This is one of the original examples of the OSI 20M TS from 1968. It was a car designed in Italy and built on the platform of the European-designed Ford Taunus 20M, with a stunning body styled by Sergio Sartorelli.
The 20M TS you see here has been in a private collection since 2014, and it’s been upgraded with a considerably more powerful 2.8 liter Cologne V6 engine upgraded by the specialists at Burton Power, offering a nice speed boost over the original 2.3 liter unit.
Fast Facts: The OSI 20M TS
- The OSI 20M TS was a low-volume Italian-bodied coupe based on Ford Taunus 20M mechanicals. Styled by Sergio Sartorelli, it paired elegant Italian grand touring looks with mainstream Ford running gear, giving buyers something more exotic looking while still benefiting from familiar engineering and comparatively affordable servicing and parts support.
- OSI itself was founded in Turin in 1960 by Luigi Segre and Arrigo Olivetti to build short-run specialty cars on established platforms. Ford Europe commissioned the 20M TS in 1965 as a four-seat halo coupe, and the prototype shown at Geneva in 1966 was approved for production soon afterward.
- Mechanically, the car stayed close to its Taunus donor, using a steel unibody, front MacPherson struts, rear live axle with leaf springs, front disc brakes, and Ford Cologne V6 power. Early cars used a 2.0 liter engine, later ones a 2.3 liter, with 4-speed manual transmission only and respectable performance by the standards of the time.
- Production remained limited, and OSI collapsed by early 1968 amid weakening contracts and stronger competition, including Ford’s own T5 Mustang and later the Capri. The featured 1968 car shown here has a Burton Power-built 2.8 liter V6, needs some rust and water-ingress attention, and is headed to H&H with a £24,000 to £28,000 estimate.
History Speedrun: The OSI 20M TS
The OSI 20M TS was born from a collaboration between an Italian coachbuilder and Ford’s European division, it was a handsome grand tourer that combined Italian styling with reliable Ford underpinnings, that latter point also meant that spares were nice and affordable compared to more exotic Italian rivals.
This is one of the original examples of the OSI 20M TS from 1968. It was a car designed in Italy and built on the platform of the European-designed Ford Taunus 20M, with a stunning body styled by Sergio Sartorelli.
The OSI 20M TS was produced for barely two years before its maker went bankrupt, it has become one of the rarest and most unusual and collectible coupes in its class from the era, with fewer than 200 examples believed to survive today.
The Early Origins Of OSI
Officine Stampaggi Industriali, OSI for short, or “Industrial Stamping Workshops” in English, was founded in Turin in 1960 as a subsidiary of the legendary coachbuilder Carrozzeria Ghia. The company was the brainchild of Luigi Segre, a former Ghia president, and Arrigo Olivetti, an industrialist who had previously worked for the automotive parts manufacturer Fergat.
OSI’s mission was relatively simple, they were to produce short-run, bespoke car bodies based on mass-produced platforms from manufacturers such as Fiat, Alfa Romeo, and Ford. Its early commissions included bodies for the Innocenti 950 Spider and the Fiat 1300/1500 Familiare estate.
The All-Important Ford Commission
In January of 1965 Ford’s European headquarters in Cologne, Germany, commissioned OSI to design and build a successor to its flagship Taunus Coupe. The brief called for a luxurious four-seat coupe built on the fourth-generation Ford Taunus 20M platform, using as many existing parts as possible. The car would be sold and serviced through Ford’s dealer network, and it would act as a halo model of sorts, slightly predating the Ford Capri but filling a similar brief.
Inside you find a hand-tailored cabin with leather bucket seats, Veglia instrumentation, and a tasteful steering wheel that lent the interior a distinctly Italian character – if you didn’t know better you’d never guess you were sitting on a Ford platform.
Styling duties fell to Sergio Sartorelli, already renowned for designing the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Type 34, Maserati 5000 GT, Alfa Romeo Scarabeo. He would later go on to design the wildly popular Fiat 126 and the Fiat Ritmo. Sartorelli has long been praised as one of the most aesthetically gifted car designers of his time, and he penned over 20 cars, some of which were one-off concepts but many of which were full production vehicles.
