Ah, the Multipla… Fiat’s late 1990s compact minivan. With its bold six-seater layout (three up front and just as many in the second row), this is mostly remembered for its awkward styling, especially for the first generation. Well, all that is about to change, as I bet you’ll have a hard time forgetting the 1000tipla, a Multipla with 1,300 hp on tap.
For about two decades, minivans ruled the people-moving part of the market, stealing every possible customer from the full-sized passenger vans that had thrived until the late 1980s. However, the 2000s saw the SUV ascending to the throne it occupies today, with this genre wiping out minivans almost completely.
For us go-fast enthusiasts, these changes mean we have to learn to live with the high-riding, heavy performance SUVs and yet it would be difficult to make a case for, say, velocity-addicted minivans since this was a niche that carmakers left largely unexplored. Fortunately, though, today’s social media-aided car culture is here to help, with the 1000tipla (this is nearly “Multipla in French, where thousand is spelled “mille”) being a project we’ve been tracking since April of last year.
The two French vloggers behind the Vilebrequin YouTube channel have been working on the project for three years now. It was built using a $1.1M crowdfunding campaign, even though only around $350,000 went into the actual car—the guys explained the budget here.
The Fiat 1000tipla is built on a C7 Corvette Z06
Underneath the first-gen Fiat Multipla body, we have the rolling chassis of a C7 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, a salvage unit the boys imported for about $50,000. So yes, this is an RWD machine.
The LT4 supercharged 6.2L V8 of the C7 Z06 was pushed from its factory output of 650 hp and 650 lb-ft (881 Nm) to a massive 1,300 hp and 1,165 lb-ft (1,580 Nm). And it seems that the Pagani Huayra Roadster, which used to be the most potent vehicle the YouTubers drove, served as an inspiration for the quadruple exhaust tip layout. Mind you, the 1000tipla—the initial idea was for the thing to pack 1,000 hp—screams at 130 dB, which is just one of the reasons why this remains a track-only machine, at least for the time being.
The heavily revised aero on the minivan includes a one-off Rocket Bunny widebody, with the super-sized arches at the rear accommodating Rays wheels shod in 325/30 R19 Michelin rubber.
All the numbers above are impressive, but nothing compares to seeing the 1,300 hp Fiat Multipla tearing up the Circuit the Magny-Cours (F1, anybody?) in the video below. Heck, the inside shots, with the modern C7 dashboard, the roll cage, and the nitrous bottle between the two seats, are just as impressive as the exterior ones. The guys dream about racing a Bugatti Chiron one day and, especially given their 2.3M YouTube subscribers, this could materialize.
What about this Swedish-build, C7 Stingray-based 1978 Chevy G10 Shorty van?
You would imagine that a modern Corvette-based minivan is the kind of idea that doesn’t show up too often. And you’d be almost right. After all, the C7 Corvette-based 1978 Chevy G10 Shorty in the Facebook post below is classified as a full-sized cargo van.
Built by a Swedish shop called Caresto, the American van features a ‘Vette chassis, suspension, brakes, and others, but no body structure, which means this marriage took quite a bit of work.
Nevertheless, as of December 20201, this retro Chevy van is street-legal and you can see it enjoying some Swedish asphalt via the video included in the post.
article continues below
A rendering artist has tasked AI with generating minivans based on the C6 Corvette and the first-gen Ford GT
Earlier this week, the concept of a minivan related to American sportscars/supercars showed up on the AI-generated rendering side of Instagram—the label responsible for this is simply called automotive.ai.
And, in the post below, you can see what would happen if anybody decided to build minivans based on the C6 Corvette and the first-generation Ford GT. Unlike the real-world creations above, this pair takes things one step further, adopting the design language of the coupes for the people mover take. And I have to admit the result is mighty impressive.