The Fiat 500 "Topolino" was the first mass-production car of the Italian manufacturer .
Strongly supported by Benito Mussolini for propaganda purposes, the car would cost little and be an example of Italian production capacity.
Something similar happened shortly after in Germany when Hitler imposed Ferdinand Porsche to create "people's car".
The car had a complicated genesis: the imposition of the regime to create an economic car caused problems to the design of the car. The various initial proposals were discarded and eventually it was decided to entrust the study of the car to Dante Giacosa.
Giacosa completed his work but the car was not able to be as cheap as the " Duce " imposed . Nevertheless it was a commercial success . The model took the names of 500 A, B and C but by appearance of the front of the car was called "Topolino" which in Italian means little mouse and is also the italian name used for Mickey Mouse .
Some joint ventures with foreign manufacturers allowed to create clones of the Fiat Topolino. Simca in France and the NSU in Germany were some of the car companies that benefited from the project Dante Giacosa.
