When it comes to coachbuilders Italy is the most known place.
With such names as Bertone Zagato Pininfarina Italy has brought to us some of the most beautiful
car of all time.
But among these big names there were a lot of small cochbuilder which time has forgotten.
Such designer is Pietro Frua.
Founder of carrozzeria Frua, Pietro has designed some very beautiful car, but sadly most of
his creations were small production or just never entered production.
So hello guys and welcome back to another video and here is the profile of Pietro Frua.
Pietro Frua was born in May 2, 1913 in Torino in Italy.
Living in Torino and being the son of Fiat employ, Pietro was raised with passion and
love about cars.
In 1930, he started studying for draftsman at Allievi Fiat school, later that year Pietro
started working for Stabilimenti Farina.
Stabilimenti Farina was a coachbuilder of the time which was founded by Giovanni Farina,
the older brother of Battista Pinin Farina.
Battista worked for a long time for his brother and in the 1930 he left in order to create
his own coachbuilding house Pininfarina.
Also in the 30s Felice Mario Boano and Giovanni Michelotti were part of Stabilimenti Farina,
so they were a very talented team.
Frua worked with some of the cars that Farina presented and in 1937 he became general menager
of Stabilimenti Farina.
In 1939 Pietro decide to leave so to person other ventures.
After he left Farina, Pietro worked for a short time for Officine Viberti a bus and
truck maker.
But with the beginning of WW2 he started working independently.
He mostly designed children cars and kitchens supplies.
He also worked with the design of Belmondo SIMAT which led to the creation of the Piaggio
MP5 Paperino, the predecesour of Vespa.
In 1944 Pietro decided to buy a bombed-out factory so he could start building his car.
He established Carrozzeria Pietro Frua, when he employed 15 people including here a young
Sergio Coggiola.
The first car of Carrozzeria Pietro Frua came in 1946.
The Fiat 1100 A Sport Barchetta, was based on a first gen Fiat 1100.
The power came from a straight-4 1089cc with something more than 32hp.
Considering the fact that the car was ultra lightweight the A Sport Barchetta probably
was a fun car.
The 1100 A Sport Barchetta was followed by a number of other projects.
Some of them were Lancia Astura Coupé, Lancia Aprilia Giardinetta and Lancia Aprilia Giardinetta
II.
Sadly not much is known about his early works, with a big lack of information and pictures.
But in the early 50s a number of different Italian car makers approached Pietro Frua.
Cisitalia was one of these carmakers.
Personally I'm a big fan of Cisitalia and I really want to make a video about them sadly
I don't have enough information at the moment.
After becoming a successful team on Grand Prix races, Cisitalia was trying to make it
as a car maker, and so they were working with a number of different coachcbuilders to create
something impressive.
And the 202 Spider is what Pietro Frua came up.
The car was based on the Cisitalia 202 which designed in 1947 by PininFarina.
Sadly not much this car.
In 1951 came the Maserati A6G 2000 Spider.
Based on the A6G. 2000 which came in 1950, Spider Frua was on of the three models that
were presented that year.
The other two were a coupe and another spyder which were designed by Pininfarina.
Later Frua also designed a coupe A6G 2000.
The A6G was followed by a number of other cars like the OSCA MT4-2AD coupe Le Mans,
Fiat Coupe "Dinghy", Lancia Aurelia hatchback, Panhard DB 850 Coupe, OSCA 2000 S Spider,
Peugeot 203 Cales Cabriolet, Peugeot 203 Coupe, Fiat 600 Multipla and the three Maseratis,
two A6G and the 1500 GT Fantuzzi Spider.
In 1957 Pietro decide to sell his firm to Ghia and he was appointed head of Ghia.
While he worked for Ghia he designed the Renault Dauphine Coupe, which differently from his
previous cars became quite successful.
But after a number of disagreement Pietro deiced to leave to create again his own design
house.
Now Frua was an established designer and so more car makers wanted to work with him, and
the 60s really were the golden year of Frua, since his most known creation came from this
period.
One of the first cars that he designed after the departure from Ghia were the coupe and
convertible version of the Citroen DS.
Both were very beautiful cars, which definitely showed have been made.
In 1961 Frua presented his take on the Maserati 3500 GT.
Like with the car that replaced, the A6G, the 3500 came with a number of different bodies
which were designed by different coachbuilders.
The Frua ones are some of the rarest since only 4 were built including here the convertibles.
After the 3500 came the Ford Anglia Spider, Maserati 5000 GT „Aga Khan" and Ford Galaxie.
In 1964 came another quite successful car.
Like Cisitalia, Glas also deserve a Story of Video since they have built some very beautiful
cars.
Anyway, Pietro designed the GT for, Glas which was small sport car like many car makers were
building at the time.
The Glas was quite successful car, since over 5000 cars were built by Glas.
In 1967 Glas was bought by BMW and 1500 more GTs were built.
The Gt coupe was followed by the Cabriolet one year later.
The Glas Gt was followed by another beautiful Maserati.
Originally named Due Posti, the Mistral was the replacement of the 3500.
The Mistral is the last Maserati to use a straight-6 engine, since later they moved
into the V8s.
The Mistral is definitely one of the Most beautiful Maseratis of all time.
Under the beautiful body was straight 6 engine, which was a relative of the engine that Maserati
was using on they F1 car.
The Mistral came with 3 different engines, a 3.5l with 235hp, a 3.7l with 245hp and the
top of the range 4l with 255hp.
The same year Pietro also designed another Maserati, the original Quattroporte.
