TURIN — Lapo Elkann and Fabrizio Giugiaro have turned the Fiat Topolino, one of Europe’s most inexpensive cars, into two one-of-a-kind machines. Top. L and Top. J made their public debut on Friday, September 11 at Salone Auto Torino (the Turin Automobile Show,) the pair’s first collaboration.
Salone Auto Torino runs from September 11 to September 13 at Turin’s Parco del Valentino, with free entry to the public. The standard Topolino, named after the nickname Italians gave the original 1936 Fiat 500, is a compact electric quadricycle capped at forty five kilometers per hour, a category built for cities and, in several countries, drivable without a full car licence.
Giugiaro leads GFG Style, the Turin design studio he runs with his father Giorgetto, who founded the influential firm Italdesign in Turin in 1968. He and Elkann share a long friendship built on a mutual love of cars and a taste for unconventional thinking.
“Starting from something small, simple and accessible like Topolino, I wanted to see how far we could push ourselves, letting emotion and creativity guide us,” said Giugiaro.
A speedster’s spirit
Top. L leans into sportiness. It strips the Topolino down to a low, open, two seat speedster finished in matte aquamarine, with aquamarine leather and Alcantara inside. Its inspiration comes from rebellious sports cars, among them James Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder, nicknamed Little Bastard.
Room for four
Top. J takes the opposite route, fitting four seats, arranged back to back, into a car under three meters long. Its blue and green livery nods to the 1950 Ferrari 166 MM once ordered by Lapo’s grandfather, the industrialist Gianni Agnelli, and to Umberto Agnelli, who favored the same two colors on his own cars. A fabric canopy replaces a conventional roof. Whether all four seats suit adult passengers was not confirmed before publication, since the standard Topolino’s payload tops out at 150 kilograms including the driver.
“The automobile must transmit emotions, regardless of engine size, price or speed. If it makes you smile before you even get in, you have created something special,” said Elkann.
Neither car is for sale. Both are one off design exercises, the first step in what Elkann and Giugiaro describe as an ongoing creative collaboration between two old friends. The names, Top. L for love and Top. J for joy, point to what they say drives the project more than horsepower ever could.
