Volkswagen's unknown Mini, created half a century ago

Exactly half a century ago, the Volkswagen design department developed a promising small car, which for some unknown reason remains among the lesser-known projects of the concern, despite its practical and stylistic merits. The prototype of a small city car, called Chicco, was created as a result of a commissioned study on the viability and prospective development of this class of cars. Its extremely compact structure implemented an innovative concept for body assembly combined with increased dynamics, reduced fuel consumption and the most efficient approach to production costs piese auto online.

Volkswagen's unknown Mini, created half a century ago

Volkswagen was considering creating a small city car as early as the 1960s (when the first generations of the Golf and Polo did not yet exist, even at prototype level), although the topic was not yet particularly relevant at that time. However, after the serious shake-up of the automotive market as a result of the oil crises, many leading manufacturers offered their own versions of economical, compact, cheap and modern cars, with Chicco among the most successful proposals.

The first prototype, presented in 1975, featured front-wheel drive and a three-door, two-volume body, 3.3 m long (212 mm shorter than the first production Polo). The extremely simplified interior accommodates four people, although there are no rear seats in the conventional sense. Passengers sit directly on the fuel tank, which is covered with a floor covering, to which small backrests are attached.

Chicco is powered by an experimental 900-cc three-cylinder engine with a power of 40 hp. Its curb weight is 650 kilograms, and its maximum speed reaches 130 km/h. However, it does not reach serial production, since the Polo prototype completed at the same time manages to fit much better into the role of a compact and inexpensive car.

Many years later, Volkswagen still managed to add a car with similar parameters to its production range in the form of the Lupo.

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Volkswagen was considering creating a small city car as early as the 1960s (when the first generations of the Golf and Polo did not yet exist, even at prototype level), although the topic was not yet particularly relevant at that time

The first prototype, presented in 1975, featured front-wheel drive and a three-door, two-volume body, 3