without him. When John Fitch's company folded ending production of the Griffith 600, it left Reiser's Intermeccanica of Turin with a lot of expensive tooling for the bodies that were to be used. They had dealt with Ford Motor Company already for engines, transmissions and wheels for their Torino Griffin-esque cars and decided to team up with Fitch's ex-BRM designer, John Crosthwaite to fabricate the chassis for an all-steel Italian spyder and, so there was no confusion, branded the car the "Italia". They settled on the brawny Ford 351 Cleveland V8 for power which gave 0-60 times under 6.5 seconds. The bucks and tooling were modified by Franco Scaglione for the conversion to the spyder body type. About 600 of the cars were built.
Wow....such a beautiful car and with the wonderful 351 Cleveland under the hood it would have been a treat to drive.
Nice post Rich with wonderful models and great information. Thanks.
Great series of posts, Rich. Thanks, love the background!
John Kuvakas
Warrenton, VA