The ultimate italian coachbuilder site
The ultimate italian coachbuilder site
The Vignale Gamine is a small rear-engined car produced by Carrozzeria Vignale from 1967 to 1971, based on the Fiat 500, also known as Nuova 500.
The Fiat 500 Gamine, unlike the 500 on which was based, had an open-top Roadster structure and only two seats. It was built by Carrozzeria Vignale. The Gamine is sometimes related in design to the Fiat 508 Balilla. A hard-top was offered at an extra cost, and is considered these days to be quite rare. It was powered by a 2-cylinder, air-cooled engine of 499.5 cc from the Fiat 500 sport, the sporty version of the 500, and an engine later to be offered on the 500F. There was only one engine version producing 21.5 PS (15.8 kW; 21.2 bhp). A top speed of 97 km/h (60 mph) was claimed according to official data. The Fiat 500 Gamine was Alfredo Vignale’s baby project, but while design was fairly cute, the performance was lackluster even for the times. A high price, mediocre handling and versatility, meant that the Gamine never sold very well. In fact, the slow sales drove Carrozzeria Vignale out of business, forcing Alfredo Vignale to sell his production line to De Tomaso, which manufactured there the Pantera sports car
The story of Carrozzeria Vignale represents one of the many somewhat forgotten success stories born against the backdrop of an Italy that was torn apart by the Second World War and which, starting from the end of the 1950s, was able to recover enough to know a real miracle. economical just a few years later.
