motorway.
Fifty years on, the design which Italy recognised in 1959 with its Compasso d’Oro is still winning hearts. Almost every component on the car, especially its F model, is still being made to this day — classic motoring was never easier.
Words & Photos Todd Niall