Initially engaged as an external consultant in 1965, Sartorelli was formally appointed head of OSI’s newly established in-house design studio, the Centro Stile e Esperienze, in May of 1966. He created a beautiful, swooping steel body that gracefully arced from its quad headlights to its elegant, almost Ferrari-esque Kamm tail.
The OSI 20M TS Heads To Production
The OSI 20M TS prototype debuted on Ford’s stand at the 36th Geneva Motor Show in March of 1966, where it earned enough praise to be green-lit for series production.
The manufacturing process was a true cross-border affair – Ford shipped chassis parts and running gear from Cologne to Turin, where OSI’s workforce (800 strong at its peak) producing up to 15 cars per day, assembled them with a handmade body and luxurious interior before shipping the completed cars back to Ford for distribution to dealerships.
The 20M TS was, mechanically, very closely based on its Ford Taunus donor car. The steel unibody rode on a 106.5 inch wheelbase with MacPherson strut independent front suspension, a live rear axle on leaf springs out back, front disc brakes, and rear drums. This was all a very common arrangement for the time.
This car has been upgraded with a considerably more powerful 2.8 liter Cologne V6 engine built by the specialists at Burton Power, and it’s been part of a private collection since 2014 – thus it’s seen very little use.
Two versions of the Ford Cologne pushrod V6 were offered, there was an early 2.0 liter unit producing 90 bhp, and a later 2.3 liter version delivering 108 bhp at 5,100 rpm and 134 lb ft of torque at 3,000 rpm. Both were mated to a 4-speed manual gearbox, and no automatic version was ever offered from the factory.
The more powerful 2.3 liter variant could reach 60 mph in approximately 10 seconds and achieve a top speed of 113 mph. Though that may sound humble by modern standards, it was right on the money by the standards of the time for a car in this class.
Inside you would find a hand-tailored cabin with leather bucket seats, Veglia instrumentation, and a tasteful steering wheel that lent the interior a distinctly Italian character – if you didn’t know better you’d never guess you were sitting on a Ford platform.
OSI 20M TS Production Numbers + Decline
Approximately 870 examples of the OSI 20M TS were built with the 2.0 liter engine and 409 with the 2.3 liter unit for the West German market, where prices ranged from 14,900 to 15,200 Deutsche Marks. Estimates of total production vary between 2,200 and 3,500 units. A one-off convertible version was unveiled at the 1967 Turin Motor Show, but it never reached series production.
Despite an initially warm reception, the 20M TS faced mounting headwinds. Ford’s own Mustang (already on sale in Germany since 1965 under the name T5) shared similar styling cues but offered a wider range of engines and better performance at a similar price point, and it increasingly siphoned away potential buyers.
The car you see here is a 1968 OSI 20M TS that you may have seen before, many years ago, as it was featured in the November 2002 issue of Classic & Sportscar magazine.
Meanwhile, following Luigi Segre’s death in 1963, OSI had lost its vital connection to Ghia and its contracts were dwindling. By early 1968 the company was bankrupt, and production of the 20M TS ceased. Ford would fill the coupe gap in its European lineup with the similarly-conceived Capri in 1968.
With fewer than 200 survivors known worldwide, and only a handful outside Europe, OSI 20M TS ownership places a collector in a very exclusive club. Since 1987, the OSI Owners Association in Germany has kept the marque’s memory alive through reproduction parts and annual gatherings, helping a tight knit network of owners keep their cars on the road.
The 1968 OSI 20M TS Shown Here
The car you see here is a 1968 OSI 20M TS that you may have seen before, many years ago, as it was featured in the November 2002 issue of Classic & Sportscar magazine.
It has been upgraded with a considerably more powerful 2.8 liter Cologne V6 engine built by the specialists at Burton Power, and it’s been part of a private collection since 2014 – thus it’s seen very little use.
This 20M TS does need a little work here and there, there are some signs of rust in the trunk lid and other places, and there are also signs of water ingress around the rear window. That said, it could make a highly rewarding project for the right person.
This 20M TS does need a little work here and there, there are some signs of rust in the trunk lid and other places, and there are also signs of water ingress around the rear window. That said, it could make a highly rewarding project for the right person.
It’s now due to roll across the auction block with H&H Auctions on the 18th of March with a price guide of £24,000 – £28,000, which works out to approximately $32,000 – $37,000 USD. If you’d like to read more or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of H&H Auctions
Articles that Ben Branch 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.
