The world is caught in FIFA fever. With the 2018 football World Cup in full swing in Russia and with most people around me talking about it every day, even I, with my negligible love for football seemed to gravitate towards good old Google-uncle. But I had no interest in what team was winning, who had scored the most goals or if a Frenchman had headbutted someone yet. My 'goal' was to see if there were any strange cars with the football theme that had been launched around the world. And as always, the internet came out swinging. Or is it kicking. Nevermind the puns though, here are a some absolutely... ummm... 'special' special editions of cars with the football theme.
(Polo and Ameo Sport Variants)
(The ghastly Chevrolet Beat - Manchester United Edition)
Did you really think we would forget this? Possibly the most outlandish special edition ever seen in India (oh wait, no. That would be the Swift Windsong Edition), Chevrolet not too long ago decided it was a good thing to have massive 'Manchester United' decals on their supermini, the Beat. Did it work, of course not. But considering how much money Chevy spends on sponsoring the famous premier league football team, I am guessing they thought they needed to make a hue and cry about it. And no, I did not Google if Manchester United were playing in the World Cup. I had a half decent geography teacher.
(Hyundai GO! Editions)
Hyundai has been a part of the football scene for a while now as proved by the very first picture in this story and provides a part of the official fleet of the World Cup to move players, officials and VIPs around in. Of course, sister automaker Kia is as involved too. In 2016, Hyundai launched the 'GO!' edition on the likes of the i10, i20 and i30 to celebrate the 2016 EUFA Cup, which was being held in France at the time. And what it had were red, blue and white accents on the interior, homage to the French flag. Fast-forward to 2018 and yet another GO! Edition has been launched in Europe. This time, the cars are all in a new and honestly rather cool shade of blue and gets added bits like alloy wheels, rear view cameras, infotainment systems and LED headlamps on respective models making them as loaded as the top spec versions we get here in India too. I don't think Datsun would be too happy with that naming system though.
(The UAZ Patriot SUV from Russia)
This list would be incomplete without a 2018 Russian car that is celebrating the World Cup with a special edition. So here is one. It is called the UAZ Patriot and it looks like it came from the early 2000s. The special football edition is called the 'Patriot' and gets a special blue paintjob and a golden stripe down the side. The car also gets (and we are quoting the press release now) 'genuine leather interiors supplemented with a branded football symbol and 16-inch football themed alloy wheels or wheel caps. It also gets a heated front seats and a steering wheel (much needed in Russia) and a 'polite light function' (I would love to know what that really means!). The car also gets a 7-inch touchscreen with an installed navigation system with maps of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.' да! Путин одобряет! (Yes, Mr. Putin approves!)
(Fiat Panda 850 Italia 90 Edition)
And so we come to my personal favourite. The reason this while long story exists in the first place! The very reason I started crawling around the deep dark alleys of Googletown trying to find all the other ones on this list. In 1990, Italy hosted the Football World Cup. Fiat signed up to be a sponsor and decided to create a car to commemorate the tournament. Say hello to the Fiat Panda Italia 90! Featuring a white paint job, Italian flag stripes running around the side, front and back, Italia 90 decals on the bonnet and generous use of the 'Ciao' mascot made it stand out from the regular Pandas roaming Italy's streets. The interior was draped from top to bottom in a shade of light blue with the mascot on every seat but the coolest thing by FAR on this car are those absolutely EPIC wheelcaps! Who would not want one of those on their own car!!! (me).
(The iconic and cringeworthy Football theme wheel caps)
Under the hood was the sale 0.76-litre engine with a mighty 34 bhp of peak power on tap that took the Panda 750 from 0-100 in 22 seconds! Although these might look outright daft - mainly because of those utterly strange wheelcaps, these are actually quite collectable now and go for a pretty penny in Europe with people just getting into the classic car collection scene. I do hope no other automaker gets the football wheelcap idea today though. That would just be horrendous!
