Italdesign Lucciola

Recycling makes a lot of sense — and the designer Giorgetto Giugiaro is a master at it.

His firm, Italdesign, have kept this tradition alive even today. Whereas in the old days, carrozzeria would adapt an ever-changing set of styling cues to different chassis. That was easy with body-on-frame construction, but these days, unibodies are comparatively tough to re-skin.

Why not simply create an overall theme, with enough wiggle room to badge it according to the highest bidder?

In this case, you're looking at Italdesign's kind of dorky but ahead-of-its-time proposal in 1993 for an updated Fiat Cinquecento or reborn 500 city car: the Lucciola.

Built on, as far as I can tell, a modified Cinquecento chassis, this backpack on wheels was actually quite a complex hybrid underneath.

Interestingly — especially for 1993, it ran a combination of two rear motors with an output of 9.3 horsepower each and a 7.3 horsepower two-cylinder diesel engine up front. Combined for approximately 25 horsepower, even Italdesign says its top speed was a mere 100 km/h (62 mph).

With an eye to eco-friendliness, it was made from recycled materials and rocked aluminum panels as well, and in a nod to the city cars we all know and love, had a two-stage roll-back roof. 

Imagine, however, how quickly its backpack-on-the-dash system would deteriorate over years of family car duty. Think of it as a kind of upmarket Chrysler CCV…that we can actually buy.

Anyway, back to recycling: doesn't this look familiar to you? 

Maybe…like a first-generation Daewoo Matiz? After Fiat passed on the design, Italdesign sold it to Daewoo—who used it as the base for Matiz, an OK but far-from-great city car.

Lucciola died so the Matiz could live.

Now, it gets even better: