We doubt this car was built in 1957: indeed the plate is from that year but very probably this car was built not later than 5/7 years after the end of WWII. As many other similar cars, this one is a racer built on a “Topolino” platform in order to join all the road races… Read More Tiny with character: 1957 Fiat 500B “Barchetta”
The seller of this curious car says that this barchetta has been found just out of Mosport Raceway, Canada, and looks like someone wanted to build his own dream racer. Of course during the fifties a lot of petrolheads built cars in their own garages, however few of them had good taste and sense for… Read More Past present: 1953 One-off “barchetta”
Of course we all know that cars like a Dino 196S barchetta are unaffordable unless you are some kind of tycoon. Also this car is not cheap but at least there are much more people who could reach it. This is a replica built, as the seller says, 20 years ago by an italian coachbuilder (we… Read More Not real but a good deal: 1959 Dino 196S tribute car
Here it comes another basically unknown barchetta from the past: this one, bodied by Frua, is another car based on a Fiat 1100 platform. The seller says that this is an original barchetta by Frua and as proof of this he has published a period photo of this car where is clearly visible the same original black… Read More Bulky face: 1947 Fiat 1100 Barchetta by Frua
Update, same day: Alex, a faithful reader, italian classic car connoisseur and collector, has found a period photo of the 1949 edition of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este where there can be seen a car similar, very similar to this one. The caption says that the car is made by Colli and that’s painted in… Read More Huge price-weight ratio: 1938 Fiat 500A barchetta by Colli
Once again here it is another relic of the magnificent and bygone era of hand-crafted italian sports cars. It is called “Siluro” (Torpedo) as usual for this kind of cars. This is one of the many (most of which lost) cars made by small coachworks (often made by one of two craftsmen) for private parties who… Read More Disused postwar torpedo: 1948 Fiat 500 “Siluro”
That’s the very first time that we know of an american racing special powered by an italian engine: in the past many used to build cars with the opposite formula: american engines had more power while being cheap to buy and to be serviced and often they were mated to tiny italian bodies and frames. This… Read More Pebble Beach racer: 1955 Swartley O.S.C.A. Special
If we should give a physical representation of the “Minimal art” concept, it would be this car. It’s an Ashley Sport 750 with a fiberglass body which clearly winks at period italian race barchetta’s. This car is the quintessence of the word “simple”: one engine, one chassis, two seats and four wheels: it’s even hard… Read More Minimal art: 1957 Ashley 750 Sport MKI
The are good cars, there are project cars and there are challenges which could scare even the bravest man on the earth: this “car” is one of that. Actually this is a chassis/aluminium shell assembly (crafted by Rocco Motto) of a 1952 Siata 300 BC, a little barchetta built with the main purpose of being… Read More Only the braves: 1952 Siata 300 BC by Motto
Update, September 27: It seems that the car has been sold. Once we wrote that the classic car world never gets you bored as very often your certainties are questioned: this is another example. Actually this car was built by a gentleman driver, Luciano De Luca, puttin’ toghether a Fiat 509 chassis with a narrow… Read More The experiment: 1949 Fiat/Lancia Barchetta by De Luca
