Presented in 1932 and soon nicknamed the Balilla after the lad who sparked off the insurrection that drove the Austrians from Genoa in 1796, the 508 was Italy’s favorite runabout: modern with its hydraulic brakes, yet powered by a simple, less than one litre, four-cylinder, side-valve engine with a three-speed gearbox. The four-seater, two-door saloon cost 10,800 lire. There was also a torpedo and a spider model, which were subsequently joined by a sports version. The model was enormously successful owing to its ruggedness, low running cost and brilliant performance. More than 113,000 had been made when the last 508 rolled off the assembly line in 1937.
Presented by Famiglia Bruzzone, Sanremo (Imperia)
Engine: 4 cylinders
Capacity: 995 cc
Max. power output: 20 bhp at 3400 rpm
Max. speed: 85 km/h
Weight: 990 kg
Two entirely new project lines compared to the previous production had been launched by Fiat in 1931. The first developed a cutting-edge hypothesis: a model with a twin cylinder air-cooled engine, with front wheel drive, whose project was directed by engineer Lardone. The second, on the other hand, proposed a modern car, with a front-mounted 4-cylinder rear transmission engine, but substantially linked to the traditional design philosophy. This was directed by engineer Fessia. A coincidence, or rather, a fire which entirely destroyed the prototype of the Lardone vehicle, decided in favor of Fessia’s project, which was concluded in just a few months in time for the presentation of the vehicle at the 5th Motor Show in Milan, which opened on April 11th, 1932. “Today, all prophets, critics, and advisors of our national motor world will chant victory. Who in Italy has not hoped, or fought, for at least five years now, for the people’s car, under its various names of affordable car, small car, ultra-people’s car, pocket-car, and so on? It is therefore logical that, since everyone’s fervid dream is finally being crowned, each one of us slightly feels the pride of the moral fatherhood of Fiat’s new creation, which today faces its baptism in front of the audience of the Milan Motor Show. In fact, the main feature of the new Balilla is exactly that of satisfying every kind of taste, the trends, the desires of the numerous zealous fans of the small car, without favoring one category over any other. And this is not due to approximate compromises between the needs of the various classes of the clientele, but precisely because it has solved every single problem of every single class one hundred per cent. The exceptional nature of the industrial event, its national reach, the choir of enthusiasm that it has awakened in our entire Peninsula, are due to the extraordinary character of this car of adhering to the most diverse tastes and expectations; and this is why the appearance of the Balilla should be praised also on these pages as the most important fact in postwar Italian automobile history”. What was it that made the small Fiat so exceptional? The price, first of all. It cost 10,800 lire and the spider, 9,900. For the first time, therefore, an Italian-made vehicle was being offered for an amount around ten thousand lire, which, in the common imagination, somehow constituted the discriminating factor between the car for everyone and the car for the few. To this, we should add Mussolini’s intervention, who introduced an exemption from the circulation tax until June 30th, 1933 for any national runabout fresh from the factory. A runabout was considered as any car with a power up to 12 HP and a price up to twelve thousand lire (which was simply another way of saying Fiat 508 Balilla, because there was no other vehicle with these characteristics on the Italian market at the time). In reality, it was a less revolutionary measure than one could think at first, because the newly registered and newly produced vehicles already enjoyed an exemption for the first six months. Translated into figures, the gift the regime was making to new purchasers of the Balilla corresponded to about 250 lire. Thanks to a draft law presented by War Minister Gazzera, also purchasers of new Italian-made trucks for the transportation of goods received a similar gift from the government, as well as anyone who bought a tractor or motor sprinkler, as long as they were manufactured in Italy.
To return to the Balilla, not only the low purchasing cost was its main prerogative, but also the modest running and maintenance cost. It could boast a decidedly lower cost for repairs than, for example, the Fiat 509: suffice it to think that to replace the clutch of a 509 you needed to extract the bridge, the rear wheels, and the leaf springs, as well as detach the coil of the rear brakes and the gear, while for the Balilla, it was enough to extract the gearbox. The hydraulic brakes, applied for the first time on a popular car, apart from ensuring an undeniably better safety condition, required a lower number of registrations. Also the chassis (braced by a robust cross shaft) and the paintwork on the body (nitro-cellulose based) were publicized as two characteristics able to guarantee a stronger, long-lasting, and more robust vehicle. Between the 508 and the 509 there were 170 kg less in favor of the Balilla, which corresponded to about two liters less in fuel consumption every one hundred kilometers. Ultimately, the total cost per kilometer, including the amortization of the capital, the interest, the refueling and maintenance, had been calculated to something between 30 and 40 cents, an all-time record.
In the enthusiastic choir, in an entire nation’s praise of this prodigious finding of national production, there were also some who voiced their criticism. Some dared refer to the Renault 6 HP, expressing their surprise at the fact that such a spacious, brilliant and well-conceived vehicle could cost only three thousand lire more than the Italian car; others expressed doubts concerning the fact that there was an actual progress between the Fiat 509 and the Fiat 508. It is very interesting to stop up and read these points of criticism. “A rash, biased and unjust criticism”, writes Auto Italiana (August 10th, 1932) – “comparing the Balilla… to other foreign small cars is enormous, absurd, criminal”. The crime consisted in noting a regression (compared to the 509) in the wheelbase, and therefore in the liveability of the coachwork, which had dauntlessly been defined as “Lilliputian”, even smaller than the 750 Rosengart. Other points of criticism were a minimal price difference compared to the “nine”, which was sold at 12,000 lire only seven years earlier, and the lack of the fourth gear, already heavily noticed on the previous car. In sum, a smaller vehicle, not too brilliant, just as costly or almost as a car conceived and designed ten years earlier, while the international competition could boast small cars based on absolutely new concepts, like the Rosengart, the Peugeot 201, the Donnet, Salmson, Amilcar, DKW, Opel, Wanderer, and Ford 8HP…
In reality, the interior size of the Balilla was more than respectable: the interior net width and clear span between floor and ceiling almost coincided with those of the Fiat 522, a vehicle of a much higher class. Its price, however, was certainly high, too high for the absolute majority of the Italian population. It was no coincidence, in fact, that Senator Agnelli himself, during a speech in front of Fiat shareholders, stated: “The Balilla, with its significant success, is a cornerstone of the national automotive growth and also in the future it will play an important role in Fiat’s production range. It will be joined, in the future, by a small two-seater which will be able to spread the automobile even more in Italy and respond to the preeminent needs of the market that is everywhere characterized by the rise of the affordable car”. So there was already talk about the small two-seater, the future Topolino, and not even a year had gone by since the Balilla was presented. In the end of 1932, in Italy about ten thousand Fiat 508s were circulating (over a production of about 12,000). From March 31st, 1932 to December 31st of the same year, circulation in Italy had gone from 213,001 to 227,445 vehicles. A good result, considering that in one year just 2,200 509s had been built. But an almost insignificant result in terms of an actual diffusion of the car in Italy. In conclusion, problems had been faced, but not entirely solved. But it was already a big step forward.
