Fiat's first car, the 4HP, built between 1899 and 1900. Photograph: /Rex FeaturesGiovanni Agnelli, grandfather of legendary industrialist Gianni Agnelli and a co-founder of Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino (FIAT) in 1899.Photograph: Fabian Cevallos/CorbisCelebrity endorsement, 1904-style: a Fiat advertising postcard featuring French president Emile Loubet and King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.Photograph: Roger Viollet /Rex Features
A crowd gathers around Ralph DePalma's Fiat at the start of one of the 1910 Savannah Races, held on a 10-mile road course around the town of Savannah, Georgia, between 1908 and 1911.Photograph: Nathan Lazarnick/Getty ImagesA crowd gather around two women in a white Fiat Tipo I 'Phaeton', Brescia, 1910.Photograph: Negri/CorbisA Communist party meeting at a Fiat factory in October 1920. A year later, communists rose up and took control of the company's facilities, forcing Giovanni Agnelli to resign in protest.Photograph: Bettmann/CorbisThe rooftop racetrack of Fiat's famous Lingotto factory in Turin, used for testing its cars, seen in December 1929. The factory was designed by Giacomo Matte-Trucco and completed in 1923. Photograph: Fox Photos/Getty ImagesWorld War Two: a Fiat G18V transport plane on display in Milan in 1940. The text on the banner, roughly translated, means "Fascist wings around the world".Photograph: Carl Mydans /Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesWartime production: workers in the Fiat factory in 1940.Photograph: Carl Mydans /Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images1948: workers leaving the giant Lingotto factory after the war.Photograph: Dmitri Kessel/Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesBirth of the new 'Topolino': Fiat's 'Nuova Cinquecento' (500), launched in 1957. Photograph: Fiat /AFPSoviet leader Nikita Khrushchev touring the Fiat factory in 1960.Photograph: James Whitmore/Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesApartments built by the company for its employees, photographed in 1962.Photograph: David Lees/Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesThe presiding spirit: Gianni Agnelli, grandson of Giovanni and the head of Fiat from 1966 until 1996, with his family at home. Agnelli was Italy's most prominent industrialist and one of its most powerful men, as well as an internationally known figure who could count world leaders and film stars among his circle. Photograph: David Lees/Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesA Fiat 500 driving down cobbled street in Noto, SicilyPhotograph: John Miller/CorbisGianni Agnelli talking to Juventus football players in 1968. The Agnelli family took control of the famous Turin team in 1923 and still own it via a trust.Photograph: David Lees/Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesWorkers making the small, no-frills Fiat Panda in Turin, 1985.Photograph: Alinari /Rex FeaturesThe new Fiat 500, conceived as an update to the popular 'Cinquecento' of 1957.Photograph: FiatThe modern conglomerate: Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo insignia on top of the Mirafiori factory with the Alps in the background. The company also owns supercar makers Ferrari and Maserati, tractor builders Case and New Holland, truck company Iveco – and now Chrysler. Will Vauxhall and Opel be next?Photograph: EPS /Rex Features
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