Description

The Autobianchi Stellina was Italy’s first car with a fiberglass body, introduced in 1963 and produced until 1965. Based on the Fiat 600D platform, it was a compact two-seater roadster that blended innovation with style, aimed at a youthful, fashion-conscious audience.

The Stellina featured a sleek and modern design, with styling cues inspired by contemporary American and European trends. Its fiberglass body—mounted on a steel chassis—was both lightweight and corrosion-resistant, a novelty at the time. Under the rear-mounted hood was a 767 cc water-cooled inline-four engine, producing about 29 horsepower, paired with a 4-speed manual transmission.

Though performance was modest, the Stellina’s charm lay in its futuristic look, nimble handling, and rarity. Only around 500 examples were built, making it a collector’s gem today. The car marked an important milestone in Italian automotive design and served as a precursor to more ambitious fiberglass-bodied cars like the Fiat 850 Spider that followed.