Fiat 850 Shellette Spider

With their fully open bodywork and wicker interior including a wicker dashboard these so called beach cars were a common sight around the French Riviera in the 1960s and 1970s.

With their completely open bodywork and wicker interior including a wicker dashboard these so called beach cars were a common sight around the Riviera in the 1960s and 1970s. The cars often stayed at the summer houses of the jet set or were taken along on their pleasure yachts. That was also the case with the two Fiat 850 Shellettes owned by the wealthy industrialist Simon Kingston from Santa Barbara, California, of which this is one. In summer he lived on his private yacht moored in Monte Carlo and used the cars when he went ashore. The Italian design studio Ghia started the trend in the 1950s with cars based on Fiat models, which were given the type designation Jolly. Designer Giovanni Michelotti then followed with beach cars based on the DAF 32, the so called Kinis. One of these cars was used at the time by the Dutch royal family at their holiday residence in Porto Ercole. Michelotti later switched to the platform of the Fiat 850. Around eighty of these Shellettes were built.