Intermeccanica

The history of Intermeccanica takes of in Turin in 1959 with the commercialization of carburetor and air intake kits, more efficient camshafts and other, everything for the aspiring pilot. That year Frank Reisner, the man behind Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica, a Hungarian refugee, decides with his wife to settle in Italy and realize their dream. Create a car brand. Little by little things become more interesting, he constructs a Formula Junior with a modified Peugeot engine, then a coupé based on a Steyer Puch 500CC. In 1961 another model, the Apollo GT (marketed in the USA by Int. Motor Cars) with Buick engine was created, and Scaglione already signed its shape. It is a success of esteem with about 100 copies produced. However a second attempt to conquer the USA had a less happy ending. A  joint venture with Griffith doesn't make it, and only a few Griffith 600s (later renamed Omega) were built.

In 1966 a serious distributor is finally found and a beautiful coupé named “Italia“ is presented in 1967. It was Franck Reisner's revenge on bad luck and it was a success. Developed from the ashes of the Griffith, still with a Ford V6 engine, around 450 units were built between 1967 and 1973. During the commercialisation of the Italia, many small projects were carried out, but the production of the Indra (with GM mechanics), well on its way to succeeding the Italia, was stopped by the decision of General Motors to no longer provide the mechanical base. It's a hard blow as 125 cars had already found their customers. Intermeccanica's finances are in a sorry state. Reisner decides to gamble and transfer the factory to the United States with fresh gouvernment money. Except this money is left to be desired and Reisner loses everything in this adventure. However, he is not a man that gives up and he starts a business with Tony Baumgartner in California producing copies of the Porsche Speedster. He recovers financial health, continued succesfull with VW-based replicas, but never again produced a car under the Intermeccanica name.