Fiat 508M

The Fiat 508M, the M standing for Militare, was a light tactical transport and liaison vehicle that the Italian company Fiat built from 1932 to 1937. It answered a 1931 tender from the Regio Esercito, the Italian royal army, for a light vehicle for liaison and reconnaissance, and was a two seat open version of the Fiat 508 Balilla that Fiat showed at the Milan fair in the spring of 1932. It won the competition, entered production the same year and reached the motorised units in 1933, when a light truck version for the artillery was also developed. The second series of 1934 took the four speed gearbox of the 508B and added a four seat torpedo body. The first series kept the Balilla layout of rear wheel drive and the Fiat 108 C engine, a 995 cubic centimetre four cylinder petrol unit of 30 horsepower, with larger wheels, a larger air filter and stronger suspension, while the rear luggage space could be turned into a third seat. It was blooded in the Ethiopian war, used widely in the Spanish civil war and was the main light transport of the royal army in the Second World War. Production stopped in 1937 when the 508CM and military versions of the Fiat 1100 replaced it.