Savio Freely: The Multi-Purpose Vehicle That Turned Into a Cozy Camper for Two

Look no further than the Savio Freely for a good example of a failed dream. It's ok if the name doesn't ring a bell, even with diehard auto enthusiasts. This one-off concept car was built to try and prove a point but did not get the reception people were expecting, so the idea was dropped right away.

The year was 1987, and the Savio Freely came and went like a flash in the pan. Today, in a context in which the auto industry is again turning towards the idea of modularity as a means to cut costs, the Savio Freely feels eerily prescient.

The brief for the Savio Freely concept was a very straightforward one: the creation of an all-terrain multi-purpose vehicle that embraced modularity as a means to cut costs across the entire production cycle - and beyond. Admittedly, that's easier said than done, but designer Paolo Martin from Carozzeria Savio approached it in a surprising way: by turning the vehicle into a sort of blank slate that could be whatever was needed of it at any given moment. An automotive dream is what we'd call this.

The Savio Freely started as a Fiat Panda 4x4. The donor vehicle was chosen based on financial considerations (it was Italy's best-selling car and also very cheap) but also because it was lightweight and highly versatile with further modifications. Just earlier this week, a group of Italian fabricators turned an old Fiat Panda into what they call the lowest car in the world – just in case you need a more recent example of the Panda's versatility.

Martin took the Panda and rebuilt it into a vehicle with a perfectly symmetrical bodywork. It doesn't look like he made any drastic modifications to the powertrain, so it was still powered by the original 4-stroke 50 hp engine with 78 Nm / 58 lb-ft of torque and a 5-speed manual transmission.

Almost all parts of the bodywork, from the front and rear to the sills, the wheel arches, the doors, and the sides, were equal in size. This wasn't a stylistic choice meant to confuse other drivers or to create the funkiest looking vehicle (though probably both checked out), but a practical one: by creating all parts equal, production costs were greatly reduced. Later maintenance and repairs would also be cheap and easy to carry out because many of these parts were interchangeable.

This was just one first step towards modularity, as it was first conceptualized in the 1967 Ferrari Modulo study, which is one of today's most fascinating and iconic concept vehicles. The next one was turning the interior into a multi-functional space that could serve any purpose, from people to cargo hauling, and even as a temporary basecamp in isolated locations.

Martin put a folding steering wheel inside the cabin, which meant you could easily take it out of the way when you weren't driving. The windshield also folded down, so you would thus get a flat floor with no obstructions, just perfect for hauling oversize cargo, passing under aircraft wings at smaller airports loaded with luggage, or camping out for a couple of nights. Indeed, the Savio Freely was a two-person camper in disguise, offered with a hardtop and a secondary tent-like structure that fit snugly over the entire vehicle when it came to make an emergency stop for the night to catch some Zs.

Access to the camper was done by means of a curtain-like opening, which was considered too "whimsical" by the press at the time. The overall design of the soft top gave the Savio Freely a cutesy, though not exactly not ugly look, which was also met with skepticism and a few sneers here and there. The fact that Carrozzeria Savio was not considered a major player on the market helped drive the final nail in the coffin of the concept, which was abandoned within months of its public debut.

Today, the Savio Freely is widely regarded as a vehicle ahead of its time in the way it tried to use modularity to cut down production costs and deliver an all-purpose, all-terrain vehicle that everybody could use. It's still not winning any points for its elegant design, but then again, neither are the more recent modular concepts we're getting from established automakers and startups.

This town ain't big enough for the both of us, so no, it doesn't look like we can have modularity and good looks in the same car.