Intermeccanica Italia Spyder

1971 Intermeccanica Italia Spyder

Offered by Motostalgia | Austin, Texas | November 6-7, 2015

Photo - Motostalgia

Photo – Motostalgia

At this rate, we will have featured the entire Intermeccanica range in no time. Before they turned to replicas in the mid-1970s, they built a couple of different models. We’ve featured three Intermeccanicas in the past, including another Italia – the coupe version. This is the convertible version.

The Italia (which was the re-named Torino), is powered by a 310 horsepower 5.8-liter Ford V-8. This is a 40,000 mile car that looks great (except for those cheesy knock-off wire wheels). It has been recently restored.

Less than 400 Italias were built and only 56 of those were coupes, which makes the convertible a little more common, but still quite rare. This one should bring between $110,000-$125,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of Motostalgia’s sale.

Update: Sold $105,600.

Intermeccanica Italia

1971 Intermeccanica Italia Coupe

For sale at Hyman Ltd. | St. Louis, Missouri

Photo - Hyman Ltd.

Photo – Hyman Ltd.

The sports cars built by the tiny Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica company in Turin looked fairly similar over the years. They started with the leftover Griffith, which was the same as the Apollo before it – a car Intermeccanica designed. Their version was the Omega. Next came the Torino, which was later renamed Italia. You can easily see the influence of earlier cars from the company in this design (not to mention the Ferrari 365).

It has a 5.8-liter Ford Cleveland V-8 under the hood making 310 horsepower. When new, it cost a few bucks less than $8,000 and is for sale today – but you’ll have to ask Hyman Ltd. about the exact price.

Around 600 Italias were built between 1967 and 1973, most of them convertibles. Only 56 coupes were constructed. Convertibles can run as high as $150,000, but coupes tend to cost less, even if they are rarer. You can check out more here.

Triumph Italia

1961 Triumph Italia 2000 Coupe

Offered by Oldtimer Galerie | Zurich, Switzerland | June 7-8, 2014

Photo - Oldtimer Galerie

Photo – Oldtimer Galerie

The Triumph Italia shares its model name with another car – from Hudson. What both have in common is that they were “foreign” cars with hand-built bodies from Italy. Both are very rare and pretty expensive when compared to other models from the same manufacturer (although the Hudson Italia is worth significantly more than this Triumph).

Each Triumph Italia began life as a Triumph TR3. It uses a 2.0-liter straight-four making 100 horsepower. The body was designed by Giovanni Michelotti and was built by Vignale. The rest of the car was supplied by Triumph and they were assembled in Turin.

The plan was to build a run of 1,000 cars but Triumph was taken over by Leyland in 1961 and they put a stop to the whole thing. In all, between 1959 and 1962, only 329 of these ended up being built, making it among the rarest of Triumphs. Right now, prices range from between $50,000-$85,000, but the pre-sale estimate is between $158,000-$170,400. You can check out more from this sale here.

Hudson Italia

1955 Hudson Italia

Offered by Barrett-Jackson | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 19, 2013

The Hudson Italia is one of the most gorgeous American cars ever produced… even though that svelte body was constructed in Italy (although it was designed by American Frank Spring). Based on the Hudson Jet platform, the Italia was built by Carrozzeria Touring of Milan. The prototype made the rounds in 1953, garnering enough consumer interest to put it on sale.

So Hudson put the car into production. They shipped the mechanical bits to Milan and Touring put the body on and sent them back. Hudson sold them for $4,800 when a new Cadillac Coupe de Ville cost $3,995 – and Hudson lost money on every one. The engine was a 3.3-liter straight-six making 114 horsepower.

The car entered production for the 1954 model year, but in January 1954, Hudson announced it was merging with Nash to form AMC. Orders for the car were cut off and only 26 were built. Of those, 21 are known – the other five thought to never have been delivered to the U.S. and still in Europe somewhere. So 26 cars over two model years – it’s a very rare car.

This car has had four owners from new, spending the last 30 in one collection. A fresh restoration was completed this year. This is a $225,00-$275,000 car. For more information, click here. And for more from Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale, click here.

Update: Sold $396,000.