This bizarre Fiat 500 may look like a weird project car that someone created in their garage but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
This image was shared to Reddit after being snapped on the Autobahn and quickly raised a lot of questions across the forum. A little bit of research reveals that this Fiat 500 has been converted by a company called Ellenator.
For approximately $7,000 (€5,980) including VAT, the German company can modify the Fiat 500, Volkswagen Polo, Seat Ibiza, and Skoda Fabia into a vehicle that can be legally driven by 16-year-olds in Germany as it is classified under the “three-wheeled” vehicle class L5e, despite having four wheels. Normally, Germans can only drive while supervised at age 17 and unsupervised at 18, Jalopnik notes.
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Image credits Ellenator
Ellenator achieves this by replacing the standard rear axle with a new one that features a pair of 14-inch wheels located just a few inches apart. These new wheels fit into a modified section of the trunk and the standard wheel arches are filled with sheet metal. In addition, the ECU is reflashed so the vehicle only produces 20 hp. These changes effectively turn the car into a three-wheeler (even if technically, it still has four wheels) and allow youngsters to drive it.
Of course, modifying a small hatchback in such a way does negatively impact its stability. Fortunately, it is understood that the cars can be easily converted back to stock once their owners are old enough to drive a normal four-wheeled car in Germany.