Temperino

Maurizio Temperino was born at Limone Piemonte in 1888. His father, a miner, had died at Lead City, South Dakota, and the family came home to Piedmont; at 15 Maurizio went to work in a bicycle shop.source 1 In 1906–⁠07 he and his brothers opened their own workshop at corso Principe Oddone 44 in Turin, repairing bicycles and motorcycles and vulcanising tyres. Italian Wikipedia and the museum name the siblings as Maurizio, Giacomo, Secondo and their sister Mary, who ran the office; English Wikipedia leaves out Secondo.source 1source 2source 3 From about 1908 they built motorcycles, shown at the 1911 Turin International Exhibition under the name “Mead Flyer” and probably built under licence or imported.source 1source 2 The workshop became a well-known garage, and among the cars it serviced was one from the Queen’s garage. In February 1912 Maurizio patented a detachable wheel rim and licensed it to Adolfo Krumm.source 1

What he wanted to build was a vetturetta economica, a cheap light car made for strength, with simple parts and standardisation, much as Henry Ford did, in the museum’s comparison. The first prototype, of 1908, is said to have had a 350 cc twin, and no trace of it remains; the second, with an 800 cc twin, is known from a photograph.source 1 Then wars scattered the brothers, first the Italo-Turkish war of 1911 and then the First World War, in which Secondo was badly wounded as an airman.source 1

A Lilliputian car

Production began early in 1918, under contract. Antonio Opessi, a maker of precision instruments, built the chassis and assembled the cars at his works in viale Stupinigi; the engines came from the Della Ferrera motorcycle works and the bodies from Stabilimenti Farina.source 1 The car had an A-shaped frame, an air-cooled V-twin in front of 1,010 cc and 20 hp, three speeds and reverse, and a pedal “kick-starter”.source 1source 2 The press of 1919 gave it about 5 litres per 100 km (56 mpg) and 75 km/h (47 mph), and said it could turn almost on the spot, like a spinning top, forwards or in reverse.source 1 In April La Stampa Sportiva called it “the Lilliputian automobile”, crediting the Opessi firm and “the inventor Signor Temperino”; the maker’s own advertisements of 1920 called it a motovetturetta, and in English it was a cyclecar.source 1

In October 1919 the brothers formed the Società Anonima Vetturette Temperino, with a capital of 500,000 lire.source 1 The 1920 catalogue offered a two-seat spider at 9,000 lire, a three-seat torpedo at 10,000, a two-seat light van at 9,800 and a landaulet at a price on request, in olive green, garnet red or black. A Sport version had 1,021 cc and 25 hp, and ran at 85–90 km/h (53–56 mph) instead of 70–75.source 1 When the Lombardy agency went to a Milan firm in May 1920, Motori Cicli & Sports gave its verdict.

Turin to Aldwych

Maurizio’s man in London was J. S. Wood of the Kingsway Motor Co., Aldwych, who lent a car to The Light Car and Cyclecar. In October and December 1920 the magazine praised its solid construction, careful workmanship and the engine’s “wonderful power and vim”.source 1 Wood then ran Temperino Motors Ltd, at Waldorf House, Catherine Street, Aldwych.source 1source 3 British buyers liked the kick-starter, the easy driving, the price, £285 or £175 for the basic model, and the look of a miniature Fiat. From July 1920 up to 30 cars a month were shipped to London, at 14,500 lire each, packed, and 14,000 lire after the first hundred. A few went to Java, Brazil and Malta.source 1 By 1921 about a hundred people worked on the car, and its mechanical parts now came from the Officine Moncenisio at Condove.source 1

The car’s best-known photograph shows a boy. Cavaliere Giovanni Farina’s two sons were keen young drivers, and a picture of Giuseppe “Nino” Farina, aged about 15, cornering hard in a Temperino against his brother, appeared in Popolo Sportivo and went into the firm’s advertising. In 1950 he became the first Formula One world champion.source 1source 2 The slogan was “Per tagliare primi il traguardo ci vuole una Temperino!”: to cross the line first, you need a Temperino.source 2

Debts paid

The Banca Italiana di Sconto, the firm’s main lender, came close to collapse in December 1921 and took several car makers with it, Rapid, SCAT and Itala among them.source 1 Inflation followed. In April 1922 the Tipo S, a twin of 85 × 90 mm rated at 8 HP, cost 14,000 lire with a body and 11,000 as a bare chassis, when a Trikappa chassis cost 65,000; in 1923 the single model cost 15,000 lire.source 1 A GSM 7-14 HP was offered abroad, in Britain and Brazil, though Italian Wikipedia calls it the 7-12 HP.source 2source 3 In 1924 the brothers decided to stop. They paid every debt and there was no bankruptcy.source 1source 2source 3 In 1926 they opened a garage with a petrol pump near Turin’s old municipal stadium, and they went on filing patents into the 1930s.source 1source 3 Italian Wikipedia says the London company lasted until 1940, which has not been confirmed.source 2

The Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile in Turin keeps an 8/10 HP, and its documentation centre wrote the history on which most of this page rests.source 2source 4source 1 How many survive is not recorded in the sources read, which give no auction result either.