| Endurance racing | Liege-Brescia-Liege rally |
Fiat is hitting the endurance rally stages 50 years after its original 500 entered the gruelling Liege-Brescia-Liege rally in 1958. The event was open to all cars with an engine capacity of less than 500cc and passed through the Alps, Dolomites and Yugoslavia.
A truck-load of new 500s will support the classic rally entrants and anyone whose car is unable to make it to the finish will be given a new 500 to complete the route. The rally's organisers and technicians will also use a fleet of the new 500s during the arduous 10-day event.
In 1958, 36 cars entered the rally, including a number of Fiat 500s. At the end of the rally, only 13 cars made it to the finish, with all seven Fiat 500s that entered completing the course. Fiat 500s took first and second places, as well as four more of the top 10 positions.
A report in 1958 claimed that the total capacity of all 13 cars that finished the rally was less than that of the average American family car. Hailed as the original environmentally friendly rally, the 2008 event aims to prove that small-engined cars are an ideal way to drive long distances across Europe.
Alisdair Suttie - 11 Apr 2008