Fiat just loves putting pictures on cars. Earlier this month, Fiat brought us their collaboration with “Hype Means Nothing” that featured pictures of celebrities plastered all over one of their Fiat 500 and this month, another pictorial tribute. Fiat and its designers are taking it to the streets and designing a Fiat 500 as a tribute to the people that have made the Fiat 500 so popular. Called the “Fiat 500 Thousandth”, this car celebrates the goal of reaching 500,000 units made in 31 months. Fiat->ke30 attributes this success solely on the 500 owners, celebrities, and fans that have followed the Fiat from its conception and have contributed to its success in different ways. To mark this momentous achievement, Fiat is designing a car featuring 1500 photos of those people that have made their dream a reality. Starting May 3, 2010, consumers can log on to the Fiat 500->ke1708 website and fill out a special application that will allow them a chance to have their photo put on the car. They can even add a short amount of text describing their relationship with the car, a link to a personal video on YouTube, or a link to their Facebook page. Don’t worry Fiat owners, 70% of the space on the car is dedicated to the lucky 500 Fiat owners.

Fiat is also excited to have this be the first “collective car” describing the Fiat 500 as “a car created by the people, with the people's ideas”. We can’t recall of any other cars portrayed in this fashion, but we know they are out there. Hit us up with some knowledge.

Press release after the jump.

Press Release

A new project dedicated to the Fiat 500, which has recently reached the goal of 500,000 units made in only 31 months since its launch, will be taking off on 3 May. To celebrate the record, the brand will be creating a special showcar – called “Fiat 500 Thousandth” – with the contribution of the people. The body of the car will be entirely covered by 1500 photos displaying the faces of 500 owners, celebrities and fans who have contributed in different ways to the car's extraordinary success.

Booking a place is easy. Users can simply log onto www.fiat500.com and use the special application showing a plan view of the Fiat 500. A few minutes later, after registering, they can book one of the free spaces online by sending a photograph. 70% of the places are reserved for Fiat 500 owners. Users can also attach a short text describing their relationship with the car or a link either to a personal video on YouTube or to their personal Facebook page.

The showcar will be ready three weeks after the booking stage is concluded and will feature in forthcoming events and international motor shows. The Fiat 500 Thousandth will be the first “collective car”, a further confirmation of the spirit of the original model with potential customers being involved from the earliest steps of design. Since 3 May 2006 and for the first time in automotive history, scores of 500 enthusiasts worldwide have been directly involved in the "500 wants you" project, an international marketing platform where they have said what they wanted from the future car. These suggestions have been taken up by Fiat Automobiles designers and engineers and turned into practical objectives to be reached with solutions and equipment as close to the expectations of potential customers as possible. The Fiat 500 is truly “a car created by the people, with the people's ideas”. Today, the fiat500.com is a community of 120,000 active users from 206 different countries who take part in over 30 online activities. The pages have been browsed nearly 240 million times.

With this new initiative the fiat500.com platform keeps on surprising, creating original initiatives: recent projects included “C MYSTERY”, the first multimedia story game created to support the launch of a car, and “500 words”, a content, video and image aggregator, on the 500 site and on the web in general as a result of the buzz generated, providing an innovative navigation experience. Other interesting features include the new look for the platform with even more information on 500 and 500C, a mobile version (m.fiat500.com) and the fun "My 500C" application for configuring a 500C on Facebook, publishing it on a personal profile and virally sharing it on the web with the 500 online community. For users who enjoy technological innovations and new media, there is Be Open!, an application dedicated to the 500C for iPhone and iPod touch which can be downloaded immediately from the iTunes Store free of charge at bit.ly/oXIhg.