The Quattroporte is definitely one of the most important Maseratis ever, since the saloon
is their most successful car.
The style was quite similar with other Maseratis of the time especially with Frua designed
ones.
The Quattroporte was one of the first, sport sedans.
The V8 engine produced 255hp on the 4.1l version and, 285hp on the 4.7l one.
This power helped the car to reach a top speed of over 250kmh on the later one.
The Quattroporte was followed by the a coupe version of Lotus Elan, a convertible version
of the Maserati Mistral and a convertible version of the Opel Kadett.
In 1965 Frua presented another impressive car, this time for AC.
The car looked a bit like the Iso Rivolta, but again quite different.
Like ISO and many cars of the time, the AC 428 was powered by an American V8 engine,
a Ford 7l engine with 345hp.
The car was very expensive since, AC build the chassis in UK shipped them in Italy for
the body and later the bodies were returned in UK were they received the engine and all
the other mechanical parts.
Only 81 428s were built were 49 coupes, 29 convertibles and 3 special bodies.
After the AC came the Glas V8, Glas GT Viersitzer and Maserati 3700 GTI Coupé.
In 1966 came the special Jaguar E-Type.
The car dosent look very different compared to the E-type.
Frua was asked by John Coombs to give the E-type an Italian look, but Frua didn't had
much time at the time so he only changed the nose.
John wasn't satisfied with this so he asked Italhouse to pack the car with the big chrome
bumpers.
The E-type was followed by another Jag, this time a rebodied S-type.
Now the car had two door body, completely different from the one that the original car
had.
The S-type coupe looks very good in my opinion sadly the car was meant for production.
Also in 1966 came a very interesting car.
Now, if you saw my previous video you probably know that I love shooting brakes and I definitely
love this car.
Not much is known about this car but probably was build for a special request.
The SLX, how the car was named, was based on 230 SL, and was only a one off.
I would have loved seeing this car going into production.
In 1967 came another beautiful car by Frua.
Like I mentioned before, BMW bought Glas so with the new cars that they acquired, they
started experimenting with the hope of making some of these cars a reality.
Such a car was the BMW 3000 V8 Fastbackcoupé.
Based on Glas 3000 V8 the car had received a very beautiful body which even though had
a BMW badge had nothing in common with the other Bimmers of the time.
BMW was looking to make this car a reality but all the planes were canceled and they
decide to go with the 3.0CS.
Now collaboration between BMW and Frua didn't stopped here.
One year later they presented the 2000 ti fastback.
Originally the car was built for Monteverdi and was based on a BMW 2000ti, this because
of beside selling his cars Monteverdi was also a BMW dealer.
Monteverdi really wanted to produce this car, but BMW didn't agree with this since they
saw Monteverdi as a competitor.
But the problems didn't stopped here since, because of some problems with Pitreo, Monteverdi
decided to cut ties also with Frua.
Looking to built a car, Frua decided to badge the car as BMW and he showed again later that
year.
Sadly BMW showed no inters.
This is another missed opportunity on the long list of the BMW concepts in my opinion.
Also, that year Frua presented the Chevrolet Camaro CS Coupe.
Based on SS 327 the car had received a new body which look completely different from
the original car.
The car might have been quite successful as a small production car similar with the ISOs
and DeTomasos.
In 1968 Frua was contacted by Volvo to create an estate version of the P1800.
Beside Frua Volvo also contacted Coggiola.
Both designer came up with their own design, which were completely different from each
other.
Coggiola completely rebodied the car and changed everything.
While Frua only the changed the rear end.
He named the car Rocket, since the rear end gave the car a rocket look.
Volvo rejected both designs since they looked to futuristic for Volvo at the time.
Instead Volvo decided to go with the in house design made by Jan Wilsgaard.
Which I think looks the best, since the Coggiola looked completely different and the Frua one
looked to dramatic.
Some of the cars that came in 1969 were the AC 429 Coupé, BMW 2002 GT4 Coupé, BMW 2800
GTS Coupé, a special body Maserati Mexico Coupe and a concept for Maserati Bora.
In the 70s, Frua designed some of his best works.
And of the best came in 1970.
This time he used a Dodge Challenger R/T SE as a base for his creation.
The shared a similar style with his other previous creations.
The car was one off build for special request.
A similar style was also used for the Opel Diplomat CD Coupe, which differently from
the others made it into a limited production.
The Opel was followed by, a special bodied Ford Monte Carlo GT, a Hispano-Alemán based
on a Porsche 914/6, a special body Maserati Quattroporte and Audi 100S Coupe Speciale.
Most of the cars that came around this time-shared a similar design style with each other, so
not going to talk about those since not much information exist about them.
But if you want to know more I have provided a link in the description down below where
you can se all Frua creations.
One of Pietros last works is also one of the most interesting ones.
The Lamborghini Faena, was base on a stretched Espada chassis.
The Faena was the first 4-door Lamborghini, since the LM002 only came in 1986.
The car looked awesome in my opinion, but sadly most of the people didn't liked the
car.
So without a market to sell his creation, Frua canceled the project.
The Faena was one of the last works done by Pietro.
There was no longer a demand for working concepts and for special one-offs.
In 1982 Frua was diagnosed with cancer.
He had an unsuccessful surgery in 1982, and sadly he passed way on 28 June 1983.
Frua is one of the most underrated designers and coachbuilder of all time and hopefully
his work would start to be aprichiated more in the future.
So guys thank you for watching see you next time.
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