In 1957, a young Fiat designer named Michele Fasana turned imagination into sculpture. Working within Fiat’s famed Special Bodies Department in Turin, Fasana crafted a unique interpretation of the tiny Topolino a light, graceful Spider that drew inspiration from both postwar optimism and Italian artistry.
Dubbed the Fasana Topolino Spider, this one-off creation was never intended for production. It was a passion project built on Fiat mechanicals, reportedly using the 500 platform as its base. Sleek and compact, the car featured flowing body lines carved from hand-shaped aluminum, fusing the playful proportions of the Topolino with the sensual curves of contemporary Italian roadsters.
Fasana’s Spider wore design cues more daring than anything Fiat had produced at the time minimalist chrome, an open cockpit, and a delicately upturned tail that looked straight out of Turin’s carrozzeria ateliers. It embodied what many Italian craftsmen of the era called “La macchinetta” a small car built purely for the love of design.
Though it remained a prototype, the Fasana Topolino Spider still sparks fascination nearly seventy years later. Rare images show it finished in a warm orange-red over black leather, powered by a modest rear engine reportedly replaced in later years by a Volkswagen 1.6 flat-four mated to a manual gearbox.
Forgotten for decades, the little Spider resurfaced thanks to Fiat historians and collectors.