Automotive industry in Italy

Today the Italian automotive industry is almost totally dominated by Stellantis (formerly called Fiat Group); in 2001 over 90% of vehicles were produced by it.

[4][5] In late 1851 or early 1852 Eugenio Barsanti, a professor of mathematics, and Felice Matteucci, an engineer and expert in mechanics and hydraulics, joined forces on a project to exploit the explosion and expansion of a gaseous mix of hydrogen and atmospheric air to transform part of the energy of such explosions into mechanical energy.

The idea originated almost ten years earlier with Barsanti when, as a young man, he was teaching at St. Michael's College in Volterra, Italy.

It was the first real internal combustion engine,[6] constituted in its simplest realization by a vertical cylinder in which an explosion of a mixture of air and hydrogen or an illuminating gas shot a piston upwards thereby creating a vacuum in the space underneath.

When the piston returned to its original position, due to the action of the atmospheric pressure, it turned a toothed rod connected to a sprocket wheel and transmitted movement to the driving shaft.

The Italian automotive industry started in the late 1880s, with the Stefanini-Martina regarded as the first manufacturer[8] although Enrico Bernardi had built a petrol fueled tri-cycle in 1884.

As they encountered challenges of scale and finance they contacted a consortium of local nobility and business-men led by Giovanni Agnelli and in July 1899 Fiat SpA purchased the plant, design and patents – so producing the first F.I.A.T.

Its first car, the 3 ½ CV (of which only 24 copies were built, all bodied by Alessio of Turin)[12] was based on a design purchased from Ceirano GB & C and had a 697 cc (42.5 cu in) boxer twin engine.

The firm was named for its founders, Cesare Isotta and Vincenzo Fraschini, who had been importing Mors and Renault automobiles as well as Aster proprietary engines since 1899.

In 1907 a 7,433 cc (453.6 cu in) 35/45 hp model driven by Count Scipione Borghese, 10th Prince of Sulmona who won the Peking to Paris motor race by three weeks.

35/45 HP, now exposed at the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile ('National Automobile Museum') in Turin,[18] became famous for the victory at the Peking to Paris.

The company was established by Cavaliere Ugo Stella to acquire the assets of the ailing Italian subsidiary of French carmaker Darracq, of which he had been an investor and manager.

The brand is known for its strong rallying heritage, and technical innovations such as the unibody chassis of the 1922 Lambda and the five-speed gearbox introduced in the 1948 Ardea.

He began his coach building career in 1919 when he left "Officine Aeronaut Aluminum Ti Che Pomilio" to set up his own business in Milan.

Cars of the time were often bulky and heavy; Ugo Zagato conceived them as lightweight structures with a frame in sheet aluminum similar to an aircraft fuselage.

Immediately after the end of World War II, Renzo Rivolta decided to devote his company to the production of motorbikes, a type of market that offered significant commercial profits in those years.

With the start of sales in the United States and the signing of a stable powertrain contract with General Motors, the company began the production of a new lineup of models based on the GT 300 chassis (standard, extended or shortened).

The most famous Autobianchi models include the A112 released in 1969, a small hatchback very popular in Italy for racing, and which ceased production in 1986; as well as the Y10, which was the first car to use Fiat's new FIRE (Fully Integrated Robotised Engine).

On August 9, 2010, Lamborghini (Volkswagen Group) acquired 90.1% of the shares of Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A., including the brand name rights and patents.

[39] Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani founded Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi S.p.A. (SIRP), the company that would eventually become Italdesign, on February 13, 1968, in Moncalieri, Italy.

In the 1980s, Italy overtook the United Kingdom but conceded to the Soviet Union which, like Spain, Poland and Yugoslavia, began large-volume production of cars with Italian FIAT help.

Lamborghini grew rapidly during its first decade, but sales plunged in the wake of the 1973 worldwide financial downturn and the oil crisis.

[43] Its production plants are in Europe, China, Russia, Australia and Latin America and it has about 5,000 sales and service outlets in over 160 countries.

[44] The Uno's replacement, the Punto, was launched at the end of 1993 and achieved success similar to that of its predecessor, while its earlier Cinquecento played a big part in boosting the size of the city car sector in Europe during the 1990s.

The company was founded in 1992 by Argentine businessman and engineer Horacio Pagani and is based in San Cesario sul Panaro, near Modena, Italy.

The museum has a collection of almost 200 cars[48] among eighty automobile brands representing eight countries (Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, United States of America, Poland).

Also included are for instance an 1893 Benz Victoria, an 1894 Peugeot, a 1904 Oldsmobile, the 1907 Itala from the Peking to Paris race, a 1913 De Dion-Bouton, a 1916 Ford T and the 1929 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A that starred in Sunset Boulevard.

[54] The museum is dedicated to over 100 years of history of the Alfa Romeo marque, whose production included automobiles, commercial vehicles, railway locomotives, tractors, buses, trams, marine and aircraft engines.

After 19 years and thousands of visitors from all over the world, his son, Antonio (Tonino) Lamborghini, with the entrepreneurial spirit and avant-garde character that distinguishes his every project, decided to bring the Museum closer to the city of Bologna and to give more emphasis to the history of his father, the genius of mechanics and Cavaliere del Lavoro, dedicating him a new exhibition space.

Ferruccio Lamborghini's personal collection in the museum includes the Miura SV, the Fiat Barchetta Sport, modified to participate in the 1948 Mille Miglia competition, the Countach, the Jarama models, the Urraco and the Espada.