Moretti Motor Company
Fabbrica Automobili Moretti e Stabilimenti Carrozzeria was an Italian automobile and car body manufacturer, which was established in Turin in 1925-1989. Until the 1950s into Moretti designed the vehicles including the engines themselves; later, the company focused on special bodies, which were based on Fiat technology.
Company History
The beginnings
The company was founded in Turin in 1925 by Giovanni Moretti. Initially presented Moretti light weight bikes forth; some were provided as transport vehicles with three wheels and a small cargo area. As early as 1926 was the first automobile company, the Moretti 500 This acted it is a small car with three seats and a motorcycle engine, of which up to the 1930s in many replicas were made .
During the Second World War Moretti produced a government mandate different commercial vehicles with electric drive.
House designs after the war
In 1946 Moretti production of civilian automobiles again. In 1946, the company's small car Cita ago, a little later the model 600, which was superseded in 1953 by the Moretti 750. Moretti designed the bodies and the motors themselves and refrained from foreign components.
The 750 was offered in different versions. In 1955, about the model range Moretti included a convertible, a two-door sedan, a two -seat coupe and a station wagon. The 750 Series was powered by a 0.75 -liter two-cylinder engine, which made 20 kW (27 hp).
1954 Moretti added the model range by the series 1200. It was a larger sedan and a sport coupe, which was powered by a 1.2 -liter inline four- cylinder engine with dual overhead camshafts. The performance of the developed by Moretti engine was specified with 46 kW (62 hp).
Garment manufacturer for Fiat
In the 1950s competed Moretti vehicles with the models 500 and 600 by Fiat. They were well designed and looked up to date; as a small manufacturer to develop all technical components themselves, Moretti, however, could not offer nearly at the prices Fiats its vehicles. The Moretti models were sometimes twice as expensive as its competitors by Fiat. With the increasing success of the Fiat models, sales of cars fell Moretti felt. In the late 1950s, the company then decided to abandon the development of their own vehicles. As of 1965, Moretti instead Special Vehicles ago, which were based on the large -scale production technology by Fiat. Over the years, Moretti offered specialty bodies for almost any Fiat model. Technical bases were in the 1960s, the Fiat models 500, 600, 850, 1100, 1500 and 2300. Moretti offered all kinds of body shapes. Based on the Fiat 850, for example, was a four-door sedan; However, the focus of the production was significantly higher in coupe and convertible bodies. On the technology of the Fiat 850 as the Moretti Sportiva, a sporty coupe with rear-mounted engine, which took up the lines of the Ferrari Dino 246 was born. The Moretti 2500 was a big sport coupe or a large Roadster, which was based on the Fiat 2300 and in the front section had similarities with some designs that Bertone had worked for Ferrari.
Moretti kept the production of Fiat coupe in base until the 1970s into it, but the variety of bodies was increasingly reduced. Technical bases were last of the Fiat 127 and 128 For they Moretti offered a hatchback coupe and a Targa Coupé. In addition, the recreational vehicles came 126 Mini Maxi (Fiat 126) and 127 Midi Maxi. The latter competed among others with the Fissore Scout Carrozzeria Fissore.
In the 1960s, Moretti produced each 2,000 to 3,000 vehicles per year. In the following decade, the production figures dropped to less than one-third of previous values . In 1977, Moretti then a the standard production of coupe and cabriolet bodies; the production of recreational vehicles ended at the beginning of the 1980s. The company presented in the following years ago a number of special versions of the Panda and Uno models, including the panda rock and folk Uno, but had no commercial success more so.
In the 1970s and 1980s, next came a few prototypes, including a station wagon based on the Alfa Romeo Giulietta; from them but resulted in each case no mass production.
End of 1989, Moretti operating.
Special bodies for sports cars
In addition to the mass-produced own small cars and Fiat derivatives produced Moretti on customer always special bodies for Italian sports cars, including one for the Maserati 3500 GT that quoted the lines of the Iso Grifo. These were, however, regularly to individual pieces.