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Description

Manufacturer: Metropole Classics BV Meubellaan 1 6651KV DRUTEN, NL 0031653328817 http://www.metropole.nl sales@metropole.nl

Small in stature yet by no means modest in ambition, this Fiat 500 B lined up on the twenty third of April 1950 carrying race number 014.30 for the seventeenth Mille Miglia, with Osvaldo Lippi and Guglielmo Albertoni at the wheel, both resident in Bologna and licensed through that city's Automobile Club. The pair carried the car over the full 1622.300 kilometre course, from Brescia via Rome and back to Brescia, in a time of nineteen hours, twenty four minutes and nineteen seconds, an average speed of 86.73 kilometres per hour, finishing one hundred and twentieth overall and eighth in the Turismo 750cc class, a result that earned them an official commemorative medal from the Automobile Club Brescia at the time, along with the personal citation that they had distinguished themselves as an "able, disciplined and daring" pilot. That same day the pair also contested the Coppa della Toscana, finishing sixty fourth overall and eighth in class.
Behind this result lies a particular story. Osvaldo Lippi was born in Brazil to Italian parents and returned to Italy as a teenager with his brother Juvenal, the two brothers initially going their separate ways, Osvaldo to Lucca, Juvenal to Bologna. When Juvenal took over a garage in Bologna and business flourished, he called his brother back, and together they built a larger premises on Via San Petronio Vecchio 42, Garage Lippi, housing a fully equipped, Fiat authorised workshop headed by a young and talented mechanic named Guglielmo Albertoni. The garage became a landmark for Bologna's gentlemen drivers, and it was Osvaldo himself who, supported by his brother and business associate Luigi Lanzoni, embarked on his own racing career in 1949, that very first Mille Miglia in a Fiat 500 Topolino B marking his debut. It would be the first of four Mille Miglia entries, supplemented by the Coppa della Toscana, the Giro di Sicilia, the Gran Prix of Bari and the Targa Florio, the last two driving a Maserati A6GCS. Lippi ended his racing career in 1955 and retired to his country house in Vorno, in the province of Lucca, where he died in 1999. Albertoni, hired in 1948 to run the workshop at Garage Lippi, co drove with Lippi in the 1949 through 1952 editions, always in a Fiat 500 Topolino, before leaving in 1955 to start his own business, Garage Stadio, an authorised Lancia dealership in Bologna, where the cars he built won numerous Italian championships with drivers of the calibre of Goffredo Grandi and Giancarlo Venturi. He died in 1993.
This Fiat 500 B, was first registered on the tenth of September 1948 in Bologna and is fitted with the characteristic 569cc four cylinder engine. A FIVA identity card explicitly confirms the car's racing history with the notation Mille Miglia 1950, while the original entry form lodged with the Automobile Club Brescia, the complete PRA registration history dating from 1948, and the certificate of homologation from the Automotoclub Storico Italiano together form a rare and remarkably complete paper trail. The car now carries Dutch registration. The car presents today in tidy condition, both inside and out, ready to do justice to its rich history, equally at home on the road and on the concours lawn. The car is also accompanied by an extensive set of original spare parts, including a full differential assembly, a spare clutch plate, a dynamo and the original starting handle.
With its documented participation in the 1950 Mille Miglia, recorded in both the official race result and the FIVA identity card, this Fiat 500 B's Mille Miglia eligibility hardly needs further explanation.
Contact Metropole Classics for further information or to arrange a viewing of this Fiat 500 B Topolino.

Condition & Registration

Historical license plate
Registered

Ready to drive: Not provided
Mille Miglia eligible

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Technical Details

Vehicle data

Make: FIAT
Model series: 500
Model name: 500 B Topolino
First registration date: Not provided
Year of manufacture: 1948
Mileage (read): 9,632 km
Chassis number: Not provided
Engine number: Not provided
Gearbox number: Not provided
Matching numbers: Not provided
Number of owners: Not provided

Technical details

Body style: Convertible (Saloon)
Power (kW/hp): 13/17
Cubic capacity (cm³): 570
Cylinders: 4
Doors: 0
Steering: Left (LHD)
Gearbox: Manual
Gears: Not provided
Transmission: Rear
Front brakes: Not provided
Rear brakes: Not provided
Fuel type: Petrol

Individual Configuration

Exterior color: Blue
Manufacturer color name: -

Interior color: Beige
Interior material: Velour

Optional equipment

oldtimerLicensePlate

1948 | FIAT 500 B Topolino