Itala

Italy, 1904 – 1934

(1) Fabbrica Automobili Itala S.A., Turin, 1904 – 1929

(2) Itala S.A., Turin, 1929 – 1931

(3) S.A. Costruzioni Automobilistiche, Turin, 1931 – 1934

After leaving the Ceirano concern Matteo Ceirano joined Guido Bigio to form Itala, though he left in 1906 to start S.P.A., and Bigio remained in effective charge until his death in a road accident seven years later. Early Itala cars followed the Mercédès idiom with 4-cylinder engines, side valves in a T-head, and low-tension magneto ignition; the Itala cars were, however, invariably shaft-driven. The first Itala car model was a 4.6-litre Itala 24, but bigger Itala cars soon followed, some of them with twin water-cooled transmission brakes. The Itala company soon established a reputation on the circuits, Raggio’s 15.3-litre ioe Itala car being the first large shaft-driven car to win a major race, the 1905 Coppa Florio. Cagno’s stripped Itala touring model was first in the 1906 Targa Florio, and a similar Itala car won the Pekin-Paris marathon of 1907, in which year Itala entered both a 14.432cc Itala car grande voiture (victor of the Coppa della Velocita at Brescia) and an oversquare 8-litre Itala car for the Kaiserpreis. A 12-litre Itala car with 120bhp four unsuccessfully contested the 1908 French GP, and was subsequently catalogued until 1912. These successes won Itala royal patronage (Queen Mother Margherita of Italy had five Itala cars), and induced the British BSA and Weigel companies to produce some blatant copies of the successful 7.4-litre 35/40 Itala car.

By 1908 the range of Itala cars was extensive: at the bottom end was a modest 2.6-litre Itala 14/20 with high-tension magneto ignition and 4-speed gearbox, but for the wealthy there were two enormous sixes with capacities of 11.2 and 12.9-litres; the latter cost £1.600 as a chassis in England and this Itala car was still catalogued as late as 1915 with the old-fashioned make-and-break ignition. More modern Itala cars followed, L-head monobloc units making their appearance in 1910 on the 1.9-litre Itala 12/16, a small vehicle by Italian standards that helped the Itala car company to sell 720 Itala cars in 1911. That year also brought a new 2.235cc 14/18 Itala car on similar lines. In 1912 Alberto Balloco experimented with an abortive variable-stroke engine; by contrast, his rotary-valve unit was marketed, and quite a few of these Itala cars were sold in various sizes ranging up to monsters of over 8 litres’ capacity, later ones having pear-shaped radiators in the now prevailing Italian idiom. Some Itala cars were actually raced in the 1913 French GP, though without success. By 1914 home-market buyers had the choice of 11 Itala cars, three of them with rotary valves. Electric lighting was standard on the Itala car, and 14/20 Itala cars came with electric starters as well.

Bigio’s untimely death and an unsuccessful wartime attempt to build Hispano-Suiza V8 aero engines had a catastrophic effect on Itala, and their post-World War 1 range of Itala cars (based on the 2.6-litre Itala Tipo 39 prototype of 1916) was merely the 1914 idiom updated with spiral bevel back axle and full electrics. Itala Tipo 50 was a 2.8-litre sv four with fixed head and foot transmission brake, and the Itala Tipo 54 and 56 of 1922/ 1923 were scaled-down 2-litre versions. Rather better was the Itala 51S, a 55bhp development of the 50 with aluminium pistons that could achieve 80mph and this Itala car won its class in the Targa Florio races of 1921 and 1922. A new rotary-valve engine Itala car came in 1922, the 4.4-litre 6-cylinder Itala Tipo 55 with unit gearbox, twin carburetors and 4-wheel brakes, but 4-wheel brakes were available on the fours by late 1923, and these persisted on Itala cars until 1926.

Meanwhile G.C. Cappa had joined Itala from FIAT, and his Itala Tipo 61 appeared in 1924; this Itala car was an attractive 7-bearing pushrod light six of 1.991cc with alloy block and pistons, 3-speed unit gearbox, and 4-wheel brakes; it had received servo assistance by 1926 when an extra forward ratio was also provided. With its Rolls Royce type radiator it was a handsome Itala car that should have rivalled the OM Tipo 665 (it cost £850 in England), but never did.

