As the countdown to the arrival of the new Fiat 500 model gets underway, the Fiat 500 Club Italia last weekend assembled around 750 examples of the original iconic little Fiat 500 at the Ippodromo Dei Fiori in Villanova d’Albenga, to the backdrop of the new marketing campaign slogan "500 Wants You".

The Ippodromo Dei Fiori is a distinctive horse-racing track at Villanova d’Albenga in the Liguria region which holds meetings all year round, and at which "harness racing" (where the horse's jockey sits on a small two-wheel cart) is a very popular activity. Work started on the oval course in 1989 and it held its first official race in 1991. Since them a series of major investments has seen it become a state-of-the-art facility, its large car parks and stepped seating areas (with 140 boxes) and wide track making it an ideal location to gather up the large collection of cars which attended the Fiat 500 Club Italia meeting, and in fact more than 5,000 people turned up at last weekend's event, which was held in warm and sunny summer conditions.

The new Fiat 500 will arrive on the market late next year, the most eagerly-awaited new model from Fiat Auto for quite sometime. Scheduled to be assembled at the Tychy plant in Poland, and developed in conjunction with Ford Europe (who will use their version to replace the current-generation Ka model), the new small car will be based around the floorpan and mechanicals of the current Panda model. To be closely styled around the well-received Trepiùno concept car, it will return Fiat to its "roots", and anticipation has been raroused by the recent first appearances of disguised prototypes on the streets of Turin and around the Nürburgring race track in Germany.

Meanwhile a growing number of new marketing initiatives are now being rolled out by Fiat Auto under the "500 Wants You, www.fiat500.com" slogan. A new interactive multimedia platform launched on-line in early June reached the milestone of 500,000 hits and 5,000,000 page views after just 50 days on line. The dynamic website allows viewers to "customise" their own Fiat 500 and further steps in the programme will include the ability to shoot a 90-second video. Fiat have also signed up 750 “cinquecentisti” to take part in a programme of events leading up to the launch of the new model, and the "XXIII Meeting Internazionale di Garlenda" last weekend was to be one of these.
 

The cars were lined up on the horse-track section of the Ippodromo Dei Fiori, after having driven round the course several times, formed in the shape of the digits "500", in front of a huge banner reading "500 Wants You, www.fiat500.com", the proceedings photographed by a helicopter from the nearby Aeroporto Clemente Panero. A similar banner inviting people to visit the website was towed by a light aircraft from San Remo to Genoa that same morning. Giovanni Perosino, responsible for Fiat brand communications fondly remembered the work of Dante Giacosa, designer of the original model, adding: "The 500 was, and is, made for the people by the people. It is the synthesis of optimism, passion, style and smile," he said.

Also present at the meeting was Roman Domenico, the Honorary President and founder of the Fiat 500 Club Italia who was moved to comment: "It is extraordinary happening! A great event and the coronation of a dream. The 500 is loved by all people who adore the simple things. It is a car that has succeeded to join the world." At the conclusion of the meeting the little cars headed in long convoy to Casanova Lerrone, and with the "train" being more than 3 kilometres in length, it qualified it for an entry into the Guinness Book of Records.