1946 Inglese - A new body with minor changes (based heavily on the old “Conti” with an updated chassis). Powered by a new 75Hp Inline 4, strangled by the low-flow small carburettor, it was capable of 96 MPH. The late '46 Mk II update had better fuel delivery, and 80Hp. By 1948, The Inglese had 85HP and a top speed of 100MPH with the new 4spd gearbox.
Another update came in 1951, while the 5th and final Inglese was released in 1954, with a significantly improved (but still ageing) Fe 25D8 providing 96HP and a top speed just under 104MPH… and more chrome.
He sold the engine IN the car. As for the legal trouble, I’m not sure but I expect that handling stolen goods (including “appropriated” car bodies) would be a criminal offence… I could have made him out to be a racketeer.
The pasta sauce was just a side-business, operated from the same premises.
I am hereby inviting suggestions to improve my dud story/wording.
In general: I am sure you have put some thoughts into your brand’s story. So just make sure you explain your thoughts fully.
You can of course make it pretty much a one man show and completely disregard actual historical events, that’s up to you, but then you gotta go ham, imho.
Otherwise, the question how exactly he managed to just “move to England” in the worst time possible would be interesting, also how he manages to start a business by selling a single car with a tractor engine, to build another single car.
(since you can barely make any profit this way, unless you somehow have access to gold layers and sell the car to the young princess Elizabeth herself, since I am sure Contadino has his way with the ladies.)
A speculation could have something to do with Italy joining the Allies in '43. Perhaps our esteemed friend had some ties that he didn’t want too closely examined.
In 1960, Joe, as he was now known, revealed the Model 60 sedan. Two trims were available, the 25-95; powered by the 95HP “Fe 25D8” from 1954 (171km/h), and the 35-130 the first V8 Puttazlong, capable of reaching 188km/h… only under controlled conditions, of course. The bonnet had a tendency to snap if it wasn’t opened carefully (remedied with the facelift), and the pop-up headlights were a pain in the…anyways.
Updates followed in 1964, with the “Fe 25D8” pushed to 100HP before it’s retirement, and 1969, which saw the introduction of the Alloy Head “FA 25S8” with 107HP. This version also had 300mm front disc brakes, up from the previous 275mm.
In 1974, Puttzalong, now headed by Giuseppe’s son Giovanni (John) unveiled the GC2500. Aimed squarely at the Family Sport Premium market, it showed appeal to pretty much anyone wanting a “premium” car and was quite competitive. The engine was the same unit from the Model 60, but as a 2-barrel 105hp for the automatic, and a 4-barrel with 110hp to encourage sales of the manual.
One of these cars, in VERY modified form was entered by a wannabe racing driver in a time attack series in 1995. The competition pitted it against AWD’s, V12’s and raging beasts propelled by more than 580kW. The simple tech used by Puttzalong was hopefully not the only reason for the extremely poor showing. The car was last seen strapped onto a trailer… possibly heading to a scrap yard.
The 1979 update came with more “OOMPH!!” in the form of the 3.5L V8 seen in the Model 60 35-130, tuned to run on unleaded and producing 140hp. 300mm front discs (the earlier cars had 250mm) and slightly wider, low-profile tyres (185/60x15) saw sales in the Pony and Sport Budget markets.
The 1982 update still sold reasonably well as a Family Sport sedan. Still available as a 4 speed manual or 3 speed automatic, with both the 140HP 35A16 V8 and the 105HP FA 2.5 S18 I6 (1981) as options.
We had the falcon here in Aus xk-FGx but I am not sure about Britain possibly the xk but I don’t recall any high volume British imports of Falcon’s. you would be thinking of a Zephyr.
@TheRoadrunner No idea if it was in Britain, I’m fairly sure it would have only been limited quantities and they would have been LHD imports sold via Ford dealerships.
@BobLoblaw I believe you can, I’ve seen a couple around. Just have a look at Clarkson’s test drive of one on Top Gear a while back to see how well it coped with British roads
For 1981, Contadino released the Venice. Available with a mechanically-injected 2.5L 18-valve I6, and priced just over AMU13,000 for the “300” trim, it showed Puttzalong was progressing, but not fast enough. 13.5 to 100km/h, the quarter in just under 20, and a top speed of 167KMH was acceptable for 78KW, it sat in the lower end of Family Sport.
