We are in the spring of 1953, strictly in Turin on the occasion of the 35th International Automobile show where the two major Italian producers compare two similar middle class cars.
Fiat launches the 1100 103 presented in Geneva a month before but, at the same time, the Lancia Appia debuts in Turin. Both replace successful cars but of pre -war origin with bodywork which, with their external mudguards, were now overcome.
Our seventy -year -olds at the exit presented almost identical displacements and power, the same maximum speed but a difference in price in the order of 30% in favor of Fiat which obviously will outperclasses the rival loved mainly by the good bourgeoisie in numbers.
Over the course of 3 years, just over 20,000 with the Lancia brand will be produced and about 275,000 with the Fiat brand including the family and Tourism Variants Veloce which with its 50cv and over 135 km/h had an easy game in winning races with more pilots or Less famous.
At the time they were reproduced by the 1/48 scale mercury in die -cast metal, without windows and interiors. Beautiful reproductions that will then be taken from the Genoese Scottoy and in 2019 with the Mercury brand but made in China.
Both Appia and 1100 have had other reproductions, the Lancia thanks to Norev with an impeccable model, the 1100 first with project K of Pesaro and then in the early 2000s with DeAgostini who reproduced the normal 103 leaving Norev the TV (Tourism Veloce) to Norev) .
Cars lasted for generations now collected by purists not interested in speculation but in the memory of the history of two Italian leading brands.
Today both are worth, if perfect, around 15,000 euros in normal version (in 1: 1 scale of course). A separate discussion is the shed TV at the time and today very well listed among the classic sedans.
Curiosity:
Fiat already 30 years earlier of 1953 By launching the 1400 he had cleared the American style in Italy producing the first car to the load -bearing bodywork. For his part, he had precorated the times since 1923 producing what is considered the first true masterpiece of Vincenzo Lancia, Lambda.