50th Anniversary of the Fiat 500 Bambino
35,000km Around the World

In July 2007 there will be an international gathering of 1,000 Fiat 500 Bambinos in Garlenda Italy to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of the top 5 most significant motor cars of all time.

Adventurers Lang and Bev Kidby will drive one of these tiny cars across the world to represent Australia at the huge event. No strangers to difficulties and danger, their accomplishments include flying a 1919 Vickers Vimy bomber from England to Australia (National Geographic book and movie “The Greatest Flight”), driving a 1940 Dodge car from the Red Sea to Normandy and flying a tiny 1927 Avro Avian biplane from England to Australia.

Their most recent adventure was as organisers and leader of the recreation of the 1907 Peking to Paris expedition. Like Prince Scipione Borghese, Lang drove an original 1907 ITALA car 13,000 kilometres across the Gobi Desert and Siberia resulting in a hugely successful 4-part ABC television show and large coffee-table book.

The 2007 event is shaping to be one of the major media exercises of the northern summer. FIAT are proposing to release the modern version of the Bambino, an advanced vehicle designed to capture the appearance of the original, 50 years on.

The Kidbys' route will be from Perth to Brisbane via Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney before shipping to Vladivostok. Lang and Bev will then travel another 14,000km halfway across the world through Siberia and Russia to join the huge European convoy of FIAT 500's starting from Northern Germany to arrive at Garlenda in Northern Italy in time for the spectacle.

Not content with that, they will then ship the car to New York and drive a further 10,000km to across USA and Canada to Anchorage in Alaska before returning to Australia. This will be the first time a FIAT 500 has driven around the world. Indeed, it will be the smallest car ever!


Lang Kidby 1024 Dohles Rocks Rd, Griffin, Qld 4503 0439 677279 lang@st.net.au

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