NF500 / 500 Events

Now the fun of Christmas and New Year is over, Fiat UK are doing their best to alleviate that down-in-the-dumps feeling by starting the hype for a whole new celebration.

The Fiat 500 is due to be launched officially 500 hours into 2008, at eight o’clock on the 21st of January, riding high in one of the capsules at the London Eye.

As part of the London Eye event, Fiat are also staging a celebrity and showbiz ticketed event, which will feature live bands and “fantastic light show”. Sure, it may struggle to live up to the 2008 New Year event at the same location, but it sounds fun all the same!.

Fiat UK Marketing Director, Elena Bernardelli, is quoted in an official Fiat press release as saying;

It will be a great event, and we at FIAT are committed to making the country smile for the night.

Fiat have also launched a new website for the UK to coincide with the launch, which includes the oppurtunity to win tickets to the launch event in London. The style of marketing appears to be taking a leaf from other recent car launches aimed at the younger end of the car buying market, such as the new MINI, Volvo C30 or Vauxhall Corsa. That is to say, it’s a bit irreverent.

If you’re unable to make it to London for the UK launch event, have no fear, for the launch is being broadcast at just about every Fiat dealership in the land, as well as reportedly on TV channel Five, ahead of motoring show Fifth Gear.

Apparently this new Fiat 500 police car is not actually going to be used as a squad car, or high speed pursuit vehicle, but is rather a little piece of PR on behalf of the police and Fiat in the Netherlands. But we still considered it easily quirky enough to devote some lines to here.

Via AutoWeek.nl

Following on from the success of the MINI as the “Star Car” at the Australian Grand Prix, and as previously announced in August, more detrails have been released on the appearance of the Fiat 500 at the 2008 FORMULA 1TM ING Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

The announcement is the latest in a series of innovations unveiled by the Australian Grand Prix Corporation in recent months, all aimed at ensuring the Albert Park event will be the most exciting in its thirteen year history.

In keeping with our fresh approach to the 2008 Grand Prix there could be no better choice of car for the celebrity race than the Fiat 500,

said Drew Ward, CEO of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.

The car unveiled today is the first Fiat 500 to be seen in Australia or New Zealand; the first right hand drive model to be seen anywhere in the world; and the first racing version to be seen anywhere in the world.

Since its launch just four months ago, this Italian gem has set the motoring world on fire

said Mr Ward.

Spectators at next year’s Grand Prix will not only get the chance to witness Formula One, the V8 Supercars and a full-on two-hour Kiss concert extravaganza, but now they’ll be among the first in the country to see the all-new Fiat 500 in action.

Famous names from Australian sport will be given the honour of racing the vehicle, with a ‘Sporting Legends’ theme set to inject plenty of competition into next year’s Celebrity Challenge.

Australian Rules star Luke Darcy and Wallaby speedster Ben Tune were announced today as the latest drivers in the all-star line-up. They join former Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley on the starting grid at the March 13 - 16 event, with plenty more big names to come.

After so many years of battling it out on the footy field, I can’t wait to get behind the wheel at Albert Park to take part in a completely different kind of battle,

said Darcy, who enjoyed a 226-game career with the Western Bulldogs.

Now that I’ve hung the boots up, it’s just awesome to be able to have the opportunity to do something like this.

Australian Rugby Union winger Tune, who was famous for his fast finishes on the field, is hoping to earn the same reputation on the race track.

I’ve always wanted to take part in the Celebrity Challenge,

said Tune.

To be given the chance to experience this with so many fantastic sports people is an added bonus. I hope sports fans from every code will come down to Albert Park in March to see us race.

The Fiat 500 is the most sought after car in Europe, having won numerous awards headed by 2008 European Car of the Year.

Australian and New Zealand production has already been snapped up for the first three months of supply, even without prices and specs announced.

With its outstanding advance sales, its unique parentage and cheeky good looks, the new Fiat 500 is already a celebrity in its own right,

said David Stone, General Manager for Fiat Cars in Australia.

So it’s entirely appropriate that, as Australia’s most eagerly awaited new car for 2008, the Fiat 500 should join forces with Australia’s top sporting celebrities to present a bright, new, exciting face for the Celebrity Challenge.

This will be the first time the new Fiat 500 has taken part in motor sport, recreating another part of the original 500’s heritage, and given the huge interest in the new 500 around the world, it will further raise the profile of the Grand Prix as TV viewers tune in to see the spectacle of the new 500 in competition for the first time!

The new Fiat 500 is the heart and soul of Fiat. It is both an extremely good looking and stylish small car that is unmistakably a Fiat - full of character and spirit. But at the same time it has the design integrity to blend this with cutting edge technology, creating a new benchmark for safety, fuel economy and low emissions. Just as the original 500 was the standard against which all small cars were judged in the 1950s, so the new 500 is the perfect small car for the 21st century.

The 2008 FORMULA 1TM ING Australian Grand Prix - Albert Park: 13 - 16 March

Italian motocross champion Antonio Cairoli became the latest high profile personality to take ownership of a shiny new Fiat 500. This time Tony collected the car in front of the press and public at the Bologna Motor Show, at the invitation of Fiat.

For those interested, the Fiat 500 in question was a yellow Fiat 500 sport model.

The orange Fiat 500 you see here has taken on quite a journey, after traveling through China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and finally Italy to appear at the 2007 Bologna Motor Show.

But that was just the return leg of an incredible adventure which saw the 1.3 multijet turbo diesel Fiat 500 cover over 16,000 km to reach Beijing in the first place, and the return leg was completed in less than a month! The Overland Challenge saw the Fiat 500 accompany a vintage 1907 Itala, recreating (in reverse) the 100th anniversary of its victory in the 1907 Beijing to Paris race. Then Rocco Errico and Beppe Tenti decided that wasn’t enough, and drove all the way back to Italy again.

You can read more about the big adventure on this very website, the Parigi-Pechino website and the official blog of the Fiat 500 team on the Fiat 500 website.

The Fiat 500 1.4 Sport Fiat 500 shown here is a special edition created by the Fiat Style Centre in Turin, paying homage to both Valentino Rossi and 1957, the year the original Fiat 500 was born. The car will be displayed at the 2007 Bologna Motor Show which takes place from the 7th to the 16th December.

The hand painted livery celebrates 1957, the year of birth of the first Fiat 500 by taking inspiration from the twist of rock’n'roll, electric guitars, Elvis and Rita Pavone. Mixed with the retro inspired tones and shapes are pastel shades of blue and pink, mixed with the Tricolor to represent “Made in Italy”.

The first of four new Fiat 500 cars illustrated by renowned English artist Tracey Emin has been sold at auction for £42,000.

The work, entitled ‘I Told You Not To’, is one of four specially designed and painted examples of the supermini, which have taken the art world by storm. Described as taking Emin’s work “quite literally out of the gallery and on to the street”, the cars have created the first moving exhibition of its kind.

The 500 went under the hammer for $85,000 last Saturday (13 October) during the Contemporary Art Auction at the Phillips de Pury & Company saleroom in London.

Proceeds from the sale will go to the artist’s chosen charity PEAS, which is raising funds for a school library in Uganda. Additional funds will also help establish future Fiat art projects in London.

The three other 500s with Emin designs will also be offered at auction, one before the end of the year and two in 2008.

I really enjoyed working on the Fiat 500, which I refer to as the ‘mouse car’,

said Tracey Emin.

The Fiat 500 range goes on sale throughout the UK with a choice of petrol and diesel engines and three trim levels, in January 2008.