The Gladius
The Gladius was TBAs first proper sports car. It was first presented to the public in November 1951 but not sold before February 1953. This was mostly due initial engineering problems concerning the brake setup and suspension tuning. After lengthy testing and working the car was finally ready to be sold.
Also TBAs first factory race car derived from the Gladius. The 1.3 R, which was raced even before the official sales began at the 52’ Corso di Fruina, where it was among the fastest cars in the starting field.
The street version was powered by a 1.6 L Boxer 4 cylinder, producing just short over a hundred bhp. The goal was to create a light and nimble car to tackle small and windy mountain roads.
Vehicle specs:
Chassis: Monocoque
Drivetrain: RWD
105hp @ 5700 RPM
1587cc B4
Gearbox: 4 speed Manual
Weight: 750-760kg
Factory price (1948): 8548$ (0%markup)
Gladius 1.3R
The Gladius was initially developed to have a competitive race and sportscar among the TBA model lineup.
So parallel to the street version, a race version of the Gladius was worked on.
The result was the Gladius 1.3 R which deputed at the 1952 Corso di Fruina and brought TBA the overall Time victory as the fastest car in the field.
Racing Results Corso di Fruina
Needless to say, racing successes and history like that, made the Gladius a rather good sale on the small sports car market up until the early 60s.
The 1.3 R was powered by a 1298cc B6 engine, producing around 125 bhp.
Originally the car was planned to bear a 2.2 L engine, but the brakes were insufficient to support the higher power.
On the early models, due to the lack of potent brakes, the car had to be made heavier on purpose and the poweroutput of the engine a bit lowered. So the early cars could not live fully up to their potential.
