Moretti Fabbrica Automobili e Stabilimenti Carrozzeria

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Moretti Fabbrica Automobili e Stabilimenti Carrozzeria was an Italian automobile and body manufacturer based in Turin between 1925 and 1989 . Up until the 1950s, Moretti designed the vehicles, including the engines, himself; later the company concentrated on special bodies based on Fiat technology.

Company history

Moretti 750 S from 1953
Moretti 850 SS Sportiva
Largest Moretti model: 2500 SS Coupé
Moretti Coupé based on the Fiat 500
Sports car with Targa roof based on the Fiat 128 (1971)
Moretti Midimaxi (based on Fiat 127)

The beginnings

The company was founded in Turin in 1925 by Giovanni Moretti. Initially, Moretti manufactured light motorcycles; some were provided as transport vehicles with three wheels and a small loading area. The company's first automobile, the Moretti 500, was built as early as 1926 . This was a small car with three seats and a motorcycle engine, of which numerous replicas were made until the 1930s.

During the Second World War , Moretti produced various commercial vehicles with electric drives on behalf of the government.

In-house constructions after the war

In 1946 Moretti took up the production of civil automobiles again. In 1946, the company presented the Cità small car , and a little later the 600 model , which was replaced by the Moretti 750 in 1953 . Moretti designed the bodies and engines himself and did not use any third-party components.

The 750 was offered in different versions. In 1955, for example, Moretti's model range comprised a convertible, a two-door sedan, a two-seat coupé and a station wagon. The 750 series was powered by a 0.75 liter two-cylinder engine that developed 20 kW (27 hp).

In 1954, Moretti added the 1200 series to the model range . This was a larger sedan and a sports coupé that was powered by a 1.2-liter inline four-cylinder engine with two overhead camshafts. The power of the engine developed by Moretti was given as 46 kW (62 hp).

Manufacturers for Fiat

In the 1950s, Moretti's vehicles competed with Fiat's 500 and 600 models . They were well constructed and looked contemporary; As a small manufacturer that developed all the technical components in-house, Moretti could not offer its vehicles even remotely at Fiat's prices. Some of the Moretti models were twice as expensive as Fiat's competing products. With the increasing success of the Fiat models, sales of Moretti's cars fell noticeably. At the end of the 1950s, the company then decided to stop developing its own vehicles. Instead, Moretti now produced special vehicles based on Fiat's high-volume technology. Over the years Moretti has offered special bodies for almost every Fiat model. The technical basis in the 1960s were the Fiat models 500, 600, 850 , 1100 , 1500 and 2300 . Moretti offered all possible body shapes. For example, a four-door sedan was created on the basis of the Fiat 850; however, the focus of production was clearly on coupé and convertible bodies. Based on the technology of the Fiat 850, for example, the Moretti Sportiva was created, a sporty coupé with a rear-mounted engine that took up the lines of the Ferrari Dino 246 . The Moretti 2500 was a large sports coupé or a large roadster, which was based on the Fiat 2300 and in the area of ​​the front end had similarities with some designs that Bertone had developed for Ferrari. Moretti retained the production of Fiat-based coupés into the 1970s, but the variety of bodies was increasingly reduced. The last technical basis was the Fiat 127 and 128 . Moretti offered a hatchback coupe and a Targa coupe for them. There were also the recreational vehicles 126 Minimaxi ( Fiat 126 ) and 127 Midimaxi. The latter competed u. a. with the Fissore Scout of Carrozzeria Fissore .

Since the late 1950s, Moretti commissioned Giovanni Michelotti's Turin design studio to design most of the car bodies . Michelotti's colleague Dany Brawand was responsible for most of the Moretti designs from around 1960 . In 1966, Brawand moved to Moretti, where he took the position of chief stylist. Until 1989 he designed all Moretti's bodies on his own.

In the 1960s, Moretti produced 2,000 to 3,000 vehicles annually. In the following decade, production fell to less than a third of what it was before. In 1977 Moretti then stopped the series production of coupé and convertible bodies; the production of leisure vehicles ended at the beginning of the 1980s. In the years that followed, the company produced a few special versions of the Panda and Uno models , including the Panda Rock and Uno Folk , but they no longer had any commercial success.

In the 1970s and 1980s, some prototypes were also made, including a station wagon based on the Alfa Romeo Giulietta ; however, each of them did not result in series production.

At the end of 1989, Moretti ceased operations.

Special bodies for sports cars

In addition to the mass-produced own small cars and Fiat derivatives, Moretti repeatedly produced special bodies for Italian sports cars at the customer's request, including one for the Maserati 3500 GT , which cited the lines of the Iso Grifo . However, these were regularly unique pieces.

literature

  • Georg Amtmann, Halwart Schrader : Italian sports cars. (From Abarth and Alfa Romeo to Vignale and Zagato. Brands, history, technology, data). Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-01988-4 .

Web links

Commons : Moretti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the model range cf. Sales prospectus from 1955 .
  2. ^ Image of the car on the website www.moretti-cars.net (accessed on September 19, 2011).
  3. ^ Image of the car on the website www.moretti-cars.net (accessed on September 19, 2011).