The ultimate italian coachbuilder site
The ultimate italian coachbuilder site
This Fiat 1100 B was produced in a limited series and few specimens (two, perhaps three) in 1948. The car was built by Carrozzeria Vignale starting from a Fiat 1100 B chassis and designed by Giovanni Michelotti.
The Fiat 1100 B by Vignale was unveiled at the Salone Internazionale dell’Automobile di Torino in 1948 and was built largely in aluminium, excluding the front. Like all the great coachbuilders of the time, Vignale participated in concourse d’elegance: a personal showcase, thanks to prestige, visibility and prizes. Advertisements and articles of the era report that this car was awarded in both big and small concourse d’elegance: the 1100 B by Vignale was a winner at the Gran Premio d’Europa at Juan Les Pin, Gran Premio di Firenze, Gran Premio di Alassio.
An elegant convertible, built in 1949 on the popular Fiat 1100 B chassis by Stabilimenti Farina in very few speciments, remains the emblem of this extraordinary coachbuilding of cars in the early 1950s. The resemblance to Ferrari’s 166 Inter is surprising, which let to controversy between Giovanni Farina and Enzo Ferrari.
The story of Carrozzeria Vignale represents one of the many somewhat forgotten success stories born against the backdrop of an Italy that was torn apart by the Second World War and which, starting from the end of the 1950s, was able to recover enough to know a real miracle. economical just a few years later.
