Spider

With the Nuova 500, Alfredo Caracciolo – who was running Carrozzeria Savio after the founder’s death – saw the chance for a small one-off body. He had it drawn by Pietro Frua, one of the best-known Turin stylists of those years. The result appeared at the Turin motor show of 1958 on the Savio stand: an open two-seater on Fiat 500 underpinnings.

A magazine of the day printed a picture of it with this caption: this two-seat spider by Savio was among the few bodies for the Fiat 500 to be seen at the show, and on the whole it recalled the line of the Renault Floride.

Frua’s design stands well away from the plain, matter-of-fact production car: angular, slightly overdone lines, a rounded nose with an oval air intake and a chrome bar, round headlamps, whitewall tyres, chromed screen frames and light-coloured seats.

The flank recalls the Volvo P1800, the nose still more the Renault Floride – both Frua designs that had come out in the preceding months. Hence the comparison the magazine was already drawing. The shape lay some way from Italian taste; the car was liked all the same. Only one was built, which is why there is no register.

The Spider shares nothing but its name with the Spider Elegance, the four-seat beach car without doors: they are two different cars.