SOLVED - Whaddyacallit #17 - CEMSA F11

[Ray B.]

Know what it is?

Please, respond below and let us know the make and model designation of the car posted here.

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[Paul Jaray]

That is a Cemsa Caproni F11 cabriolet from 1947

[@re]

...which, according to some sources, was never actually built. Now there's a new category: Name This Car That Never Existed!

[Ray B.]

That is a Cemsa Caproni F11 cabriolet from 1947

Right.

[Ray B.]

...which, according to some sources, was never actually built. Now there's a new category: Name This Car That Never Existed!

Well, for the sake of good taste, there are some other cars in those puzzles that should never have been built.

[@re]

Couldn't agree more...

[Allan L]

The cabriolet may well not have been built - I've never seen a real photo of it.
Is this where we point out that the car's real claim to fame is that the basic design was recycled by Dr Fessia as the Lancia Flavia some 10-12 years later?

[Paul Jaray]

You're right, the Cemsa-Caproni derived its name from the manufacturing organization Caproni Elettromeccanica Saronno, and was an interesting prototype produced by a major aircraft concern looking for something else to do in its factories. The F11 first appearing at the 1947 Paris Show where it caused a sensation, with horizontally opposed,water-cooled 4-cylinder 1.100cc engine mounted ahead of the driven front wheels,a pressed steel platform-type chassis, and independent suspension all around. The same car reappeared at Turin in 1949, but plans to put into production never materialized and Minerva took up the design with no further development in 1953.Its advanced design was far from abortive however, for ten (!) years later it formed the basis of the highly successful 1.500cc front-drive, flat-four Lancia Flavia of 1960.

[Tuckeroo]

Another anectode - The Tucker Corporation was seriously considering using the Cemsa-Caproni platform on which to put a Tremulis-designed body as a possible way of getting something more into the dealerships, but it appears that the Caproni group had as much if not more difficulty getting into production as Tucker.  The car would have been to Tucker what the Henry J was to Kaiser-Frazer.  Probably the most appealing aspect from Tucker's point of view was that the Cemsa-Caproni had a perimeter-type frame for safety, a feature not found on many cars of that time (or any other time, for that matter), and which the Tucker '48 also featured. 

[woodinsight]

Another view of the completed cabriolet