The best that money could buy?

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For what was, at the start of the 20th century, a fairly poor country, Italy was home to a surprising number of luxury car-makers. The cars built by Fiat, Itala, Züst et al were inordinately expensive, even by the standards of the time, but they succeeded by appealing to the social elite all around the world. Of all Italy’s early car-makers arguably the greatest was Isotta Fraschini.

Having started in 1899 as an importer of foreign cars and progressed to building loose copies of French cars around proprietary engines, by 1906 Isotta had reached maturity and offered a selection of large and luxurious touring cars in the Mercedes vein. A string of successes and innovations followed: in 1907 Isotta won the Coppa Florio, in 1908 it introduced shaft-drive and in 1910 it was really ahead of the curve with four-wheel braking. Despite these advances, the Tipo PM of 1911 and 1912 appeared as something of a throwback.

A 6082cc, 35/45hp model, it not only relied on a bibloc T-head engine when the rest of the Isotta Fraschini range was comprised of monobloc L-heads, but also on chain-drive – the last Isotta to do so. This roadster, bodied by Pavesi & Crespi in suitably grand fashion, is one of only three PMs said to survive. A glorious throwback to the smoke-and-thunder days of motor-racing, Zack Stiling examines it closely in the May issue of The Automobile, on sale now.
 

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