Take a note of your calendars, my friends, and note the date, because it will be important. Today is the first time in the history of our site that the word “teats” has been used in a headline, after four years of somehow avoiding it! And it’s for something important, because I’m pretty sure this 1938 Fiat brochure is the only brochure in Automobilia that has on the cover, prominently, a pair of infants nursing from a she-wolf.
I suspect that many of you will recognize both the wolf and the babies: the kids are Romulus and Remus, and the she-wolf is the one who raised them. Romulus and Remus are, famously, the mythical founders of Rome. Romulus got to name the city after himself thanks to an agreement between him and his brother where (checks notes, in Latin) he killed Remus.
All of this, the she-wolf (the depiction is based on the famous Capitoline Wolf statue), the teats, the babies, the everything on the cover of this Dutch-market brochure for the Fiat 500, I think is to emphasize the Italian-ness of the little car. Even the art style of the cover seems to be emulating the fresco-like painting style of paintings like the ones found in the ruins of Pompeii:
This art style is limited to the cover, but I guess that was enough to get the idea across. The interior illustrations are more precise and conventional for the era, and are, of course, beautifully executed.
One of these is a cutaway of the car, which gives a really good look at what made this original Fiat 500 (also called the Topolino, which means “little mouse,” which is what they called Mickey Mouse in Italy, which is what they thought the car resembled, somehow) so novel and special.
The Topolino was one of the earliest of the “people’s cars,” (I think the Ford Model T, starting in 1908, was the first, then maybe the Austin 7 of 1922, then the Topolino in 1936, then after the war we get the VW Beetle, Citroën 2CV, and so on) and in some ways one of the strangest, because it was only officially a two-seater, at least in its original forms.
Look at that cutaway up there: the Topolino is a small car, which was one of the main ways that Fiat was able to keep its price relatively low. Mechanically, it was fairly conventional, with a longitudinally-mounted 569cc inline-four driving the rear wheels.
Interestingly, the engine was ahead of the radiator, which seems odd to our eyes but back in the day wasn’t that uncommon, being used extensively by Renault and, later, two-stroke DKW engines and all their derivatives.
Also, look how the hood opens on a Topolino! I’m not sure I’ve noticed that before. Also note how much of that hood is devoted to containing the passenger’s legs.
But let’s get back to the two-seaterness of the Topolino; remember, this was supposed to be a car that put Italy on wheels, and that means a car for families and not just couples, so the lack of a back seat seems like an odd choice. But the truth is that of course that back area, with its little carpeted shelf, was absolutely used for more than just the dogs you see up there.
Plenty of kids and even adults were crammed back there, and finally, in 1948, Fiat released a little wagon version of the car with a folding back seat and more cargo room:
But, for the first 12 years of the car’s life, it was just the ostensibly two-seater Topolino, in two variants:
… the sedan, with a fixed roof, and the Cabrio-limousine …
… which had a folding canvas roof that likely made being crammed on the back shelf a lot more tolerable, if the weather was nice.
Despite the lack of official seating, over 500,000 Topolinos were made between 1936 and 1955, making the car a considerable success and paving the way for the Nuova 500, the rear-engined, true-four-seat successor to the Topolino.
The 500 made 13 horsepower, which was adequate to move the little car at speeds that most people likely thought were plenty fast. The suspension was simple and clever, using a transverse leaf spring setup at both ends, as well as plenty of speed holes in the chassis rails.
This Dutch lady sure is excited about the Topolino, using that dramatically-archaic-looking phone to shout, in cursive, that the car is a small big automobile, which I suppose it was, metaphorically.
Not literally, though. It was a small, small automobile.
Top graphic image: Fiat
The dogs look like they are Bracco Italianos…
Also “Wolf teats”
;
https://youtu.be/Q3KdDUpRRFY?si=f_yVPaO7Jk1sYJvF
The Capotine Wolf looks terrified, and I just want to reassure that good girl that what’s happening with those kids isn’t normal human behavior. Are we also sure that she is a wolf and not a pit mix?
Fascist Fiat?
Me ne frego.
That mother wolf statute gives off The Exorcist demon vibes.
I like old cars with radiators unusual places! Old Saabs, Citroën DS, 1910 Renaults.. Not so much the old mini, with it pointing to the side, that’s just too much of a compromise. But nice, there’s so much else out there other than the classic Ford Model T setup 🙂
Oh, so now Jason has become obsessed with headlights.
Aren’t those more like puddle lights?
Now I’m craving a bag of cheese Teetos. .
My first reaction was why is,a,company from Turin using the symbol of Rome, but the comments explain it.
The Topolino’s styling shows up with reversed proportions in the 1957-62 Bianchina Transformabile, since that used the rear engined Fiat 500 platform that replaced the Topolino
“Wolf Teats” sounds like an expression to show that something is the absolute best,
like “This new album is friggin’ wolf teats, man!”
New life mission to make this a thing.
This may be going a little off-topic, but the HBO series Rooster has a character nicknamed “pig tits,” because he was born with a few extra nipples.
The more you know.
Wolf artwork of that time makes them look very short-coated compared to the fluffy Gray Wolves we know today. That pitbull-like appearance really kinda gives it an even more unsettling nature. And makes you wonder if there was an extinction event of some unknown less-floofy wolf at some point.
Huh. Looking up Italian wolves, they are definitely more short coated that what I pictured when I think ‘wolf’. But I suppose it is somewhat warmer there than northern north America.
But that early artwork still doesn’t do it justice.
I wonder if having the radiator back near the foot well provided enough radiative heat to make the cabin comfortable in cool weather? It would certainly be in the right place to heat the foot wells.
Or heat feet well.
I like how in that first cutaway, cylinder 1 is cut back to a half cylinder and half piston, but then cylinder 2 is a half cylinder with the full piston in it, and the red of burning fuel. Then 3 and 4 are just cut back to show the valves.
