If you’re the sort of person who demands less roof and more wood and nautical charm on your cars, then I’m sure you’re aware of the 1958 Fiat Jolly, a Ghia-designed beach car made by cutting the whole top off a Fiat 500, replacing the seats with wicker chairs or two-tone boat vinyl, and sticking on a fringed surrey roof. It’s charming as all hell, and probably the classiest way to make people suspect you own a yacht. Now Fiat has teamed up with Garage Italia to make an all new one called the Fiat 500 Spiaggina, and it’s pretty great.
There’s actually two commemorative editions, one much more dramatic than the other. They both have the word spiaggina in their name, the Italian word for “beach.” The first, the Fiat 500C Spiaggina ‘58, is basically a Fiat 500C with special paint, special interior fabric, and the wheels from the Fiat 500 ‘1957' edition from 2014.
They’ll be making 1,958 of those because you know why.
The more exciting one, though, is called just the Fiat 500 Spiaggina, and is a much more accurate version of what a Jolly is. Garage Italia has chopped the entire top off the 500, leaving just a roll bar.
Even the A-pillars and windshield have been cut down to just leave a short little windshield for your knuckles, but if you don’t have the right goggles to match your outfit, it looks like you can get the windshield stuck back on:
The interior is pretty fun. It’s very nautical, in blue-and-white, with a bench seat and wooden floors:
The rear seats are gone, replaced with a wood slat-lined cargo area, which can be expanded by dropping the tailgate:
The padded lid on the rear cargo deck is removable, and there seems to be some sort of hand-shower in the cargo area as well, a handy thing to have at the beach to keep your carefree crotches sand-free:
This thing is fun. Sure it’s a little silly, but, that’s sort of the point. Life can be fun. Driving this around pretty much assures that whatever you’re about to go do is going to be fun. You don’t drive this to your audit or your colonoscopy.
Garage Italia hasn’t given any production numbers for these, but they’ll build you one if you want it. No pricing has been released, but there’s a lot of extra work here, so I’m guessing it won’t be cheap.
Based on the only engine option specified for both of these—Fiat’s adorably-powered 68 horsepower 1.2 liter unit—I wouldn’t expect that the U.S. is a target market. It’s still a hell of a jump from the original 22 hp twin in the original Jolly, though.
That’s too bad. America could use some of these buzzing around.