THE people carrier may have been all the rage in recent years, but back in the 1950s FIAT bosses chiselled out one of the earliest niches in this market with the amazing little 600 Multipla. While the UK was just not into non-commercial multi-seaters, the innovative bosses at Fiat took the compact 600 car and transformed it into a clever but strange looking vehicle which could, in one version hold up to six passengers on three rows of seats. It is amazing how such a tiny car could hold so many. The problem was that its pod-like appearance meant that the front looked somewhat similar to the rear and you had to look twice to assure yourself which way it was going. Even today in terms of functionality and ingenuity, all achieved with a a great deal of engine noise, the 600 Multipla commands respect It all started in 1951, when engineer Dante Giacosa was commissioned to devise the 600 which turned out to be not quite large enough for the average and usually quite large Italian family. So while Momma was panicking over where to put the baby, Fiat got busy and morphed the 600 into a family transporter that became a legend. The rear door was in the middle of the bodywork allowing easy access and the whole car was mechanically simple. It was powered by the regulation 600 rear-mounted 633cc engine and had strengthened braking. The steering column was universally jointed in order to have placed right at the front of the car to prioritise on space and the radiator was front-mounted behind a tiny grille. Three different versions were offered – a four-seater with front and rear benches that could form a double bed when required, a six-seater that gained folding seats between the benches and the Taxi version, which boasted a single front seat alongside a luggage platform Production continued up to 1966 with the only real modification being the adoption of a larger 767cc engine in 1960. Fiat tried to export it to the UK but the cost of converting it to right hand drive plus crippling import duties, bumped up the price to an expensive £800, thereby placing it in competition with much larger Ford and Hillman cars. Needless to say there would have been no contest when ranged against such heavy and very conservative guns So over eight years, Fiat sold fewer than 100 British-market Multiplas, yet some still survive often after much loving preservation work. If the Multipla had a drawback it is that it was made for the smaller man. The gear lever was right against your knee and the pedals were not what you might describe as a shining example or ergonomics. But the thousands of examples that became the backbone of the Italian taxi industry are testament to that fact that Fiat got it right first time with a model that can only be described as adventurous for its time. Fiat reintroduced the Multipla name to a people carrier in recent years but it just did not have that certain something that made 600-based vehicle a classic icon. | 
