What kind of car is this?
Monday October 23, 2006
Reader Dennis Brown spotted several of these two-seat cars while vacationing in Rome and emailed me asking what they are. I have no clue!
Larger pictures:
Do you know what kind of car this is? Please click the "comments" link below and tell us.-- Aaron Gold
Photo © Dennis Brown, used with permission
Fiat– Anew Topolino?
It looks like a Smart for Two car. Going to be shipped to US for Chrysler.
I agree. Looks like a new Smart car.
It’s NOT a Smart. The hood logo was not from a Smart. Probably along the lines of a Fiat. Why didn’t our snapshooter get some images of the logos? This vehicle clearly had a hood logo. The car is cute and definately sized for Italy but a real sleuth would have done a better job on identifiers.
It’s called a Town Life Ginevra. Town life is an Italian company founded by Tonino Lamborghini, son of Ferruccio the sports car guy.
Here’s a link… http://www.townlife.it
It’s a Nissan Micra ladies and germs….no question. Drove one, saw it on the streets of LA last week….
Looks like COOP got it right — it’s a Town Life. For pictures of the Smart Fortwo go here, for pictures of the Nissan Micra, go here.
– Aaron
More on the Town Life (from World of Cars 2005/2006 Catalogue):
“At the 1999 Bologna Motor Show, the Torino Lamborghini Group presented two versions of the 2-seat city car: the Ginerva with 505cc 15 hp engines (maximum speed 90 kp/h [56 mph]) or with 505cc 5.4 hp Lombardini diesel plants (maximum speed – 45 km/h [28 mph]), and the Helektra with an electric motor of 5.5 hp (maximum speed 45 km/h [28 mph], range 90 km [56 mi]). The group founded the Town Life S. p. A. company, which in turn at the end of 1999 bought a plant in Mangione from the bankrupt ISO company. In January 2000 the production of the Ginerva and Helectra models began (target 5,000 vehicles per year).”
5.4 horsepower… yikes. But I bet the fuel economy is insane…
Thank you for your help!
My lawnmower has a 6 hp engine, definetly not enough power!
There are many similar cars in much of europe, because they don’t require a full drivers license to operate. There are limits to speed and engine size, most with smaller engines than this one.
This car is a Town Life Ginevra.. a minicar, in italy we have a lot of those minicars running into the city…I’m a tuner of these mad toys, and this car can reach 100km/h (original 45km/h) whit only 500€… we have a lot of tuners, and lots of clubs and also a website: http://www.microcartuning.com … come on and see !!
It’s Called town life – ginevra i have…
i’m from rome… you can drive it at 14 years old
It is a Town Life Ginevra a italian producer.
Sweet car
It’s called a Smart car. They are already here in the states just not a lot of them.
It’s not a Smart Car. It’s a Town Life, made by Tonino (not Torino – I was corrected)Lamborghini. Interesting – Town Life, Tonino Lamborghini same initials….
I spotted and photo’d one in Modena, Ital some weeks back
Here (click me) is a link to my blog page with more details.