Site Loader
Rock Street, San Francisco
  • Current Language:
  • fr
  • Select Language:

Giuseppe Cattaneo (1929-2015)


Every serious motorist needs to have driven a car with a displacement of more than ten liters at least once in their lifetime, but only a very fortunate few can aspire to the ownership of such awesome monsters, for which a special class has been created at the world-renowned Pebble Beach Concours. The combination of high road speed at low revolutions and immense torque all the way through is an experience that cannot be matched by any other kind of motor car. And among the exclusive group of ten liter-plus production cars, the 10,618cc Tipo KM Isotta Fraschini of 1911-14 stands supreme, for it combines the most advanced technology of the pre-Great war era with effortless performance. “It was,” wrote Angelo Tito Anselmi of the Tipo KM in his 1977 history of the Isotta Fraschini marque, “a car built for the pure pleasure of speed, without regard for any racing formula and utterly without compromise.”

Pioneer motor racer Charles Jarrott was equally uncompromising: “He named the 100-hp Isotta Fraschini as ‘tops’ of the pre-1914 sports cars,” recalled that discriminating “purveyor of horseless carriages to the nobility and gentry”, the late David Scott-Moncrieff.

Famed as the manufacturers in the 1920s of the world’s first production straight-eight motor car, the Isotta Fraschini company was founded in 1900 as a garage and sales agency by Cesare Isotta and the brothers Vincenzo and Oreste Fraschini. The firm soon turned to manufacture of shaft-driven voiturettes in its little factory on the Via Melzi d’Eril in Milan. These were designed by the firm’s engineering consultant Giuseppe Gaetano Stefanini, who was supplanted in 1906 by the high-spirited Venetian engineer Giustino Cattaneo, although he retained his connection with the company and collaborated with Cattaneo for several years more.

The pair’s output was prodigious, by the outbreak of the Great War, Isotta Fraschini had produced almost 40 different models, with an enviable sporting record: victory in the 1907 Coppa Florio and Briarcliff Trophy, victory again in the 1908 Briarcliff, as well as at Lowell, Long Island and Savannah, and highest-placed four-cylinder racers in the Coupe des Voiturettes, were high points of the company’s involvement in competition.

Stefanini had been a pioneer of the overhead camshaft engine with his 1905 100-hp, 17-liter, Tipo D racer and the influential 1.2-liter Tipo FE voiturette of 1908, and Cattaneo – who defined the layout of the production machinery in Isotta’s new factory in the Via Monterosa, made necessary by the increasing demand for the firm’s automobiles – followed his predecessor’s lead when laying out the 1911 Tipo KM and its “little brothers” the 6.2-liter Tipo TM and TC and 7.2-liter Tipo IM.

These advanced single overhead camshaft fours drew on the company’s experience in the new technology of aeroengine design and manufacture, with bi-block cylinders, four big valves per cylinder and lightweight construction based on that of the Series V dirigible engine. The engine of the Tipo KM, which developed 120 hp at 1600 rpm, had a bore and stroke of 130x200mm (5.12x7.87 in), liberally-drilled pistons of the finest BND Derihon steel that weighed less than 32 ounces and tubular BND conrods 16 inches long that tipped the scales at just 7 lb.

Equally significantly, the Tipo KM pioneered the fitment of internal-expanding front-wheel brakes, which has been described as Cattaneo’s greatest contribution to automotive technology and was patented as early as February 1910. It enabled the fortunate – and fortuned – owner of the Tipo KM to enjoy its performance to the full in an era when every other high-powered car on the roads had braking on the rear wheels only. Cattaneo’s solution to the problem of locking the wheel on the inside of the curve under braking that beset so many early attempts to provide front wheel braking was both simple and demanding of absolute accuracy in manufacture, with the transverse operating shaft of the internal expanding brakes housed within the front axle beam and therefore unaffected by the up and down motion of the axle, even on full lock. Additionally, the drums on the road wheels were ribbed for cooling.

To make assurance doubly sure, the rear wheels of the Tipo KM were retarded by two water-cooled contracting transmission brakes, with coolant supplied to the inside of the drums from a pressurized tank, in addition to the drums on the ends of the dead axle for, like so many high performance cars of the era, the big Isotta was chain driven. This feature allowed the car to be geared to suit the terrain over which it was to be operated as well as the type of bodywork fitted.

Separate pedals control transmission and rear wheel braking, with the hand lever actuating the brakes on the front wheels.

An attractive feature of the chain drive on the Tipo KM was the use of quickly-detachable covers to protect the chains from road dirt and the body from thrown grease. The all-ball-bearing four-speed transmission was of a special design which, said Isotta Fraschini, “allows semi-direct drive on first, second and third speeds, as well as direct on fourth” thanks to twin differential units on the jackshaft and, according to former KM owner George Wingard, was “a dream to shift”. The multiple-disc Hele-Shaw clutch ran in oil.

