Count us among those in the western world who take transportation for granted. It's tough not to when we can take our 390hp weekend car down the highway and get passed by people driving crew cab pickup trucks just to get lunch. Our society has really rallied around the crew cab pickup truck lease as the preferred mode of transportation, which makes it tough to imagine 1930s Italy, where aspirational transportation came in the form of something like the Fiat 500 Topolino.

Though small in footprint, these Topolinos are considered proper automobiles, as opposed to a form of cycle car. 16hp in the later cars meant that speeds of over 50ph were possible - about all that you'd really need before the extensive Autostrada system was complete. To us, it's amazing how these were probably viewed as favorably as a crew cab pickup is viewed today, and it's notable how much perspective can shift. We don't think the world should be driving Topolinos, but perhaps our 160hp Fiat 500 Abarth isn't so ridiculous, considering that it makes 10 times the power of its predecessor!