Giugiaro turns tiny Fiat Topolino into two wild concept cars
1/3
Fabrizio Giugiaro and Lapo Elkann took the Fiat Topolino and turned it into two completely different one-offs. The Top. L transforms the tiny Fiat into a sporty speedster, while the Top. J fits four seats into a car less than three metres long.
GFG Style unveiled both cars at the Turin Motor Show on 11 September. They are not future production models, but design exercises intended to show how far the Topolino’s simple basic concept can be stretched.
Top. L turns the Topolino into a miniature speedster
The Top. L is a two-seater, completely open and deliberately minimalist. Giugiaro and Elkann drew inspiration from the world of legendary sports cars, including James Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder, “Little Bastard”.
GFG Style stresses that it is not a direct design replica. The aim was to capture the same rebellious attitude.
The body received a matte aquamarine finish, while the designers used leather in the same colour and Alcantara details in the cabin. The result plays with classic speedster proportions, but does so on the scale of one of Europe’s most modest urban vehicles.
Top. J accommodates four people
The Top. J is even stranger. GFG Style arranged seating for four people back-to-back. Instead of a conventional roof, a fabric canopy protects occupants from rain and sun.
The blue-and-green colour combination was inspired by a 1950s Ferrari 166 MM owned by Gianni Agnelli. The design also references Umberto Agnelli, who liked to personalise his cars with details in shades of blue and green.
Inside, GFG Style combines terry cloth and leather. The Top. J is therefore not simply an attempt to squeeze more seats out of the Topolino, but a deliberately extravagant design object.
Horsepower is not the point this time
The most important detail lies in what GFG Style did not disclose. The press release gives no power output, battery capacity, range or top speed for either the Top. L or the Top. J.
That suits the project’s concept. Giugiaro and Elkann state directly that a car’s emotional appeal does not depend on horsepower, price or size. They chose the Topolino for their first joint project precisely because they did not want to start with a powerful and unattainable car.
In a European context, these two cars are more interesting for their design than their technology. One turns a basic urban vehicle into a toy resembling an exotic car, while the other explores how many possible uses can fit into a body less than three metres long.
