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1907 Itala Grand Prix Racer 14.75 liters (900 cubic-inches)

The 1907 Itala which won the Peking to Paris motor race.

The 1907 ITALA mod. 35/45 HP which won the Peking to Paris motor race in 1907.

For the Italian town in Sicily, see Itala, Italy.

Itala was an exotic car manufacturer based in Turin, Italy from 1904-1934, started by Matteo Ceirano and five partners in 1903.

Cars

Three cars were offered in the first year, an 18hp, a 24hp and a 50hp. In 1905 they started making very large engined racing cars with a 14.8 Litre 5 cylinder model which won the Coppa Florio and the year after that the Targa Florio. In 1907 a 7,433 cc (453.6 cu in) 35/45hp model driven by Count Scipione Borghese won the Peking to Paris motor race by three weeks. These sporting successes helped sales dramatically, the company continued to grow. The company experimented with a range of novel engines such as variable stroke, sleeve valve, and "Avalve" rotary types and at the beginning of WW1, offered a wide range of cars. During the war Itala built aeroplane engines but made a loss producing them.

After the armistice car production resumed with models based on the pre war cars such as the Tipo 50 25/35hp and a re-appearance of the Avalve in the 4,426 cc (270.1 cu in) Tipo 55 but financial success eluded the company

From 1924 the company was being run under receivership and they appointed Giulio Cesare Cappa from Fiat as general manager. He produced a new car, the Tipo 61 with 7 cylinder alloy engine which was well received but he then decided to return to motor sport producing the Tipo 11 a very advanced car with front wheel drive, V-12 supercharged engine and all round independent suspension but the car never raced. Two Tipo 61s did take part in the 1928 Le Mans 24 hour race winning the 2 litre class.

The company was bought by truck maker Officine Metallurgiche di Tortona in 1929 and a few more cars were made up to 1935. The remains of the company was sold to Fiat.

Itala rotary valves

A distinctive feature of the pre-WW1 50hp & 90hp models was their use of a rotary valve. Each valve fed a pair of cylinders and was mounted alongside, rotating parallel to them. Four ports cast into the valve alternately connected ports to the cylinders through the side of the valve to the inlet and exhaust manifolds at bottom and top of the valves.^[1]

Valve and cylinders from above

Engine stroke and valve position

Internal water-cooling of the valve

Leo Villa

The young mechanic Leo Villa began his career as a racing mechanic working on these rotary valve engines, for the driver Giulio Foresti. He met his later employer, Malcolm Campbell, when in 1923 he took over the Itala and Ballot concessions in London. Seeing the publicity potential of racing them at Brooklands, Campbell also bought two of Foresti's race-prepared cars. Foresti and Villa delivered them in person from Paris to Campbell's house at Povey Cross. Impressed by Campbell's wealth and ambitions, Villa accepted an offer to become his permanent mechanic.^[2]

Bibliography

• Barzini, Luigi and L P De Castelvecchio. Peking to Paris 100th Anniversary Edition. Demontreville Press Inc, 2007.ISBN 0978956311

External links

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Itala vehicles

References

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Itala also means "over the river" in Zambia, and is the Itala in [1] a charity assisting education in Itala , Zambia.