Spotted this over on
daily timewaster and my immediate thought was that it looked kind of cool. My second thought was that it was maybe a little weird, and that was enough to get me wondering just what the heck it was. Google found the same picture on a couple of other sites, some of which were dead, and some were
Pinterest, which seldom has any useful information. But then I realized there is a license plate and when I tried that, bingo!, several sites popped up that identified the car.
RM Sotheby's has concise story about this diminutive, postwar Italian hot rod. They also have a bunch of pictures. I like this one:
Wikipedia has a story about Cistalia cars.
If you like Italian design, check out the Solari clocks and display boards all over the world: https://store.solarilineadesign.com/
ReplyDeleteMy father worked for Air Canada and selected the industrial version of the Solari Cifra 5 clock for all the airports in Canada. Very bland, but could be remotely reset to 1200. We also had one at home and, every two weeks, the cleaning lady would unplug it so she could plug in the vacuum cleaner. My father would come home from work and go ballistic because his fancy clock had to be reset.
I imagine this technology is being rendered obsolete by big TV screens, but I don't know for sure. From what I have read, these Solari "split-flap" displays are considered to be nostalgic and artistic, but you sure don't see them in US airports. Here's an article with a cool video:
https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-12/those-flapping-solari-boards-us-train-stations-are-leaving-terminal
Your pal,
James