Michael Murphy wrote:
>
> spent the first two weeks of the new year in Barcelona;
>
> out driving one day and got behind a fifties or sixties era car-- an
> AutoBianchi, had never seen one before;
>
> a tiny car; guess motor was 500 cc or so but it was really blasting
> down the boulevard;
>
> to make those small motors get you anywhere safely you have to really
> work the gears and keep the rev's way up
>
> and the brakes don't work at all if you have a very heavy passenger
>
> Was wondering is there any connection between the bicycle and
> automobile Bianchi folks?
http://www.carsfromitaly.com/
Introduction to Autobianchi
Autobianchi was founded in January 1955 with the signing of an agreement between Fiat, Pirelli and Bianchi to produce a small, Fiat 500 based, car. The result was the Bianchina, first shown in 1957. The next model, the Primula, emerged in 1964. Also using Fiat mechanicals it was used to test market reaction to front-wheel-drive. The Stellina cabriolet was also released in 1964 but fared poorly. 1967 saw Autobianchi pass into the Fiat Group 100%, two years later the final two 'true' Autobianchi's, the A111 and A112 were introduced. Although using Fiat mechanicals they were different cars to anything else in the group. Later (1969) the company passed into the structure of Lancia who badged some models as Autobianchi until the early 1990's.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
.