Despite assistance from the IRI, the government-run Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Itala’s finances went from bad to worse, and they lost 21 million lire in 1929. An attempt to re-enter Grand Prix racing with an Itala car with a Lilliputian V12 in 1.100cc and 1.500cc forms failed utterly; a wooden-framed prototype of the Itala car was made in 1926 and still exists, but this Itala car never ran under its own power. Nor did they succeed with the Itala Tipo 65, a redesigned dohc 2-litre based on the 61, but with coil ignition, twin electric fuel pumps, and a rear axle passing through the chassis frame. Two re-organizations followed, in 1929 and 1931, and in 1932 there was actually a new Itala car, a rehashed 2.3-litre development of the Tipo 61 Itala car designated Itala Tipo 75.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Riley

GB, 1898 – 1969

(1) Riley Cycle Co Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1898 – 1912

(2) Riley (Coventry) Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1912 – 1948

(3) Riley Motors Ltd, Abingdon, Berks., 1948 – 1969

The first Riley car was a small single-cylinder belt-driven voiturette which Riley car did not go into production. Motor Riley tricycles followed n 1900, and a handlebar-steered Riley tricar with 2 forward speeds, and a 517cc engine with mechanically-operated inlet valves in 1903. Riley Tricars were made until 1907, later examples of these threewheeled Riley cars being twins with driver’s seats in place of saddles, water cooling and wheel steering. The 1.034cc V-twin engine was also fitted to the Riley car company’s first 4-wheelers, which Riley car had amidships-mounted power unit with their gearboxes alongside and chain drive, and the Riley car sold for £168. Bigger V-twins of 2-litres’ capacity, more conventional layout and round radiators were made from 1908 onwards. These Riley car incorporated pressure lubrication, shaft drive, constant-mesh 3-speed gearboxes, and Riley’s own patent detachable wheels, the demand for which brought Riley car production almost to a standstill and was responsible for the formation of the new Riley car company in 1912. In 1914 the 2-cylinder Riley cars were still being made, but there was also a new 2.9-litre sv monobloc four Riley car with worm drive, which was offered again after World War 1 by the Riley engine Co, though this Riley car soon disappeared from the market.

The first post-war 1 Riley cars were the Riley Elevens with sv 1½-litre 35bhp engines, alloy pistons and full electrical equipment which Riley cars were selling £550 in 1920, acquiring spiral bevel final drive in 1921. The Redwinger sports version of the Riley car, with wire wheels and polished-aluminium coachwork appeared in 1923, offering 70mph for £450, and the sv Riley cars were continued until 1928, with a 1.645cc engine and the option of front-wheel brakes in 1925. One of these Riley Twelves was used to prospect Kenya’s road system in 1926, and in 1927 there was even a supercharged development Riley car of the Redwinger available, though this Riley car was overshadowed by Percy Riley’s advanded new Riley Nine, with a 1.987cc 32bhp 4-cylinder engine, twin camshafts and high push-rods, a unit which was to form the basis of all Riley car designs made up to 1957.

In 1928 came the handsome Riley Monaco fabric sports saloon version at £298, a best-seller Riley car from the start, and the lowered and tuned Riley Brooklands sports, inspired by the late J.G. Parry Thomas, which Riley car weighed 1.120lb, had a twin-carburettor 50bhp engine, and was capable of 80mph, all for £395. A twin carburettor variant of the touring Riley Nine followed in 1929, along with a new 1.6-litre 6-cylinder Riley Fourteen of similar styling at £495.