Also nice work in the second cutaway, where they managed to fill the cut gas tank without it spilling all over.
The transmission also seems to filled with gear oil in that second one, as is the engine’s oil sump with engine oil. Only the differential appears to be deprived of magically self-contained fluid.
Thank you for proudly presenting one of the most disturbing images I have ever seen.
Fix It Again…Teats?
Honestly, if I could fix Fiats boobily, I would.
I never quite noticed the look on the wolf’s face. It’s kind of the look I would expect to see on a wolf’s face if two baby humans started grabbing at at her ta-tas.
That wolf is DISMAYED.
She’s wondering where it all went wrong and she didn’t eat them.
Someone at Fiat really missed out on the opportunity for a prime, one of a kind, hood ornament. So what you’ve got a three pointed star, I’ve got a six nippled wolf feeding two kids.
“How the hell was I given custody of these two little sh*ts?‽”
“I’ll take things Trump said” for 400 Alex…
Anyone here have “teats” on their Torch Bingo card?
The real question is did anyone not have that on their Torch Bingo card? 😉
TorchBingo should be thing.
It is suck a stylish little people’s car as well. Just look at it!
For some reason I’m both surprised and a little disappointed that this is the first article with the teats tag.
Maybe Torch ran out of scatalogical post ideas?
I doubt that very much.
Especially given the furore over Pixar headlights.
Udderly ridiculous.
I’m shocked that someone thought to preserve what is now an almost 100 year old car brochure.
I’ve long wondered why Torch’s brochures are almost always Dutch, like these. Maybe because the Dutch are more inclined to preserve these things? Jason likes how entertainingly ridiculous the language is to an English-speaker’s eyes? He’s a Vincent Vega megafan who’s silently begging to go investigate the truth about Amsterdam?
https://autocatalogarchive.com/ has a lot of Dutch stuff.
You know, it’s the little things.
Dutch is interesting in that it looks like German on paper but sounds more like English. If you speak German and/or English, you can get along just fine.
Of course, almost everyone in Amsterdam speaks English anyway.
Oh I love the sound of the Dutch language, as well as the taste of Dutch beers and the sight of Brabant horses, but the written language looks loopy to an English reader.
(As opposed to Danish, whose written form was preserved in amber many many centuries ago while pronunciation drifted…a lot.)
What, no sideways mention of the Eni oil logo? Can’t beat a 6 legged, fire breathing Italian dog.
Hmmm very good.
This headline is why I’m a member. You can’t get quality reporting like this anywhere else. Thanks, Torch!
Mussolini was very big into Italy’s Roman heritage, with himself as the spiritual successor to the Roman emperors. Italian fascist art and architecture reflected a modernist paring-down of classical themes, so the faux-Roman design of the cover is pretty on-trend. Ironically, the bronze statue of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus is probably not Roman, and the twins themselves are almost certainly Renaissance additions. (Also, the whole myth might stem from confusion about the Latin word for “wolf” also being a slang term for “prostitute”, which makes more sense but probably wouldn’t make as cool a statue)
The bronze wolf statue did exist in antiquity, well before the renaissance. The other additions are questionable, specifically on the statue. The image in its entirety did of course did exist in ancient times.
21st century radiocarbon dating pegs it to the 11th-12th century CE, even though many scholars still consider it to be 5th century BCE Etruscan.
Broadly, this article, and specifically, this comment thread, neatly summarize why I am a paying member of this website/group of misfits. Bravo to each of you!
I’d always heard the she-wolf was Etruscan. That would make sense, since Rome supposedly didn’t exist before Romulus and Remus came along.
the Etruscan claim is… shaky. It’s based off of 18th century scholarship, but by the 19th century opinions were starting to turn around on the artistic style (some thought it looked more medieval than Roman) and the construction (lost-wax casting in one piece, which was unknown during the Roman period). RCD of the metal as well as residue from the inside of the statue points to the 11th-12th century as more likely, although some scholars are clinging to their 5th century BCE guns. Which would technically make it kinda-sorta Roman, as this would have been around the time Rome conquered Etruria.
How do you radio carbon date a bronze statue? Is there tiny inclusions of carbon trapped in the metal? Typically radiocarbon dating works best on living things.
They actually radiocarbon dated residue left from the casting core inside the statue.
The looks of surprise and concern on the wolf’s face has always amused me. “WTF? some humans are sucking on my teats!”
Also, that chassis looks a lot like the Austin 7’s chassis.
I guess it’s better than the AI slop the fascists around now are in love with.
Expecting this to become the new GOP party symbol…
Winning.
I kind of assume there will be a golden she-wolf nursing Baby Trump in a diaper atop the Arc de Trump.
Yes, Fascists had standards in the 20th Century.
Yeah but did he build a ballroom?
Romulus and Remus are famously two planets featured in Star Trek.
And Rodenberry knew some stuff… he got alot right. Take it from an off worlder. Although he somehow came up with the klingons, romulans, and gorn, just off of the Draconian Empire
Ironically, the Gorn was a Human in a lizard suit.
Lmao!
COTD.
What?!? This is how I find out??
Fun fact about the She Wolf statue, Cincinnati is the only other city besides Rome to have an official replica of it.
Well, technically, there is another out there missing its paws because it was the original one in Cincinnati was gifted to the city by, uh, Mussolini, and was stolen from the park a few years ago. It’s since been replaced, but for a while it was just Romulus and Remus just sitting there looking up like WTF.
And it should have stayed that way. Children looking up in confusion is a perfect symbol for Cincinnati.
I feel the same way whenever I encounter Skyline Chili.
“WTF! Spaghetti?”
Statue is in Eden Park in Cincinnati. Really nice park.