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Automotive Lifestyle
101 Cars: Fiat Jolly
Fringe Benefits
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SPEED Staff  |  Posted August 18, 2008   Charlotte, North Carolina
Called the Jolly, the runabouts were popular as estate runabouts, and the 1,000-pound cars were actually hoisted onto the yachts of the super rich. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)

Let's say you're an Onassis or Agnelli. Oh, it's so hard to be rich. You just can't walk about town when you sail your yacht into a new resort, and a taxi would be so declasse. So specialty shops around Italy converted small cars into beach buggies. Ghia was one of the most prolific, altering Fiat's 500, 600, Multipla, and Giardiniera platforms into open-air doorless runabouts, with cut-down sides and windshields, chrome body piping, and tarted up in pastel colors and fringed surrey tops. And of course, wicker seats front and rear. The Fiat mechanicals, including the 22-horse two-cylinder rear-mounted engine in the 500, were unchanged. Called the Jolly, the runabouts were popular as estate runabouts, and the 1,000-pound cars were actually hoisted onto the yachts of the super rich. Of course, what Onassis calls a yacht and what you do could be different. Ghia made 600-700 Fiat Jollys between 1957 and 1962, and these occasionally pop up at auctions like afterthoughts, with well-restored versions selling in the mid-twenties, considerable for a car with the all-weather capabilities of a silk suit. Maybe you have to be rich...

Specifications
Engine: 499-cc two-cylinder
Horsepower: 22
0–60 mph: Eventually, but you'll be to the beach before then.
Top Speed: 65 miles per hour
Price New: $1,760 compared to $998 for a standard Fiat 500
Value Now: $20,000-$30,000
Fiat Jolly Photos



Claim to Fame

CLAIM TO FAME: The classic beach buggy and the leading automotive use of fringe


Soundtrack

SOUNDTRACK: "Girl from Ipanema"


Perfect Passenger

PERFECT PASSENGER: Heloisa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto - the real girl from Ipanema


Behind the Wheel

BEHIND THE WHEEL: Available at auctions, but be careful for quick cosmetic restorations of cars with salt-water environment rust.


Did You Know?

DID YOU KNOW: In Italy, Jolly means "joker," and on the home market it was called "La Spiaggina," which means something like "beachette."




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