Italian post-war minicars (Volugrafo Bimbo, Fimer, Atomo and others)

Italy’s first post-war minicars were ambitious, and there were very few of them. Turin’s Volugrafo Bimbo, Milan’s Fimer, Parma’s Atomo and the Lucciola were built in small series, or got no further than a pre-series.source 1source 2source 3 Italian Wikipedia names the Bimbo, the Siata Mitzi and the Mi-Val Mivalino as the Italian rivals of the Iso Isetta.source 4 The better-recorded cars of these years have pages of their own: the ALCA Volpe, Italy’s great post-war microcar scandal, and Moretti’s Cita, on the Moretti page. The five below are roughly in date order.

Officine Meccaniche Volugrafo of Turin made trailers, aircraft parts and petrol pumps, which puts it, loosely, among the aircraft makers.source 1source 5 In the war it built the Aermoto 125 for the Italian Army, a folding motorcycle that could go down by parachute. Belmondo designed it from a light motorcycle of 1936, with a 123 cc two-stroke of 2 hp and twin-tyred wheels. The prototype came in 1942 and production in 1943–⁠44; 2,000 were made, the last of them at Favria after the Turin works had been bombed. The first 600 went to the 183rd “Ciclone” Parachute Division, and the Luftwaffe’s paratroops used the Aermoto too.source 1

Belmondo designed the car as well. English Wikipedia calls him Claudio; German Wikipedia, citing Linz and Schrader, calls him Vittorio.source 1source 5 The Bimbo was shown in November 1945 and built from the spring of 1946. It sat on a tubular frame with a track of only 78 cm (31 in), and its front wheels, hung on double wishbones of equal length, were fully enclosed by the body; a chain linked them to a large steering wheel set a little left of centre. The body was open, with no doors and a single bench that would take two in an emergency, under a thin fabric top with no side screens, and it stood 90 cm (35 in) high.source 1source 5 An air-cooled 125 cc single of 5 PS (3.7 kW), mounted ahead of the left rear wheel, drove that wheel alone by chain. A sports version had a second drive unit for the right rear wheel. About 60 had been built when production ended in 1948.source 1source 5

F.I.M.E.R., the Fabbrica Italiana Motoveicoli e Rimorchi of Milan, built a two-seater with a 246 cc two-stroke motorcycle engine in the back.source 2source 6 The list that cites Georgano dates it to 1947–⁠49, and English Wikipedia, following David Burgess Wise, to 1948–⁠49, adding only that few were made.source 2source 6 Almost nothing else about it has been found.

The Società Applicazioni Meccaniche Costruzioni Automobilistiche of Parma showed its Atomo at the Milan show of 1947. It was a two-seat three-wheeler with an aluminium body, a folding canvas roof and a water-cooled two-stroke twin of 246 cc with three gears, and was claimed to reach 65–75 km/h (40–47 mph) and to use about 3.3 litres per 100 km (86 mpg).source 7 How its wheels were arranged is not recorded. The list dates it to 1947–⁠48; production stopped in 1949, and the company had been dissolved by 1951.source 2source 7 How many were made is not known.

Automoto.it names the Lucciola beside the Volpe among the early Italian proposals that stayed at the pre-series stage, built in very few examples.source 3 Its maker, its date and its specification have not been found.

SIATA of Turin, the firm that tuned Fiats and built bodies for them, presented the Mitzi in 1954, and it stayed a prototype; French Wikipedia says it was developed from 1953 to 1956.source 8source 9 Its engine was a 434 cc side-valve twin at the back.source 9source 8 By French Wikipedia’s figures, which come without a source, it gave 11 ch (8 kW) through four gears, with torsion-bar independent suspension on every wheel and a two-door monocoque body about 3,100 mm (122 in) long and 420 kg (926 lb), and reached 80 km/h (50 mph).source 9 It matters for what came after: French Wikipedia says its body can be considered the draft of the Vespa 400, and Toni Solans writes that the Vespa’s lines came from Siata’s Mitzi.source 9source 10

At least five Bimbos survive. Two are on show, one in the Mahymobiles municipal motor museum at Leuze-en-Hainaut, in Belgium, the other in the Museo Ford Gratton at Farra d’Isonzo, in Italy, and photographs of the pair show small differences in the front decoration, the mirror and the hood.source 1source 5 No survivor of the Fimer, the Atomo, the Lucciola or the Mitzi has been found.