“MONOVOLUME”: HERITAGE HUB CELEBRATES 70 YEARS OF THE FIAT 600 MULTIPLA

• Heritage Hub pays tribute to the FIAT 600 Multipla with “MONOVOLUME”, an exhibition running from May 19 to June 30 that retraces its history through a selection of exceptional models.
   
• Produced between 1956 and 1967, the 600 Multipla anticipated the monovolume concept by decades: with seating for up to six and a spacious, functional luggage compartment, it was ideal for dual-purpose use.
   
• A symbol of Italy’s economic boom, it proved adaptable to any kind of use, as demonstrated by its special versions: the glamorous “spiaggina” beach cars, the two-tone taxis, and the vehicles built for the Carabinieri.
   
• The exhibition’s special guest is a model from a private collection that has traveled along Marco Polo’s routes, reached the North Cape twice, and crossed the Trans-Siberian route in winter from Moscow to Vladivostok.
   

Turin, 18 May 2026 – There comes a defining moment when a car stops merely being a vehicle and becomes an archetype destined to make history. For the Fiat 600, that moment came in 1956, when Dante Giacosa created the Multipla version—a symbol of technical versatility and innovative vision that helped make the Turin school of automotive design famous worldwide. Seventy years later, the Heritage Hub pays tribute to it with an exhibition dedicated to the first “monovolume” in history, open from May 19 to June 30 with the purchase of admission to the exhibition center. Located in the former Officina-81 in Mirafiori, the space houses more than 300 classic cars from the Stellantis Group’s Italian brands, while also offering a unique perspective on “Made in Turin” automotive design—now even more comprehensive thanks to the recent addition of the ASI Bertone collection. Heritage Hub can be visited every day except Monday by purchasing a ticket online at the following link, with the option of either a self-guided visit on weekdays or a guided tour on weekends.

Roberto Giolito, Head of Heritage Hub Italy, states: “Seventy years after the birth of the Fiat 600 Multipla, we can clearly recognize that this car was much more than a simple derivative of the 600. It represented the beginning of a new automotive species. In many ways, the history of the automobile is the history of the progressive liberation of human space from the constraints of mechanics. From the visionary Dymaxion to the Chrysler Airflow, and the extraordinary Alfa Romeo 40-60 HP Aerodinamica, progress followed a single direction: increasingly integrating the engine, engineering, and energy into the car’s structure in order to place greater emphasis on people. With the 600 Multipla, Dante Giacosa gave full form to this intuition for the first time. Not a modern carriage built around an engine, it was a piece of architecture designed around the passenger compartment: a true victory of space over mechanics. From this concept emerged the lineage of Europe’s great ‘multi-space’ vehicles. This led to our Fiat Multipla, where the platform became the natural place to house everything needed for movement, finally leaving people with the noblest part of the automobile: its interior space.”

A car that changed the way we think about space
From Giacosa’s original design to the countless production versions generated by the 600 Multipla, the exhibition retraces this story through the display of three models, a master model from the era, and a striking sequence of narrative panels. Interweaving sketches, technical specifications, and cultural context, these narrative panels recreate the artisanal and visionary nature of the creative process before the car took its definitive form in the Mirafiori plant. On display is the extremely rare Fiat 600 Multipla master model crafted in mahogany and used in the production process as a tool for checking the quality and correct dimensions of the body components. The exhibition continues with a first-series model from the Heritage Hub collection and a 600 Multipla in Carabinieri livery. Owned by the military police, the vehicle is housed at the Turin Hub alongside another 15 historic FIAT vehicles that trace half a century of collaboration with the Carabinieri. Lastly, the exhibition’s guest star is a model from a private collection, returning for the first time to the place where the original model was born. After completing its service as a taxi, the car was restored and specially prepared for extraordinary journeys, including Marco Polo’s routes (covering more than 37,000 kilometers), two expeditions to the North Cape, and a winter crossing of the Trans-Siberian route from Moscow to Vladivostok through snow and ice.
 

The future had six seats and a flat front
Versatile and multi-space, the Fiat 600 Multipla was produced in Mirafiori from 1956 until the spring of 1967 in nearly 243,000 units. It shared the mechanical layout of the 600 saloon, with a rear-mounted overhang engine, but its cabin extended across the entire front section. Compared to the saloon, the driving position was moved significantly forward: where the saloon housed the fuel tank and spare wheel, the Multipla featured a two-seat bench. Its almost flat front end placed the driver and passenger in close contact with the road. The 4-to-5-seater version included, in addition to the front bench seat for two passengers, a rear bench and ample luggage space between the backrest and the engine compartment. By folding down the seats, it was possible to create two sleeping berths nearly two meters long. In addition to the front bench seat for two passengers, the 6-seater version offered four foldable individual seats arranged in two rows. With the seats folded down, the car provided a load floor of more than 1.75 m2, accessible through the two side doors. The first series was powered by a 633 cm³ four-cylinder engine producing 22 hp, paired with a four-speed gearbox and a front suspension derived from the Fiat 110/103—featuring a double transverse wishbone layout, coil springs, shock absorbers, and an anti-roll bar—for impeccable road handling. The overall length reached 3.5 meters, 31.5 cm more than the saloon. In 1960, the second series (600D Multipla) increased displacement to 767 cm³ and power output to 29 hp, with a top speed of 105 km/h, while keeping fuel consumption and operating costs low. In short, it was a substantial update that remained true to the vehicle’s original spirit.
 

When versatility becomes a way of life
From its very introduction to the market, the Fiat 600 Multipla gave rise to a family of derivatives destined to define an entire era of Italian mobility. Fiat’s OM subsidiary in Suzzara began series production of the 600 OM van on a bare chassis made available to coachbuilders, while the Multipla itself led to the creation of the 600T van—produced from 1961 to 1968—which would in turn evolve into the 850T. Among the coachbuilders that purchased the chassis to create bespoke solutions, Turin-based Carrozzeria Coriasco stood out with a diverse range including vans, pick-ups, ambulances, and minibuses. All shared the Multipla’s distinctive front end and were, paradoxically, distributed through Fiat’s official sales network despite directly competing with OM models. Yet the vocation of the Multipla was not purely utilitarian. Open to transformation, its architecture also captivated the worlds of leisure and tourism, inspiring elegant “spiaggine” beach-car versions designed for seaside resorts and produced either in small series or as one-off creations by coachbuilders who recognized their glamorous potential. Its qualities were also embraced by public service: the Taxi version—with a dashboard-mounted taximeter, a luggage platform in place of the front passenger seat, and the distinctive two-tone, black-and-bottle-green livery separated by thin horizontal pinstripes—helped define the very image of the Italian taxi during the years of the economic boom.

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For more information, please contact:
Team Heritage HUB Italy heritage@stellantis.com

www.stellantisheritage.com