This is a 1971 Intermeccanica Italia Spyder, it’s a relatively rare sports car with just ~240 made in total. It uses a powerful and easy to maintain American V8 drivetrain housed in a sleek Italian-made body and chassis.
Much like the Shelby Cobra and the De Tomaso Pantera, the Intermeccanica Italia was developed as a US-European vehicle with the body and chassis made on one side of the Atlantic and the drivetrain on the other. This proved to be a winning recipe, and it resulted in some of the most memorable sports cars of the time.
Fast Facts – The Intermeccanica Italia Spyder
- The 1971 Intermeccanica Italia Spyder is a rare sports car, with only approximately 240 units produced. It combines a powerful American V8 drivetrain with an Italian-made body and chassis, following a successful formula similar to the Shelby Cobra and De Tomaso Pantera.
- Intermeccanica was founded in 1959 by Frank and Paula, a Canadian couple who moved to Turin, Italy. Initially producing performance parts, they transitioned to building cars, starting with the Apollo GT in 1963, which garnered attention at international auto shows.
- The Italia’s development involved multiple name changes (Griffith, Omega, Torino) before settling on “Italia.” It features a tubular steel frame designed by John Crosthwaite and a sleek body by Robert Cumberford. The car faced some significant financial challenges during its production run.
- This particular 1971 Italia Spyder, currently for sale, has a red exterior, tan interior, and a 351 cubic inch V8 engine. It features 15″ Dayton wire wheels, power windows, and a 4-speed manual transmission. The car is being offered with additional wheels and uninstalled air conditioning equipment.
The Story of Intermeccanica
Intermeccanica was founded by a friendly Hungarian-born Canadian guy named Frank and his wife Paula in 1959. They moved from Canada to Torino, Italy and named the company Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica. Initially they produced performance parts and tuning kits for European cars from marques like Peugeot, Renault, Simca, DKW, Puch, and Fiat.
The styling of the Intermeccanica Italia Spyder is undeniably beautiful. It’s been compared to both the C3 Corvette and the Ferrari Daytona, but it debuted in the same year as the Chevrolet and a few years before the Ferrari.
In 1960 the company built a Formula Junior car with a rear-mounted engine, but their first low-volume production car was a little 500cc Steyr-Daimler-Puch vehicle using part of a Fiat 500 chassis called the IMP. 21 were made, and one of them managed a class win at the Nurburgring.
The first full-sized car with an Intermeccanica body was built by a company in the USA using a Buick aluminium V8, and all-Buick running gear. It was called the Apollo GT, it was assembled in the USA, and in 1963 it was exhibited at the Turin Automobile Show. 111 Apollos were built, and it’s remembered today as the car that really launched Intermeccanica as “not just” a tuning parts company.
Things began to speed up for Intermeccanica in the mid-60s. Their Apollo 2+2 was judged best in show at the 1965 New York Automobile Show, they also built an interesting Ford Mustang station wagon prototype which was presented to the Ford Motor Company – although it was never picked up for production.
The Beginnings of the Italia
The Italia has a relatively complex story, but the short version goes something like this.
A new project began in 1966 commissioned by Jack Griffith to build a slightly larger sports tourer with an American engine and running gear. He hired former Formula One and Indy 500 chassis designer John Crosthwaite to develop a new tubular steel frame, and automobile designer Robert Cumberford to create a sleek new body.
Just 14 Griffith-badged Intermeccanicas were built before it became financially untenable, fortunately Steve Wilder stepped in and continued production with a new name – Omega. 33 of these new cars were built before the financial gremlins that plagued the Griffith reared their heads, and Intermeccanica arranged funding through Credito Italiano to build the cars in Italy, and sell them via a US distributor.
For a low-volume sports car, the interior fit and finish on the car is excellent, looking better than many mass-produced sports cars of the time.
As it happens, the musical-chairs name changes weren’t quite over yet. The Omega was rebadged as the Torino, after the city in which they were built, but Ford had the named trademarked already – so they were rebadged Italia.
The 1971 Intermeccanica Italia Spyder Shown Here
The vehicle you see here is an original 1971 Intermeccanica Italia Spyder that was originally delivered to its first owner in California. It later made its way to Oregon, where it was bought by its current owner and now seller.
The vehicle is finished in red paintwork over a tan interior, it has 15″ Dayton wire wheels, an ANSA quad-exit exhaust, a black soft top, power windows, push-button door handles, and Shelby-style side-view mirrors.
As you would expect for an Italia, this car rides on independent front suspension with coil springs and telescopic shock absorbers, with a live axle in the rear on coil springs, with trailing arms and a Panhard rod.
The car has front and rear disc brakes, and power is provided by 351 cubic inch Ford V8 with an Edelbrock Weber model 1406 600 CFM four-barrel carburetor, and a chrome air cleaner, with chrome valve covers.
Power is sent back to the rear wheels via a 4-speed manual transmission, and the car currently shows 81,000 miles on the odometer. In the cockpit you’ll find a wood-rimmed steering wheel and Jaeger instrumentation with a 7,000 rpm tachometer and a speedometer with a top speed of 180 mph.
Power is provided by a 351 cubic inch Ford V8 offering ample power combined with good reliability and affordable maintenance.
The car is now being offered for sale on Bring a Trailer out of the Carmel Highlands in California with an additional set of four 14″ Cromodora wheels, uninstalled air conditioning equipment, and a clean California title in the name of the owner’s trust.
If you’d like to read more about it or place a bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
