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| Alfredo Vignale was born in 1913. As a seventeen year old boy
he already worked for Stabilimenti Farina, then managed by
Giovanni Farina, the older brother of Pinin. He became an
allround technician and his first steps in coachbuilding only
started at his mid thirties when he traded an old motorbike for a
Fiat Topolino. The coach work of the Topolino was so rusty
that Alfredo decided to give it an aluminium body. A second
body for a Topolino was made and this one even got attention
from the English Autocar magazine.
In 1948 the Carrozzeria Vignale was founded at Via Cigliano,
Turin. It became a well known Italian coachbuilding company.
Vignale designed and built cars for Ferrari, Maserati, Lancia and
many others.
Alfredo Vignale also started producing cars under his own name.
In 1961 he opened a factory near Fiat's Mirafiori factory in
Crugliasco/Turin. [The Vignale logo shows the famous church in
Turin]. In this factory a whole range of Vignale cars was
produced using conveyor-belt production methods.
Mainly using rolling chassis from Fiat the following cars were
built:
Vignale 125/Samantha
Vignale 124/Eveline
Vignale 1500
Vignale 850 Spider
Vignale 850 Coupé 2+2
Vignale 850 Coupé 4
Vignale Gamine
In December 1969 Alfredo sold his Carrozzeria Vignale to
DeTomaso Automobili. DeTomaso, like the Ghia Studios,
already belonged to Ford's Italian product development group.
Three days after having sold his company, Alfredo died in a car
crash while driving a Maserati...
Carrozzeria Vignale, being a very modern factory, was used to
built the mid-engine DeTomaso Pantera sports cars.
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