Small boys have big toys, big boys have…

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This year the Via Flaminia rally passes – and visits - the Piero Taruffi museum in Bagnereggio. It’s a lovely private museum, which transpires Italian enthusiasm. Taruffi was a very versatile motorcyclist and racing driver. Here you can find everything you want about the first V6 built by Francesco de Vergilio. As we all know it has to be 60 degrees in order to have good balance between the two rows of cylinders (Porsche and Jaguar, please return to the drawing board). But you can also find an astonishing collection of micro cars. The Volpe Alca (1947) earned the initiators some 300 million lires in down payments. But after only 7 cars produced they vanished with the money. Five of them, with a turbo charger, were even signed up for the Mille Miglia. This museum has two of them, in red and blue as seen on the first two pictures below here.

Talking about turbo, the Volugrafo Bimbo (1948) had a rudimentary blower, it’s the green car seen here. But the real racy micro car must be the mid-engined Zundapp Janus, 1958 (after the two-faced Roman god). The car has two fronts and on both ends an opening door. Even rarer is the Raster 125 (light blue) from France (1955), built from papier-maché! There is also a mini Alfa Romeo with typical grille treatment (main picture) and a not-so muscle car from New York (with miniature cycle wings), of which the museum would like to learn more…

(Words and pictures Bart de Kleyn)

      

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