More on the Ala d’Oro Stanguellini

Some time ago, reader Bill Spear emailed a photo taken from Life magazine back in the 1950s. We don’t know when or where the photo was taken but he had no idea what the car is or who built it. So of course he sent it to us. But after that was published, we hear more about this post war classic Stanguellini.

To help identify the car, we turned to Dino Brunori, author of Enrico Nardi, a Fast Life, who told us that the car was a Fiat 1100 bodied by Carrozzeria Ala d’Oro from Reggio Emilia, built in 1948. Carrozzeria Ala d’Oro was founded in 1946 by Franco Bertani, a gentleman driver and Italian champion in the 1938 1100cc class who also headed the Officine Reggiane in Reggio Emilia. Officine Reggiane was a small factory that grew up during the war, manufacturing parts for airplanes. After the war, and now called Ala d’Oro, the firm bodied most part of the first Stanguellini production cars and several sports models, plus other cars and trucks. This 1100 was originally fitted with an hard top very similar to an airplane cockpit (see picture). The design was an in-house work. The car still exists in the hands of an Italian collector.

A while later, a reader from Hungary by the name of Peter Berendi, sent some photos of a grey Fiat 1100 Ala d’Oro with a coupe top, taken at Mille Miglia 2003..which might be credited to Barchetta.com. The top looks removable but we have no idea if it is the same car that appeared in Life magazine.

Graham Gauld also sent a note and a photo. “I thought it might interest you and your readers to know that Maria Teresa di Filippis’s brother took delivery of a Fiat-Stanguellini with very similar Ala d’Oro bodywork which he used in a few events. The car is now in Francesco Stanguellini’s museum in Modena.”

And that, we know now, is the same car that is currently on display at the Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari.