Fiat 600 T Fissore

The Fiat 600T Fissore was an eight-seat minibus based on the second-series Fiat 600T and fitted with coachwork by Fissore. It retained the compact mechanical basis of Fiat’s commercial vehicle while using a specialised enclosed body arrangement for passenger carrying. The vehicle has also been described as an ambulance transformation, although its documented layout retained accommodation for eight occupants. Its identity rests on the combination of the Fiat 600T platform and the Fissore-built conversion body.

The conversion differed from the ordinary Fiat 600T Furgone through its passenger compartment and its access layout. A pair of double folding doors was fitted on each side of the body. Four folding door leaves therefore served the minibus, allowing passengers to enter from either side. The twin-door arrangement and eight-seat capacity are the principal recorded features of this Fissore-bodied example.

Fissore carried out the bespoke coachwork conversion on the standard Fiat basis. The body enclosed the passenger compartment and provided the access required by its stated eight-person layout. Rather than a standard van body, it was a specialised conversion of the Fiat commercial vehicle. The designation of the vehicle as second series distinguishes it within the Fiat 600T range, while the Fissore name identifies the coachwork applied to that base.

The minibus’s bodywork centred on a practical, symmetrical access arrangement. Each side received a double folding door, rather than a single conventional opening. This is the feature most clearly separating the vehicle from a regular 600T Furgone in the available description. The doors, passenger accommodation and enclosed body formed a single conversion package built around the Fiat mechanical platform.

A surviving example was later owned by Giorgio Avola, an Olympic fencer and collector of historic vehicles. Before restoration, it had reportedly remained in a farmhouse for about 40 years. The subsequent work did not remove every trace of that period of storage. Its aged, rat-rod appearance was retained, including visible marks accumulated during its long inactivity.

The restored vehicle continued to present the Fissore conversion rather than a uniformly renewed finish. Its double folding doors, fitted on both sides, remained central to the body’s appearance and use, as did the eight-seat passenger layout. The Fiat 600T Fissore is documented as a second-series, eight-seat minibus conversion with Fissore coachwork, restored after roughly four decades in farmhouse storage.