• Year of manufacture 
    1953
  • Car type 
    Other
  • Chassis number 
    11727
  • Engine number 
    103H.000
  • Lot number 
    255
  • Drive 
    LHD
  • Condition 
    Restored
  • Interior colour 
    Black
  • Number of doors 
    2
  • Number of seats 
    2
  • Location
    Italy
  • Exterior colour 
    Yellow
  • Gearbox 
    Manual
  • Drivetrain 
    2wd
  • Fuel type 
    Petrol

Description

- Special car for advertising use, registered in 1953, special equipment commissioned to Fissore body shop by Mensital Industrie Alimentari S.R.L, it has been for over 20 years in the same collection.
- delivered by Fiat in 1953 as a naked 1100 chassis, 50hp engine, it was created by the Fissore bodyshop to advertise the Prest soup cube of Mensital company from Bologna. Mensital was very famous at the time for its appearances on the Carosello show on TV and for press advertisements about the innovative “Dado Prest” soup cube. The advertising car had air compressed twin cannons that fired soup cubes during events and road show, including the “Giro d'Italia”. This special vehicle attracted and intrigued young and old people. Among the gadgets there were also yellow pencils with red heads that reproduced the colours of the rocket car. It was very successful and from 1953 to 1964 it was used to shoot the soup cubes all over Italy. It was later converted as an advertising car for the Dancing 007 disco in Rivazzurra, an historic club still existing and in business today. In this variant the vehicle cannons fired flyers promoting the dancing evenings and afternoons. After years of honoured career, it was abandoned to its fate and then it was found and restored with love by the current owner and collector.
- completely restored both inside and outside, due to its bad state at the time of discovery. It was maintained the original yellow and red livery. Mechanics refurbished. Some minor and easy to find details are missing. Following research carried out during the years, it was possible to trace the craftsman, employee of the Fissore, who personally worked on the construction of the cannon car, this chap name was Cesarino - called “manone” - for the huge hands typical of a sheet-metal worker guru.
- complete mechanics, in good working order, in need of tuning and set up.
- The advertising vehicles of the 1950s are a characteristic phenomenon of Italy in that time, they paraded in the most important events and attracted large quantities of public, there was that of Simmenthal, Pampers, Durban's ... but this has survived till our days and today it is in great shape and running well. The design of the bodywork manages to defuse the threat of the revolving turret - with the 2 compressed air cannons - and the torpedo shape, thanks to a nice face with a smiling mouth and a red clown nose (torpedo head).
Complete with the original “libretto”, “foglio complementare” and vintage plates. The car has also appeared in several car magazines. That’s a very unique vehicle!


Aste Bolaffi
Via Cavour 17
10123Torino  Torino
Italy

Phone 
+39-0110199101