Another unique characteristic of the Tipo KM was the range of radiator designs offered – flat-fronted, ovoid and two types of vee-fronted – so that the owner could harmonize the front end of his car with the style of coachwork fitted. A further choice offered was the length of wheelbase, either “short” (the term was relative in the case of such a gargantuan automobile) 124 inch or “long” 130 inch.

The bespoke service offered by Isotta Fraschini even ran to cooperation with the coachbuilders who clad the KM chassis. “We strive to please even our most discriminating patrons by producing bodies not only unexcelled in appointment, comfort and luxury, but possessing also artistic individuality,” customers were informed. “In order to better serve our customers in this respect we keep constantly in touch with the leading Continental coach builders, and our expert designer is at our client’s disposal to submit special drawings embodying their ideas, combined with the lines dictated by modern practice.”

Performance was in keeping with the price demanded: in 1913 the famed racing driver Ray Gilhooley lapped the Indianapolis Brickyard oval in 1 minute 52 sec, six seconds faster than the average of that year’s “500” winner, at the wheel of a stock-bodied 1912 Tipo KM complete with windshield, spare tires and fenders, and with four passengers aboard. The following year Gilhooley would enter motor racing legend with a spectacular spin in front of the stands while competing in the Indianapolis “500” at the wheel of a racing Isotta, such an incident is still referred to in track parlance as a “Gilhooley”…

The Tipo KM was necessarily expensive, and production was limited to an exclusive few units, peaking at 16 chassis in 1913, between 1911 and 1914 just 50 Tipo KM Isottas were produced, several of which were exported to the United States, where the company had a branch on New York’s Broadway, and the Tipo KM retailed at the not inconsiderable sum of $9000. Alternatively, American owners could arrange to have their car bodied by a European coachbuilder of their choice and take delivery in any city of Great Britain or the Continent with the car fully equipped and with all the necessary documentation so that they could tour Europe in the grandest of manners before having the car shipped home to the USA. Coincidentally, the three known survivors of the Tipo KM were all discovered in the United States.

Among the American owners of the Tipo KM Isotta was the wealthy
Perhaps the most influential light car design of the first decade of the twentieth century, the Tipo FENC Isotta Fraschini was derived from the Tipo FE Isottas built for the 1908 Grand Prix des Voiturettes at Dieppe. Constructed “with an eye on the future of automotive technology,” their design was so advanced – they were among the first production cars to make use of the performance potential of the overhead camshaft configuration – that for many years it was thought that they had been designed by Ettore Bugatti, for their design was remarkably similar to the first production Bugattis that appeared a year or so later.

In fact, the creator of the little Isotta was the unsung genius Giuseppe “Cou de Ram” Stefanini, who had been born in 1870 in Lodi, near Milan, and studied engineering in Turin. “Cou de Ram” Stefanini – the nickname means “redhead” in the local dialect – was one of the pioneers of motor engineering in Italy and in the late 1890s had helped to build several experimental horseless carriages for Michele Lanza in the workshops of the brothers Giovanni and Giuseppe Martina,. Around 1900 he had moved to Milan to work as a consultant to Lanza’s third customer, the Milanese sportsman Cesare Isotta. There Stefanini had designed the first motor car that Isotta built in collaboration with the Fraschini brothers, his relations by marriage.

From then until around 1906 Stefanini was responsible for the design of all Isotta Fraschini chassis, though after that he was increasingly overshadowed by Isotta engineer Giustino Cattaneo, though he retained his connection with the company for several more years. During this period he carried out pioneering work on overhead camshaft performance engines, the first fruit of which was his gigantic 17.2-liter four-cylinder Tipo D racer built for the 1905 Gran Premio di Brescia.

But it was at the opposite end of the capacity scale that Stefanini obtained the most promising results, creating what was in effect the prototype of the modern small high-performance car. Asked to design a racer to represent Isotta Fraschini in the 1908 Grand Prix des Voiturettes at Dieppe, Stefanini created a jewel-like four with a swept volume of just 1.2-liters. Tipping the scales at a mere 1342lb, the little Tipo FE Isotta had a top speed in the region of 60mph, a remarkable performance for so small a car at that time. Among its many advanced features were the monobloc construction of its engine at a time when most multi-cylinder engines had pair cast construction, the overhead camshaft configuration, automatic pressure-fed lubrication (most cars then relied on drip and splash oiling) and a crankshaft running on two ball-bearings. Incidentally, the overhead camshaft also ran in ball-bearings.

