NOVEMBER 1958
SALONE INTERNAZIONALE DELL’ AUTOMOBILE, ITALY The 40th Salone Internazionale Dell’ Automobile in Turin saw exotica including the Maserati 3500GT feature. And yet, parked just a few feet away, were a Morris Minor and a Wolseley 1500
‘Turin is, above all, a show of the Italian coachbuilders’ wrote John Bolster in the November 1958 edition of Autosport – a statement which also applies to the BMC displays. On the Austin stand, pride of place is naturally bestowed upon the new A40, the Corporation’s first car with Pininfarina bodywork, making the A55 Cambridge and the A95 and A105 Westminsters look very ‘early 1950s’ by comparison.
The Austin-Healey Sprite and 100/6 might have tempted a young professional, although he/she would probably have passed the Morris Minors, Wolseley 1500 and 6/90 to make his way to the MG range. National pride dictated the MGA Twin Cam could never be as potent as a Lancia, but a 183kph top speed would be perfectly suited to the Autostrada dei Laghi. As for the Magnette ZB and the Riley One Point Five also on show, both were arguably the nearest that BMC ever came to an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Tistyle sports saloon.
To the left of the Riley is a Tempo Rapid minibus that was manufactured in Hamburg and powered by the 948cc BMC A-series engine. However, a keen driver would probably have overlooked its versatility in favour of the tempting array from SIATA – Societa Italiana Applicazioni Trasformazioni Auto mobilistiche. That year the Turin concern presented a memorable selection of Fiat-based sports cars, including a darkcoloured 600 Spider, even if Bolster referred to its ventilation ports as ‘another bad Americanism’. He equally disliked the wide radiator grille of the larger 1400 Coupe, but few could have objected to the SiataAbarth 750, with coachwork that anticipated the BMW 700 by almost a year.
Naturally, the Maserati display was the next port of a call, especially for the 3500 GT – devised by their chief engineer Giulio Alfieri as a means of rescuing the firm from its financial problems. Here two gentlemen are understandably mesmerised by the lure of the trident badge. Meanwhile, Carrozzeria Ghia offered a more affordable but no less enjoyable form of transport. The 500 Jolly was the perfect beach car for those enjoying La Dolce Vita, preferably with Domenico Modugno’s Nel Blu, Dipinto Di Blu playing in the background.
Crossing to Fiat’s stand, where the duo-tone 1100/103 D saloon was a somewhat more practical machine; albeit not quite as glamorous. The 1100 Familiare estate masks an elegant 1200 TV Spider while to its left is the 14000B Berlina and 1900B Coupe. Walking clockwise we find the 1200 Granluce, the Nuova 500, the 600 and the 600 Multipla beloved of Rome’s taxi drivers. A motoring enthusiast might then inspect the many and various US cars, although the Nash sign appears somewhat incongruous; AMC had phased out the brand in 1957.
Obviously, it was essential to call upon Lancia, not least for the SWB Flaminia coupes with Touring and Zagato coachwork respectively. Then there was the mighty Flaminia Berlina and the exquisite Appia GTE. For the more economically minded, there was always the 600, and Alexander from Lloyd, even if they did not enjoy great prestige in their homeland. ‘ Wer den Tod nicht scheut, fährt Lloyd’ – ‘He who is not afraid of death, drives a Lloyd’ was a common 1950s German saying.
In fact, it would be hard to take leave from a show where, as Mr, Bolster noted, ‘its coachwork section leads the world’. The various Fiats, Lancias and Alfa Romeos encapsulated the post-war ‘ boom economico’ while a Citroën DS seemed poised to enter the stratosphere. And a final thought – the gulf between the respective worlds of the 500 Jolly and the A105 Westminster next to each other is not so much vast as immeasurable...