That little red Fiat 500 was a first-year Model A (produced from 1936 to 1948), the smallest car in the world at the time. Italians (like those in this shot in Rome’s Mussolini Stadium) dubbed the midget coupe Topolino (“little mouse” in Italian).
Topolino was also the name of this very famous mouse. Yep, that’s their name for Mickey.
But evidently, cartoons didn’t set well with Fascists back when that photo was taken. Per theguardian.com, “Comics were seen as a vehicle for the values of the Anglo-Saxon democracies … and Mickey Mouse was the last of the American cartoon heroes to be banned because he was a particular favourite with Mussolini’s children; they were among the very few Italians who were able to defy their father with impunity.”
The controlling craziness went so far as to forbid use of “speech balloons” in any comics at all. Who knew the life of a Fascist cartoonist was so hard?
For your further edification, according to hellogiggles.com, Donald Duck goes by “Paolino Paperino” (not pepperoni), Daisy Duck by “Paperina,” and Goofy is “Pippo,” yet for some reason Pluto is still Pluto and Minnie still Minni (close enough).
I Don't Get It 
So they banned the mouse but surround their stadiums with bare-butted guy statues? They needed some re-calibration.
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I guess marble beats animation in the rock-paper-scissors game.
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It looks like one of the MatchBox cars from my collection during my misspent youth of The Sixties…
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Snazzy Matchbox car!
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I don’t see what the advantage of a tiny car is. Hard to get into, can’t see around normal cars and will always come out last in an accident. I guess that tires would be cheap though.
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They said it got 39 miles to the gallon but it only went 53 miles per hour and I agree with all the other things you said. Apparently people tried to put more people in it, so they had to increase the size. I never understand it when I see the smart cars next to me on the road. All I think is how easily they would smush like an accordion.
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I know. Smart car?! That is a misnomer for sure.
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