Riley cars had a distinguished competition record in the following years: class wins with a Riley car in the 1929, 1930, and 1931 Tourist Trophies were followed by Whitcroft’s outright victory in 1932, while two more wins were recorded by F.W. Dixon on the later 1½-litre 4-cylinder Riley car in 1935 and 1936. A 4th place at Le Mans in 1933 led to 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 12th and 13th places in 1934, not to mention three successive wins – 1934, 1935, and 1936 – in the BRDC 500 Mile Race at Brooklands. Leverett won the light-car class of the 1931 Monte Carlo Rally on a Riley Nine, while the 6-cylinder racing Riley cars of 1933-1934 formed the genesis of the ERA, and nearly twenty years later the late Mike Hawthorn was to make his name in Club Racing on sports Riley Nines and 1½-litres. Both the Riley Nine and the Riley 14/6 were progressively developed, the former Riley car acquiring vacuum feed in 1931, a lowered chassis and semi-panelled bodywork in 1932, and an optional (later standard) preselector gearbox in 1934. A super-sports 6-cylinder 1½-litre Riley car with water-cooled centre main bearing appeared in 1932, being followed in 1933 by the touring Riley Mentone version at £348. 1933 also brought two advanced body styles of Riley cars, the fastback Riley Kestrel saloon (listed up to the end of the old Riley car company in 1938) and the more-conservatively styled Riley Falcon on which the doors opened into the roof. A Salerni automatic transmission was offered on the 14/6 Riley car, but did not go into regular production.

Two handsome sports two-seater variants Riley cars were listed in 1934/ 1935, the Riley 9hp Imp on a 7ft 6in wheelbase and the 1.654cc 6-cylinder Riley MPH which gave over 90mph for £550, while a newcomer in 1935 was the classic 1½-litre Four Riley car with Wilson gearbox, rod-operated Girling brakes and centralized chassis lubrication, a best-seller in its class at £335, and available in single- and twin-carburettor versions: subsequent developments were the 85mph Riley Sprite two-seater and the Riley Kestrel-Sprite and Riley Lynx-sprite saloon and tourer which offered more room but the same highly-tuned engine for £398. A cheaper Riley Nine, the Riley Merlin with pressed-steel bodywork, came on the market in 1936, along with the 1½-litre, a 6-cylinder 15/6 Riley car, and a 2.2-litre V8 Riley car, of which very few were made, the engine of the V8 Riley car made up of two 9hp blocks. 1937 Riley Nines came with new 6-light Riley Monaco bodies and twin-carburettor 42bhp engines as standard, while other new models of Riley cars were an abortive 3-litre luxury V8 made by a subsidiary company, Autovia Cars, and a more successful long-stroke 2.4-litre Big Four Riley car on classic lines, with an 85bhp engine and Borg-Warner 3-speed synchromesh gearbox incorporating an overdrive at £385. Overdrive was optional on 1938 1½-litres Riley cars.

Finances, however, were insecure and the Riley car company were acquired by the Nuffield Organization later in that year. Under the new management only the 1½-litre and the Big Four Riley cars were continued, with disc wheels, conventional synchromesh gearboxes and Wolseley-like bodywork. The post-World War 2 successors Riley cars used the same engines, but were altogether more handsome Riley cars with independent torsion-bar front suspension and fabric tops, the bigger engine’s output being boosted first to 90bhp and then to 100bhp: this Riley car unit was also used by Healey in the 1946 – 1954 period, while some open three-seater versions with column change were made by Riley cars for export. Hypoid back axles and full hydraulic brakes were incorporated in 1952 Riley cars.

After the Nuffield-Austin amalgamation the 1½-litre Riley car was continued into 1955 with relatively little change, but the 1954 2½-litre Riley Pathfinder shared its bodywork with Wolseley’s 6-90, the new chassis being a BMC design with coil rear suspension and cam-type steering. Even this disappeared after 1957 in favour of a version with a 2.6-litre 6-cylinder ohv BMC engine, and subsequent Riley cars were merely luxury versions of BMC themes, starting with the Riley One-Point-Five (basically a Wolseley 1500), and working through variations of the Farina-styled 1½-litre and 1.6-litre saloon Riley cars, the Mini, and, from 1966, the 1100/1300 family with Hydrolastic suspension, known in Riley cars guise as the Kestrel. Riley’s Mini, the Riley Elf, had a built-out boot and (from 1963) a 998cc engine in place of the standard 848cc Austin/ Morris type. This meaningeless badge-engineering was stopped by British Leyland in 1969.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com