Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Tuesday, June 09, 2026
Friday, April 10, 2026
Thursday, November 27, 2025
Monteverdi High Speed 375, a grand tourer meant to tackle Ferrari head-on while armed with 440s and 426 hemis, a simple chassis, and a glove box full of dreams.
A partnership with Ferrari was eventually secured, along with working relationships with Lancia and BMW.
Peter helmed the dealership business, with his father acting as a sort of overseer, despite the business being largely run on his own capital. However, Monteverdi was cast out of Ferrari's inner circle after failing to pay for a 100-car inventory shipment to his dealership, angering Enzo Ferrari himself.
So, instead of trying to repair his relationship with Ferrari he began producing his own, home-grown luxury grand tourer with its design and production by Frua. By 1968, Monteverdi moved its design and production to Carrozzeria Fissore.The "375" in the High Speed's nomenclature is derived from the SAE Gross Horsepower Output found in the Chrysler 440
Monday, November 10, 2025
Back in the 1990s, Aprilia sought to make a motorcycle for people who didn’t ride. To design it, they hired French designer Philippe Starck, known back then for his home goods, to make an appealing bike.
In the early 90’s the Italian motorcycle manufacturer Aprilia was surfing the wave of success, churning out innovative scooters for a booming market.
Aprilia, the Italian marque of championship-winning racing motorcycles, decided to get into slower transportation for the masses.
It was then that “il patron” Ivano Beggio, whose dream was to create an eternal design icon of his own like the Vespa or the Fiat 500, commissioned the French star architect Philippe Starck, to create a new motorcycle.
The Aprilia Motò 6.5, the motorcycle for people who couldn’t tell you how valves work, would be designed by someone better known for home goods like chairs, mirrors, televisions, and television remotes.
For Starck, it was his first project in the world of two wheels.
“Compromises were considered blasphemies”, Beggio wrote in his autobiography, and the engineers went mad before the almost impossible task of developing an extremely compact motorcycle with organic, round shapes.
Even the head of testing refused to collaborate and Beggio remained the only person convinced of the soundness of the project that was an economic flop for Aprilia
The rideability of the Aprilia Motò 6.5 was a victim of this because of the unfavorable position of the center of gravity, due mainly to the innovative, bowl-shaped exhaust system under the engine. The poor grip of the rear wheel during acceleration and the oscillations at higher speeds were partially improved by fitting tires with a soft rubber-compound taken from racing-tires and by making last-minute changes to the chassis geometry shortly after production got underway.
This scooter never saw the light of day. And, given what it would have been, that wasn't a bad thing.
Starck decided to pursue his passion for two wheels following a chance meeting with Ivano Beggio, owner of Aprilia, at the 1991 Salone del Mobile.
Starck decided to pursue his passion for two wheels following a chance meeting with Ivano Beggio, owner of Aprilia, at the 1991 Salone del Mobile.
Talking about motorcycles, and deciding to embark on a journey together that would combine the worlds of two wheels and that of design, the Parisian creative was given free rein. He decided to give Aprilia a faired scooter with futuristic shapes.
And that's how the Lama was born.
The prototype (only two of which were built) was shown to the Aprilia dealer network in 1992.
The prototype (only two of which were built) was shown to the Aprilia dealer network in 1992.
To put it mildly, they weren't too keen on the "thing" Starck had designed. "Let's hope nothing ever comes of it, otherwise who would we sell it to?" said more than one dealer.
And that's how the Lama died in prototype.
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Andre knew about these military wheels... that are unique! They have spikes that flip out for more traction, and flip in for hard smooth roads, the Pavesi P4, produced in Italy in 1918 by Ugo Pavesi. It was the first 4-wheel drive tractor developed in Italy, as well as Italy's first articulated tractor.
So this is the photo I posted yesterday, and had no clue what the vehicle was, and had never seen the wheels before, and wondered what the story about them was.
in 1935 Greece purchased 224 of the tractors from FIAT, which were used to tow Schneidere 105mm and 150mm howitzers, and since the above photo is supposed to have been part of the soldiers time in Greece, that makes sense
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavesi_P4
Thank you Andre!
thank you Steve!
