Isotta Fraschini

Isotta Fraschini is very old and famous Italian manufacturer of engines of Bateau and Automobile S. the firm is in particular known for his manufacture of luxury cars. Founded by Cesare Isotta and the Oreste brothers and Vincenzo Fraschini with Milan on January 27th 1900 under the name of Società Milanese Automobili Isotta, Fraschini & C. . The first car under the Isotta-Fraschini mark appears in 1902; it was about a four-cylinder engine in T of 24 horses.

After the First World War, the company turns to the production of de luxe models intended for the European and American elites. The crisis of 1929 will shake the firm which will give up the car in 1934 definitively to center itself on the industrial vehicles.

History

The first cars produced by this Milanese manufacturer transfer the day in 1902: one been driven by an engine Aster of 699 Cm3, the other of a two cylinder motor of 2251 Cm3 and the third of an engine De Dion of 785 Cm3.

In 1903 Isotta Fraschini presented a new model been driven by an engine of its own design and manufacture of a power of 24 CV. In 1905 engineer Giustino Cattaneo became the chief technical officer of the Milanese mark and occupied this function until 1933.

In 1907 Isotta Fraschini signed a cooperation agreement with the French company DE DIETRICH and the license of manufacture for construction yielded to him, in France, of 500 automobile frames Isotta Fraschini. It is as from this time that the mark engaged its cars in competition and gained many successes. that had very positive repercussions on the development of Isotta Fraschini which entered the very restricted club of the marks of prestige.

Isotta Fraschini took down in 1908 a very important victory in the USA at the mean velocity of 105 km/h. A true revolution for the time. This record will be equalized by other marks only decades later.

In this same year 1908, Isotta Fraschini presented Tipo FE, a car with the very advanced features which revolutionized the medium of the manufacturers of the time. Same hardening followed Tipo km, a sporting car produced between 1911 and 1914, been driven by an enormous engine of 10.618 Cm3.

From 1911, made famous in the whole world for their reliability, robustness and advances technological, the engines Isotta Fraschini started to be required per many manufacturers for very different applications, that it is for machines military, sporting, engines of planes and for the airships.

It is to satisfy the important request of the First World War that Isotta Fraschini produsit also of the heavy trucks and the trailers for the transport of the troops and the weaponry.

The shortly after the conflict, the manufacturer like much of its fellow-members in Europe, was vis-a-vis enormous financial problems. The Tale Ludovico Mazzotti taken a significant participation in the capital of the company and became one of the persons in charge about it. The Milanese manufacturer proposed a new car of very top-of-the-range, intended for very rich international customers. Thus in 1919 Tipo 8 appeared, which was the first car to receive an eight cylinder motor manufactured in very small series. Tipo 8 was recognized immediately as the car which represented the luxury and automobile elegance. Prestigious car, it was the most desired car in the world at the time. Sold with the price of 150.000 £ires it found a very good outlet for trade in the USA. Tipo 8 was built in three different versions until 1932.

After the death of Oreste Fraschini, one of the founders of the mark, his/her brothers as well as the Isotta lawyer left the company which was then taken again completely by the Mazzotti Tale which became President about it and by Mr. Cattaneo Managing director - Managing director .

Isotta Fraschini engaged in a cooperation agreement with Ford which envisaged the creation of a factory for the manufacture of American models, in Italy, but the government of the Kingdom of Italy refused the authorization.

The year 1929 was one year terrible for all the economies of planet and knew the New York Stock Exchange collapse. The manufacturer Isotta Fraschini undergoes this financial crisis of full whip, it devaluated his capital to 9 million £ires, whereas in 1924 it was of 60 million. In 1932 engineer Giovanni Battista " Gianni" Caproni taken a majority stake in the capital and it decided to stop the production of the second version of Tipo 8 and to increase that of the diesel engines. Isotta Fraschini entered the Caproni Group thus. the Caproni Group was a very powerful industry group in Italy in particular in the sector of the planes.

Cattaneo was rempalcé by Merosi, which had experience in the manufacturers Alfa Romeo and Bianchi.

During the second world war, Isotta Fraschini produced trucks heavy with a cabin drawn by Zagato and equipped with the famous engines Isotta Fraschini which were also assembled on the planes.

At the end of the second world war, the company Milanese decided to take again the manufacture of the luxury cars. Thus Fabio Luigi Rapi, automobile designer and engineer Alessandro Baj will be recruited which were in charge of the project of a new model Isotta Fraschini. It is the young person Aurelio Lampredi, hardly formed at Ferrari, which ensured the design of the engine. It will turn over to Ferrari in 1948 . They created a car been driven by a 8 cylinder motor, the IF 8C Monterosa. This car is born whereas the manufacturer underwent a financial serious attack again: the orders of aeronautical division were null even if the engines manufactured were always of excellent quality, but there was no more no activity in this field. Financial means was insufficient to put in manufacture the model IF 8C Monterosa. In 1949, the Funds for the Financing of the Mechanical engineering industry set up in Italy, and principal creditor of Isotta Fraschini, decided the closing of the Milanese manufacturer.

It is in 1998, with the Motor-show of Paris, which will be presented very new Isotta Fraschini, T8. At the origin of this project, one finds a very rich industrialist Piedmontese Giovanni Malvino. The manufacture of this imposing and luxurious model, worthy of the models of antant, should have begun in a new factory established in Gioia Tauro, in the southern extrème of Italy. Unfortunately this attempt at rebirth of the mark will remain without continuation. Recently, the mark Isotta Fraschini was repurchased by Gianfranco Castiglioni, Italian industrialist already owner of the manufacturer of motor bikes Cagiva, and manufacturer of the engines Franco Tosi of Legnano, beside Milan.

Various models

Cars

Tipo 8: 1919 - 1924
Tipo 8A: 1924 - 1931
Tipo 8B: 1931 - 1936
Tipo 8C Monterosa: 1948 - 1949

Racing racing cars

Tipo D 1905 - 1907

Trucks

Trolley bus

TS 40F1
F1

External bonds

Isotta-Fraschini Motori S.p.A.

Isotta Fraschini Milano s.r.l

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