An Anglo-Italian rarity

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For the ‘Special Coachwork Postwar’ class at the concours Het Loo in The Netherlands (this weekend), seven cars have been entered. They are all rather high-born and posh. Think Cisitalia 202, Alfa 6C 2500 and Fiat 8V. But then there is this seldomly seen and lovely down-to-earth 1968 Innocenti C Coupe. The ‘C’ was Inno’s take on the Sprite and Midget. Innocenti of Milan had an excellent relationship with BMC in the UK and in fact made some improvements on the models they had licences for. Frontal rearrangements on BMC 1100s, clever and pretty dashboards in Mini saloons, and not to forget some gorgeous concept cars.

So how about BMC powered production models to their own design? There were a few, too. The Inno 950 Spider – an Italian version of the Sprite. And the slightly later C Coupe seen here. Powered by an 1100 A-series engine but styled by Ghia, the car was perhaps an ultimate Anglo-Italian mix. But to stress the Italian roots Innocenti only sold the car in the colours of the Italian flag: red white and green – oh Chauvinism! It was a pretty car though, with typical ultra-thin pillars and bumpers plus elegant rear fins and characteristic instrumentation. It couldn’t make it a success though. Less then 800 are believed to have been hand built, with not many survivors. A winner? We doubt it, as concours winners generally need to be very expensive, or so it seems, which this car is not. Jury, surprise us!

(Words editor, picture concours Het Loo)

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