I just learned from Steve that I've posted about Pavesi before, but, never realized in those different post, years apart, that the wheels have the spikes/spades that flip over for traction improvement (thank you Steve!) https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/09/pavesi-p4.html
Friday, March 28, 2025
Thursday, March 06, 2025
Thursday, February 20, 2025
the genius of Roman roads, engineering brilliance, their strategically and economically significant, with an enduring impact they continue to have on modern infrastructure. One of history’s most comprehensive and enduring road networks
The layered construction, military utility, and cultural influence, make them studied and revered today
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Monday, October 21, 2024
senior animator and Disney veteran Lino DiSalvo is developing an animated film that tells the coming-of-age story of an Italian teenager who teams up with a mythical creature to save her hometown from an evil curse.
“Twisted” begins in a small town in the Valcamonica valley in Lombardy, where for centuries the villagers have gathered on the eve of the Epiphany to hunt the Badalisc, a mythical, horned creature dwelling in the forests of the Alpine region. Once captured, the beast is paraded through the town, where he exposes secrets, gossip and petty grievances — a ritual that returns the community to peace and harmony for another year.
Enter Angelina, a smooth-talking teen who works in the family pizzeria. “Her family has this expectation [that] she’s going to be the next prime minister, she’s going to be a fashion designer — things that Italian families want for you to ‘succeed,’” said DiSalvo. “The irony is that all she wants to do is make pizza.”
Recruited at the age of 20, DiSalvo spent 16 years at Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he served as head of animation on the Academy Award-winning film “Frozen” and worked as a supervising animator on projects including “Tangled” and “Bolt.” After leaving Disney, he served as creative director for Paramount Animation and later as the head of creative at ON Animation Studios in Paris.
Saturday, August 17, 2024
Utopeia Moto Company in Texas is known for building offbeat scramblers, this is a 1973 125cc Harley two-stroke off-roader, built by Aermacchi back when Harley owned half of the Italian company.
Produced from 1969 until 1972, it was designed to help Harley break into the small displacement off-road market.
Tuesday, July 09, 2024
For 17 years I've been constantly amazed at the awesome work that Michael Ulman has done, and I just found a new example, in the Harley Museum for pete's sake! Wow!
This custom turbocharged 1972 Harley-Davidson Aermacchi SS350 has almost everything thrown at it from a saxophone for an exhaust and a microscope projector for a headlight to a pencil sharpener for a brake light and a juicer for an air intake.
The first motorcycle some saw when they exited the elevator of the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, was this 1972 Harley-Davidson Aermacchi SS350. It's since been moved to the Custom Culture gallery
This Sprint is the work of J. Shia, a builder who runs Madhouse Motors in Boston, and Michael Ulman, also of Boston, he also made the flame throwing guitar for the film Mad Max Fury Road
These ‘72 Harley Davidson Aermacchi 350s are known as “The Optical Conclusions,” were debuted on the stage of The Boston Symphony Orchestra stage to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Op. 20 Act II.
about 7 months after I started this blog, I came across one image of a cool model hot rod Ulman made, and I've been a fan ever since. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Ulman
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
do you know the most common lemon of the past decade was? A FIAT 500. So, why would anyone pick a 2012 FIAT 500 and pit in a 250hp engine, get it to 174 mph, and try and sell them for 145k?
https://www.carscoops.com/2024/05/giannini-spettacolo-is-an-abarth-on-acid-thatll-cost-you-over-140000/
Anyone can buy a Corvette, or whatever, and still have enough to pay for gas and insurance instead, so why would anyone blow 145k on a Fiat?
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
dang it, you can't deny the Italians have such a great flair for design... look at these street vendor carts!
the site that hosted these isn't working, so I had to save them from the google search
Monday, April 29, 2024
a career switching from violins to aircraft propellers, a side effect of WW2
During WWII, due to his strategic shop location, that Domenico was approached by both German and later by Allied forces to lend his expert woodworking skills to the repair of wooden propellers, which were mounted on the likes of Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, Piper J-3 Cub and L-4 Grasshopper, and Auster aircraft.
The company is now operated by his son, and grand sons.
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
while digging for a McDonalds building’s foundation in Frattocchie, Italy in 2014, workers found about 150 feet of an ancient Roman road, constructed between the second and first centuries BCE.
The McDonalds was then part of the excavation, preservation, and built the restaurant a storey above the road, with some glass floor areas so diners can look down at the 2000 year old road, or head down the stairs to get a close up look. Yes, 3 skeletons were found, recreated with fakes, and relocated.
This makes it the only McDonalds with a museum.
And the only one not able to use a preexisting road for a drive thru
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