Mongho 650

Four years after the Aruanda, Fissore showed a second piece on 500 underpinnings at the 1969 Turin show – this time the opposite of a city car: a low, wedge-shaped coupé for two. The design is by Aldo Sessano, who had opened his own studio in Turin in 1968; the leaflet names Paolo Vian as his collaborator, and the interior came from Fusina.

The chassis remained that of the Fiat 500, while Nardi took the twin-cylinder engine out to 650 cc and 29.5 hp – good for 135 kilometres an hour. At three metres long and only 1.12 metres high the car looks like a shrunken grand tourer. Behind the prototype stood the paint maker Glasurit: the Mongho was shown on its own stand, and the back of the leaflet lists six colours with their numbers, from «giallo sole» to «verde irlanda». Only this one car was built. It has survived and is red today.