Italia oh Italia long time no see

Unique ONES As we all know, in the 1960s the world's automotive was rife with the European-styling sports car is powered by an American engine. This was driven by the success of De Tomaso who managed to gain popularity at that time through its Pantera sports car, which was then followed by sports cars such as the Cobra, TVR, up to Jensen Interceptor.

The Intermeccanica Italia (in pictured Coupe-style) is a two-seater sports-style car produced by Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica from 1962 to 1972. (Picture from: Intermeccanica.org)

It seems that Intermeccanica also intends to participate in tasting similar success by launching the sports car named Intermeccanica Italia. Initially the Turin-based manufacturer named it 'Torino,' but later changed to 'Italia' because previously the name of 'Torino' had been patented by the American automotive giant Ford Motor Company for one of its production models.

The Intermeccanica Italia (in pictured Coupe-style) sports car combines the dynamic bending lines of a typical Italian sports car style, with the high-performance of the Ford V8 engine. (Picture from: Flickr)

The Intermeccanica Italia is a two-seater sports-style car produced from 1962 to the early 1970s (exactly the 1972), with a total of about 425 units ever built in coupe and spyder models. If you look closely, the Italia sports car combines the dynamic bending lines of a typical Italian sports car style, with the high-performance of the Ford V8 engine (in this case the 289 cubic-inch small block Ford engine).

The Intermeccanica Italia (in pictured Spyder-style) is a sports car that is able to make an extraordinary achievement for the 1960s, due to it is able to reach a top speed of 150 mph or 241 kph. (Picture from: Wikipedia)

Like most car development projects combining American engines with European styling, the Italia sports car was originally born out of the ambition of a rich man who ran out of money before he could see the car into real, later the project taken over by Frank Reisner through his Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica whose went on to build and bring it to market.

The Intermeccanica Italia (in pictured Spyder-style) is produced with a total of about 425 units ever built in coupe and spyder models during its production periods. (Picture from: MyCarQuest)

Although it did not achieve great success in the automotive global market, but this Intermeccanica Italia is a sports car that is able to make an extraordinary achievement for the 1960s, due to it is able to reach a top speed of 150 mph or 241 kph. Well, it's rare if the 1960s sports car able to run up to the such numbers of top speed.

During 1969 to 1970, Intermeccanica Italia sports cars started to sell in Europe, especially in Germany through the newly appointed distributor, Erich Bitter. And the first Intermeccanica Italia sports were shipped to the US for sale in 1968, and by March of the same year the Italian company had sold more than 40 units of this car in the United States.

The one-off Intermeccanica Italia IMX is modified model with a few features added, such as a rear movable airfoil. (Picture from: Carstyling.ru)

Besides being built in the Coupe and Spyder styles, it turned out that in 1969 the Intermeccanica manufacturer had also realized the one-off Italia sports car model that had been modified and was named Intermeccanica Italia IMX, with a few features added, such as a rear movable airfoil and is debuted at the 1969 Turin Auto Show. The Italia IMX never went into production.

The succesor of Italia sports car named Intermeccanica Indra (in Spyder and Coupe style) while on display at the Geneva Motor Show 1971. (Picture from: Intermeccanica.com)

After being commissioned by Opel, a subsidiary of General Motors, Intermeccanica started a very interesting new project called Indra, which was then mass-produced by the Turin-based automotive manufacturer to replace the Intermeccanica Italia models. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | INTERMECCANICA | CLASSICVIRUS | GATSBY | CARSTYLING.RU | MYCARQUEST | WIKIPEDIA ]

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