Carrozzeria Touring

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Carrozzeria Touring

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1926
resolution 1966
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Milan , Italy
management Felice Bianchi Anderloni
Branch Body shop

Chassis with "Superleggera" body skeleton (replica)

The Carrozzeria Touring was an Italian body manufacturer. The company was founded in 1926 by Felice Bianchi Anderloni (born April 28, 1882 in Milan; † April 3, 1948 ibid) in Milan . His friend Gaetano Ponzoni was a partner in the management. Both had studied law.

Company history

Anderloni was a gifted automobile designer . Touring made a name for itself with the patented Superleggera (Italian for “super light”) construction for bodywork. Similar to aircraft, the basic structure of the body was a light three-dimensional frame made of profiles of different shapes and thicknesses. The materials used were aluminum, magnesium and their alloys or steel. The aluminum body panels were connected to this frame and strengthened the overall structure. This design simplified the construction of prototypes and small series in comparison to the ash wood frame that was common at the time. In addition to saving weight, a second goal was to reduce air resistance; Touring was one of the first companies to experiment with wind tunnels. Both of these did not gain acceptance in general automobile construction until much later. "Weight is the enemy, aerodynamic resistance is the hurdle," says Anderloni.

However, the cars had their price. Famous pre-war vehicles were mainly made on Alfa Romeo 6C and Alfa Romeo 8C chassis . A BMW 328 was also built by Touring for the Mille Miglia , which was also the first to cross the finish line in 1940 with Huschke von Hanstein and Walter Bäumer and to this day holds the lap record with an average speed of 166.7 km / h. A few years later, many elements of the design of the BMW 328 Mille Miglia were found in the Jaguar XK 120 .

After Anderloni died in 1948, his son, Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni , took over the management. He was also accompanied by Gaetano Ponzoni. The fifties were the company's technical heyday. The design of the touring vehicles was groundbreaking for many automobile manufacturers.

In the early 1960s, a major order from the Rootes Group was expected and a new factory was built in Nova Milanese . This order was canceled, which led to economic difficulties. At the end of 1966, Carrozzeria Touring had to close its doors forever. The vehicles, which were already exclusive back then, are now well-kept oldtimers and often achieve top prices at auctions. The Carrozzeria Marazzi , working as a subcontractor for touring for a long time already, took a piece of equipment and continued some projects.

In 2006 the Dutch Zeta Europe BV Group revived the names Touring and Superleggera. She founded the Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera in Terrazzano di Rho , which has been a design studio and manufacturer of prototypes and small series vehicles ever since. There is no legal connection between Touring and Touring Superleggera. About the use of the terms Touring and Superleggera by Zeta Europe BV, a legal dispute arose in Frankfurt am Main in 2008 with Touring Superleggera Markenverwaltungsgesellschaft AG, which was founded a year earlier and based in Küsnacht , Switzerland , and which claimed the trademark rights for itself. Nothing is known about the outcome of the legal dispute. In 2010 the Markenverwertungsgesellschaft was dissolved due to bankruptcy.

Touring vehicles

BMW 328 Touring Coupé ("Mille Miglia")
Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Mille Miglia
BMW 328 Mille Miglia
Alfa Romeo 2000 Touring Spider, built in 1959

The bodies of the following vehicles were designed by Anderloni, some of which were also built by Touring:

literature

  • Carrozzeria Touring, Carlo Felice Anderloni, Angelo Tito Anselmi, Edizione di Autocritica, Rome (1982)
  • Italian sports cars, Georg Amtmann, Halwart Schrader, Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart (1999)

Web links

Commons : Carrozzeria Touring  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entries on Touring Superleggera Markenverwaltungsgesellschaft AG at www.easymonitoring.ch (accessed on March 11, 2019).
  2. ↑ NN: TOURING SUPERLEGGERA MARKEN AG: Suit Following Trademark Infringements. www.businesswire.com, August 20, 2008, accessed March 11, 2019 .