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I Love Those Little Mice.... [PIC]

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Last Post by Marty Johnson 5 months ago

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Rich Sufficool

(@rich-sufficool)

Illustrious Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 4813

Topic starter 04/11/2025 3:30 pm

I have to confess I never knew the Fiat 500 Topolino (Little Mouse) existed until I saw them as bodies for blown gassers in the early '60s. The Topolino was built between 1936 to 1955 as the Italian version of the "people's car" rivaling the French Citoen 2CV and the VW Beetle. The earliest models with a 0.5 liter 4 cylinder engine had a top speed of 28 mph and was marketed as urban transportation but with its cheap price and availability, it was pressed into farm work and village transport. Here's a 1949 open top model.

From this humble beginning, some were morphed into these fire-breathing monsters that ruled their class on the strip. Here's one of the Acme models of Mac Reath Automotive of Santa Monica, CA built B/A gasser. It was built in the late fifties with a real body, and was later switched to a fiberglass flip top. It has a blown 350 Chevy V8 as was raced in the 1962 Winternationals. The model is not completely accurate, but looks cool I got the proper tinted windows and nose graphics from Bill Bennett.

michaeldetorrice, David Green, Marty Johnson and 3 people reacted

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Christopher Moroni

(@chris)

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Joined: 29 years ago

Posts: 10037

04/11/2025 3:42 pm

Posted by: @rich-sufficool

↑

"I have to confess I never knew the Fiat 500 Topolino (Little Mouse) existed until I saw them as bodies for blown gassers...."

HA! I have to confess, I've never seen a STOCK Topolino, only the gassers - which are cool! 😎 😎

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Marty Johnson

(@marty-johnson)

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Posts: 1654

04/11/2025 4:43 pm

Now, you know I cannot resist posting my Photoshop work on your photos!

michaeldetorrice, Christopher Moroni, Rich Sufficool and 1 people reacted

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Marty Johnson

(@marty-johnson)

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Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 1654

04/11/2025 4:50 pm

Rich and Chris! Sorry gentlemen, and once again, pardon me for being a pedant, but they were fuel altereds, and not gassers. Note the.... (ahem).... "flames"... coming from the headers in my photos! LoL