TopGear magazine has caused a stir by voting the iconic Fiat 500 as the "World's Sexiest Car", the tiny Fiat beating off rivals from Ferrari, Aston Martin and Lamborghini to clinch its place at the top of the 100-strong list. James May, regular TopGear Television presenter and the magazine's contributing editor said that the Fiat 500 has "the allure of the wholesome and uncomplicated".

He continued: "Everyone, from strapping blokes to fainting flowers of womanhood, looks sexually charged behind its wheel. It works irrespective of age, beauty, wealth and position - even a nun in a 500 seems to telegraph a faint tingle of the procreative urge." The Fiat 500 in fact earlier this month entered the Guinness Book of Records after creating a "traffic jam" of over 3 km in length at the conclusion of an event organised by the Fiat 500 Club Italia.

This high profile recognition by TopGear magazine for the Fiat 500 comes at an ideal moment for Fiat Auto which is busy breathing life back into the legend of little car that plays such an important role in its history as it begins to build up interest towards the arrival of the "new" 500 model which is due later next year. This has included a series of events as well as a website that invites users to contribute to the new 500's visual development under the slogan "500 Wants You". Meanwhile TopGear's James May reckoned that "Every psychologist in the world has some hackneyed theory on the relationship between sexuality and cars. But our number one sexiest car, the Fiat 500, advertises nothing about its owner, except that it's someone who doesn't need to try."
 

Second place in the list of the "100 Sexiest Cars" went to James Bond's favourite method of transport - the Aston Martin DBS. The magazine commented that is it "has a special place reserved in the heads and loins of mid-40s, early mid-life crisis men." Third place went to another stylish Italian machine, this time the modern super-luxury Maserati Quattroporte saloon, which TopGear reckon "seduces your eyes away from your brain." Fourth place went to the Chevrolet Camaro which they described as "a creature of legend". The rest of the top ten was made up of the Citroën C6, Lincoln Continental, Bentley Continental S1 Fastback, BMW M1, Rolls-Royce Phantom and finally "Sally the Porsche 911", a cartoon character out of the currently-showing Disney Pixar film "Cars". The Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder made the Top 20.

TopGear Magazine - 100 Sexiest Cars: 1.  Fiat 500; 2.  Aston Martin DBS; 3.  Maserati Quattroporte; 4.  Chevrolet Camaro; 5.  Citroën C6; 6.  Lincoln Continental; 7.  Bentley Continental S1 Fastback; 8.  BMW M1; 9.  Rolls-Royce; Phantom; 10. Sally the Porsche 911 Carrera (from Disney "Cars")