- La Cinquecento built the 500 Scattante restomod from a 1973 Fiat 500 R barn-find donor.
- The car uses an 802 cc twin-spark engine sourced from the Fiat 126.
- Media outlets estimate the Scattante's price at about $202,000.
A 1973 Fiat 500 R sat in a family barn in West Berkshire for roughly 25 years before anyone touched it again. Now it is the basis for one of the strangest, priciest restomods to show up at an Italian hillclimb.
British outfit La Cinquecento built the car called the 500 Scattante, and rolled it out at the Tutto Bene Hillclimb on September 9. Founder Max Kindersley used his own family's barn find as the donor car, and the result blends Italian styling with British engineering under the skin.
What La Cinquecento Changed
The Scattante keeps the rear-mounted, two-cylinder layout that made the original Cinquecento so distinctive, but the engine itself is new. It is an 802 cc unit borrowed from the Fiat 126, running twin-spark ignition for sharper throttle response, and paired with a manual gearbox.
Gallery: Fiat 500 Scattante by La Cinquecento
La Cinquecento has not published a horsepower figure, and it may never do so. The company reworked the suspension, brakes, steering, cooling, and electrical systems from the ground up, chasing driver feel over a big number on a spec sheet.
That approach puts more weight on the car than the 1973 original carried. The target curb weight is around 650 kilograms (1,433 pounds), roughly 150 kg (331 lbs) heavier than Dante Giacosa's design, a tradeoff for the reinforced structure and upgraded running gear underneath.
Inside, the cabin stays close to what a Fiat 500 owner from the 1970s would recognize, which include analog gauges, a two-spoke steering wheel and simple switchgear. It is a deliberate contrast with the heavily reworked mechanical package underneath, a pattern anyone following the restomod trend in classic cars will recognize.
Design And Story Of The Barn-Find Transformation
Milan studio BorromeodeSilva handled the exterior, widening the fenders, deepening the side sills, and fitting four round front lights borrowed from rally cars of the period. The silhouette is unmistakably Cinquecento, just filled out and sharpened at the edges.
"We wanted to take everything that makes the original so special and see how far we could push it," Kindersley said, describing the philosophy behind turning a forgotten family car into a numbered, made-to-order restomod rather than a static restoration piece.
Each Scattante is developed directly with its buyer through the 500.design website, and La Cinquecento plans to build only a handful of cars annually. That scarcity puts the project in the same rarefied territory as other reimagined small Fiat classics chasing collectors rather than daily drivers.
Media estimates put the price around £150,000, or about $202,000 at current exchange rates. La Cinquecento has not officially confirmed that figure, leaving the final cost of each build a matter between the company and its buyer.
Motor1's Take: This shows small classics can be recast as bespoke items for affluent collectors. Whether the mechanical tradeoffs justify the premium will show itself on track and in concours.
Wait for La Cinquecento to confirm pricing and production numbers. Limited runs support long-term values only when each car has clear history and documentation, and strong demand could encourage more coachbuilt versions of overlooked city cars.
