Fiat 126p T-shirt - a gift for a motoring enthusiast

The Fiat 126p appeared on the Polish market in 1973 and soon earned the nickname "Maluch" (meaning "little one"), due to its small size. Its width, not exceeding 1.5 m, and length of 3.05 m, comparable to the dimensions of the original English Mini, did not prevent thousands of Poles from fitting their entire 6-person family and luggage inside when they set off on holiday from their workplace. In Poland, the Maluch was produced by Fabryka Samochodów Małolitrażowych “Polmo” Bielsko-Biała in Bielsko-Biała and Tychy. The prototype of this PRL-era icon was the Italian Fiat 500, which, although comparably iconic - and more elegant than the Maluch - could never take the place that our hero holds in the cultural consciousness of Poles.

The Polish Fiat, whose peak popularity in Poland was in the 1980s, also found a group of users in Australia between 1989 and 1992, becoming the cheapest car on the smallest continent. Maluchs relentlessly increased their mileage, also traversing Hungarian and even Cuban roads.

The author of the drawing is the Wrocław-based artist Paweł Grabowski.