Though the highest-placed Tipo FE, driven by Felice Buzio, had won the four-cylinder class, it finished no higher than eighth out of 67 starters (but then 23 had retired). However, the GP des Voiturettes marked a turning point in the history of the racing voiturette. It was the swansong of the freakish high-performance single-cylinder racers like the extraordinary single-cylinder four-valve Delage that won the event, from that point on, the multi-cylinder engine would dominate small car racing.

Possibly only three (or maybe four) examples of the Tipo FE were built. After Dieppe, one Tipo FE crossed the Atlantic to compete in the Light Car Grand Prix of the Automobile Club of America at Savannah, Georgia, driven by the redoubtable Al Poole, former riding mechanic to Joe Tracy on the legendary Vanderbilt Locomobile racer “Old No 16”, and finished a creditable fifth. It was the smallest car in the race.

Sensing that racing success could be translated into sales, a few weeks after the Dieppe race Isotta Fraschini announced a road-going version of the Tipo FE voiturette under the designation “FENC”, differing mainly in minor engine design details like an increase in engine capacity to 1327cc by increasing the bore from 61.8 to 65mm and the replacement of the gear train and shafts that drove the magneto (in true racing fashion, it was mounted at the rear of the engine and protruded through the footboard within reach of the riding mechanic) and water pump by a cross-shaft drive. It was also slightly heavier, at an estimated 1385lb, was said to develop 17bhp against the 18 of the FE and had a four-speed transmission against the three-speed box of the FE.

The FENC was available in two versions, a road-going model with gravity drip feed lubrication and a semi-racer with pressure lubrication, while the final drive was available with or without differential gear. A further subtle variation was known as “Tipo America” and was fitted with larger wheels to cope with the poor roads of the period in the marque’s North and South American markets.

Around a hundred of these rapid little cars – arguably a strong contender for the title of “first sports car” – were built, though the contemporary report in the Italian magazine Motori, Cicli e Sport that Isotta Fraschini had “sold the first hundred voiturettes in England” was probably over-optimistic. However, a 10hp Isotta Fraschini Tipo FE badged as a Lorraine-Dietrich was exhibited at the November 1908 Olympia Motor Show in London and hailed as “one of the great features of the exhibit”. The explanation was that Isotta Fraschini had been 50 per cent owned by the French arm of the Franco-German De Dietrich empire since 1907, and it is very likely that a young Italian engineer named Ettore Bugatti, who was working for the Niederbronn (Alsace, then German territory) De Dietrich company, would have full knowledge of the Tipo FE/FENC, for he was also a personal friend of the heads of the Isotta Fraschini company.

Though he had played no role in the design of the little Isottas, which were principally the work of Stefanini, with new recruit Cattaneo helping with the drafting work, it’s quite likely that Bugatti drew inspiration from this ground-breaking design, and certainly the FENC configuration, featuring a small overhead camshaft engine with cross-shaft drive for magneto and water pump, is remarkably similar to that of the Bugatti T13. So while the legend that Bugatti actually designed the Tipo FENC has been proved to be untrue by Bugatti authorities like Dr Norbert Steinhauser and the late Griffith Borgeson, the more fascinating alternative that Bugatti copied Stefanini’s design when he created his Type 10 “Petit Pur Sang”in 1909, which led to his most famous pre-World War One light car, the Type 13, deserves fuller exploration.

Intriguingly, the Tipo FENC also played a key role in the creation of another great marque, for when in 1914 Lionel Martin built the celebrated “Hybrid” which was to be the prototype of the Aston Martin marque, he chose a Tipo FENC Isotta chassis as the basis into which to fit the first Aston Martin engine.

For a long time the sole survivor of the Tipo FENC was thought to be the car known for many years in the hands of Lyndon Duckett in Australia (and for many years erroneously credited to Ettore Bugatti), but then rumours that other examples of the model existed began to be confirmed. In his 1967 book The Great Cars, Ralph Stein wrote of his “old-car hunting expeditions” with his friend Austin Clark, pioneer collector and owner of the Long Island Automotive Museum, as follows: “This day we stopped at an ancient junk yard in the depths of the Bronx. Clark led me to what was left of a very small car. The wooden spokes of its wheels were rotted away from years of being sunk into the ground. Its bodywork was gone except for the whitened wooden remains of its seats, from which a few scraps of dry leather still fluttered. Its chassis was rusted. Its hood was gone. But sitting there, unsheltered, its aluminium oxidized white, was as pretty a little overhead-camshaf

Exclusive Report: The African Art Market in 2024

A comprehensive guide to understanding the opportunities and trends in the African art market in 2024. Access exclusive information.

We respect your privacy. No spam.