The story
History
Indústrias Romi was founded in 1930 by Américo Emílio Romi, known as the comendador, and his stepson Carlos Chiti, at Santa Bárbara d’Oeste in the state of São Paulo. It made machine tools, industrial and farm machinery, and tractors.source 1source 2 The two men read about the Iso Isetta in an Italian magazine and decided that it suited Brazil; English Wikipedia says it was chosen for its size and economy as a city car.source 2source 3 In June 1955 they flew to Italy to meet Iso’s owner, Renzo Rivolta, and agreed to pay a royalty of 3 per cent on every car, with Iso’s engineers to help.source 2 On 28 August 1955 the Diário de São Paulo reported that Romi would build the car.source 1 Romi put up a shed of 25,000 m² for it. The bodies were pressed and painted by an outside firm, Tecnogeral of São Paulo, and Romi fitted the mechanical parts and the trim; the first car was finished 11 months after the Italian deal.source 2
It was the Iso car, a bubble car with one door at the front that carried the steering column with it, two seats on a bench, and two closely spaced rear wheels driven by chain, with no differential.source 3source 2source 4 The engine was Iso’s 236 cc two-stroke split-single, with two pistons sharing one combustion chamber, giving 9.5 cv, and a four-speed gearbox.source 2source 4 It took about 50 seconds to reach 70 km/h (43 mph), but it would do 85 km/h (53 mph) flat out, which Autoentusiastas thinks was enough for Brazil’s roads of the day, and it covered up to 25 km on a litre of petrol.source 2source 4 A fabric sunroof, an electric windscreen wiper and 12-volt electrics were all standard, which was unusual in Brazil in the 1950s.source 2
The parade
The first 16 cars set off on 5 September 1956 from the showroom of the distributor, the Companhia Distribuidora Brasileira Comércio e Indústria in rua Marquês de Itu, and drove through the centre of São Paulo.source 5source 4 In front of the Episcopal Palace in Bela Vista, Cardinal Carlos Carmelo Motta blessed them.source 5
Invoco a proteção de Deus para esta iniciativa, que visa a dar ao Brasil mais um forte apoio para sua independência econômica.
The cars went on to the governor’s palace, where Jânio Quadros and his wife tried one.source 2source 4 That evening the Folha da Noite hailed it as the first Brazilian automobile, 70 per cent Brazilian.source 4 By weight, 72 per cent of the car was made in Brazil at its launch, already more than the 50 per cent the government would demand from July 1957.source 5source 2 A caravan of 40 cars drove from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro and back for the publicity.source 2 The actors Eva Wilma and Anselmo Duarte and the comedienne Dercy Gonçalves were seen in Romi-Isettas, and Pelé was given one after the 1958 World Cup.source 2 One advertisement aimed it at women, showing a woman stepping out of a cage and into the car, now free.source 1
Brazil’s first car?
The claim needs care. Ford had assembled cars in Brazil from imported kits since 1919, and General Motors since 1925.source 5source 2 Strictly, the Romi-Isetta was the first passenger car series-produced in Brazil with most of its content made there, and it came 75 days before the DKW-Vemag Universal estate.source 5source 2
The four-seat rule
In June 1956, three months before the launch, President Juscelino Kubitschek had set up the Grupo Executivo da Indústria Automobilística, the GEIA, to raise the local content of Brazilian cars step by step, from 50 per cent on 1 July 1957 to 95 per cent on 1 July 1960.source 5 Its tax, exchange and credit incentives went only to vehicles that could carry at least four people. The Romi-Isetta took two, or three with a child, and was left out.source 5source 4 English Wikipedia, citing a business historian, says the car had been approved as part of the state-backed drive to found a motor industry but was built in the end without government support.source 3 Without the incentives its price roughly doubled, to the equivalent of US$1,400.source 4
Romi kept improving it. In 1957–58 came larger headlamps, high beams, bigger windows and new suspension settings, and in 1959 the Iso engine and gearbox gave way to BMW’s 298 cc four-stroke single of 13 cv, in the Romi-Isetta 300 de Luxe.source 2source 1source 4 On 2 February 1960 Kubitschek himself was photographed waving from a Romi-Isetta in a caravan of Brazilian-made vehicles at Brasília.source 5 But Romi could not keep pace with the multinational makers arriving in Brazil’s boom years.source 5 Production stopped on 13 April 1961, after about 3,000 cars, and the stock was sold off until the last one went early in December.source 1source 2 The Brazilian site Best Cars later called it a European success that failed in Brazil by offering advantages nobody needed.source 1 Romi went back to its machine tools. Carlos Chiti, looking back in the 1990s, thought they had been right all along.source 5
Tínhamos razão quando quisemos entrar na produção de automóveis pensando num carro de modestas proporções e reduzido consumo.
The Romi-Isetta belongs to the family of Isettas built under licence, with the BMW Isetta and the French Velam Isetta.
