Barbie Fiat

The award, according to the press blurb, is intended to highlight new vehicles with innovation and style that push established boundaries

Oddly, in this case the winner is an echo of established boundaries, a retro-active rethink of the iconic model dating back to 1957, which has been a roaring success with buyers since its revival last year.

And it seems also a success with the judges, who foamed with mouthfuls of superlatives.

The car “does a brilliant job of capturing the visual appeal of the original version while meeting modern design and engineering standards” … “pushes the emotional hot buttons of several generations of people who might never have driven one of the early models” … “is genuine, straightforward, without gimmicks”.

And knowing that the Fiat shuns gimmickry, you’ll be delighted to hear that a special Barbie version is doing the rounds.

It’s bright pink of course. And not just any bright pink, but finished in a paint that looks like nail polish.

Inside, the upholstery is a matching pink, trimmed with silver Alcantara, while the floor mats have been woven with natural silk.

The vanity mirror is lit up with LED bulbs and there is a stock of lip glosses in the glove compartment.

But all that by itself would be a bit subdued for the plastic fashionista, so a couple of chandeliers worth of crystals have been splattered over the hubcaps, window framing and interior trim, with a few on the ounted aerial to match.

The one-off Fiat 500 Barbie was designed and produced as a joint project between Fiat’s Centro Stile (style centre) and the doll’s handler, toymaker Mattel.

The car is currently on tour as part of the celebrations for the 50th birthday of the doll with the impossibly-shaped body ... although there are admittedly similar-looking 50-year-old women on the Gold Coast, many of them with an even higher plastic content.

Apparently the car is being driven from time to time by a live `Ken’ doll, who is chauffering a live `Barbie’ around in it.

And that bit of news had us completely flummoxed, because that means it must have an engine where we imagined there would be only a smooth sweep of plastic.

After all, if the little pink Fiat was a true part of Barbie’s world there’s no way it could be anatomically correct.