Brand: Ansaldo

One of Italy's largest engineering conglomerates, Ansaldo was founded in 1853 by a group of Genoese businessmen headed by Giovanni Ansaldo. The company concentrated on the manufacture of railway components before expanding into shipbuilding and general mechanical engineering. By the start of WWI Ansaldo was also producing aircraft and aero engines. Needing to find a use for its Turin aero engine factory after the war's end, the company added motor manufacturing to its already bulging portfolio. Production of an advanced light car - the Tipo 4 - commenced in 1919. Designed by Ansaldo's chief engineer, Guido Soria, it was powered by an overhead-camshaft four-cylinder engine displacing 1,847cc and featured an American-style central gearchange to the three-speed gearbox. In 1923 Ansaldo introduced four-wheel brakes to the range and launched its first six-cylinder model, the 1,990cc 6AN. The latter's four-speed gearbox and coil ignition had become features of the four-cylinder range by 1928. Ansaldo seemed to have established itself in the motoring marketplace when the group was broken up on Mussolini's orders in 1927, the car division being sold to Macchi and the aircraft division to FIAT. Soria found employment elsewhere but had left designs for two luxury cars on the drawing board, which appeared after he left. Car production declined and eventually fizzled out during the early 1930s, though the Ansaldo name subsequently appeared on Viberti-built trolleybuses. Ansaldo production averaged between 1,000 and 2,000 units annually throughout the 1920s, a mere fraction of FIAT's output, and today survivors of this short-lived make are rare.

Source: Wikipedia, Bonhams, WWT GmbH, other