User:Kumboloi/sandbox/Triumph Italia subheading for TR3
Triumph Italia 2000 coupé[edit]
The Triumph Italia 2000 coupé was a car built in Italy using the powertrain, running gear, and lightly modified chassis of the Triumph TR3.
The Italia was a project of Dr. Salvatore Ruffino, who was the Triumph distributor for Italy. He saw a market for an upscale, more attractive model based on Triumph hardware. He approached different carrozzeria to produce a body shape for the car, and received a proposal from Zagato, but was not satisfied with the result.
Ruffino then went to Michelotti, who designed a two-door fixed-head coupé that Ruffino selected as the basis of the Italia.
An early Italia prototype with a sloping nose was shown at the Turin Auto Show in 1959. The next prototype was much closer to the car's final shape. Production ran from ??? to ???
When Triumph ??? (showed no interest?), Ruffino renamed the car the Ruffino Italia 2000 coupé. ref???
Most Italias were built on regular TR3A chassis pulled off the line at Triumph's Canley factory. Early Italia commission numbers had the regular TR3 TS prefix, and added a "CO" suffix for "Chassis Only", "COO" for cars fitted with overdrives at the factory, or "LCO" for "Left-hand drive" cars.[2][3][4]
Salvatore Ruffino was the head of CESAC S.p.A., the distributor for Triumph in Italy. Plans to be built by company named Romanazzi. Body designed by Michelotti, fabrication done by Vignale, on a line owned by Ruffino.
Dr. Ruffino. Formed C.E.S.A.C. S.p.A.[5]
Ruffino S.p.A.
Italias with commission numbers TSF 502 to 530 were built on the same chassis as the Triumph "TR3B".[3]
Citations[edit]
- ^ Piggott 2009, p. 121–126.
- ^ Warrington 2016.
- ^ a b TR Register France, p. 1.
- ^ Veloce Today 2009.
- ^ Hemmings 2018.
References[edit]
- Piggott, Bill (2009). Collector's Originality Guide — Triumph TR2 TR3 TR4 TR5 TR6 TR7 TR8. Motorbooks International. ISBN 978-0760335765.
- Sinnott, Adrian (June 1995). "British Heart, Italian Soul" (PDF). British Car. pp. 35–40.
- McCourt, Mark J. (2018-09-23). "1960 Triumph Italia 2000".
- "L'identification des TR 2/3/3A/3B (1/5)" [Identification of TR 2/3/3A/3B (1/5)]. www.trregisterfrance.com (in French).
- Vack, Pete (18 March 2009). "Italia's Triumph".