Museo dell’ Automobile Part 1: The Car and the XXth Century

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

History

After dropping our bags in our super nice room in the Lingotto Hotel, (See part 1) we decided to go straight to the nearby Museo dell’Automobile. I was afraid my wife Jose would stay behind, but she came along and later said that “To my amazement I really enjoyed it. Usually I go and sit in the coffee shop or sit in the car and read a book – not this time.”

I had visited the Museum in the early 1980s, when it was still known as the Carlo Biscaretti Museum. I had been very impressed with its content but not so much for the layout, which was rather old-fashioned, very much like most other museums I had visited. That is most certainly not the case now, however, as we will see.

The collection itself was started in 1933 and was the idea of pioneering motorists Cesare Goria Gatti and Roberto Biscaretti Ruffia (who was the first President of the Turin Automobile Club and one of the founders of Fiat.) It was Roberto’s son Carlo for whom the Museum was named. Carlo had gathered the collection together and worked so hard during his life time to make sure the cars had a decent home.

Following Carlo’s death in 1959 the Museum’s Board of Directors passed a resolution to name the museum after him. The Museum opened on November 3rd, 1960. The original building was designed by architect Amedeo Albertini.

In 2011 the Museum reopened following a major renovation. The winning design was by the architect Cino Zucchi, whose entry was chosen from approximately fifty of the world’s leading architects.

The Car and the 20th Century

A visit to the museum starts by taking an escalator from the ground floor Piazza directly to the top (second) floor were the story of the motor car and its relationship with man begins. This first section is named “The car and the 20th Century” with over 21 rooms totaling 3600 sq. meters telling the story from the earliest forms of locomotion right up to an exhibit called “Destiny”. “Destiny” means that we are at now at a crossroad; we can either continue on the path of environmental deterioration and destruction or take a brighter path, where our energy comes from renewable sources; along this path, we modify our life style so that it is not incompatible to the preservation of the environment. At the same time, however these first 20 rooms contain many a gem from the golden age of petrol-powered motoring.

Each of the rooms has a theme, the first being “Genesis” with the replica of the 1769 steam powered Cugnot vehicle. Below, we cover most but not all of the rooms, some of which do not have an actual car featured. Most text below is credited to the Museum. Note that each subhead is a different room on the Second Floor.

Genesis

A homage to the many precursors who, over the last five centuries, have searched for a way to move and transport people and goods that was not tied to the physical strength of animals. In the Genesis library there are some of the thousands of ideas that have preceded and, in some cases, made possible, the advent of the motor car.

At Top Speed

It was soon realized that the shape of carriages could not easily be combined with speed, and we were soon to see the dawn of a new century. New shapes, such as the torpedo shape, were devised, and unheard-of speeds were reached – even over 100 km per hour, like the record set by the Belgian Camille Jenatzy’s Jamais Contente (the “hard to please” car) on 29th April 1899.

Mechanical Fervor in the Twentieth Century

The large, colorful image that makes up the backdrop is reminiscent of the works of futurism, a revolutionary artistic and cultural movement that came into being in Italy in the early twentieth century. It was one of the rare moments when art and industry blended harmoniously.

Right to the Center of the World

The motor car became the means with which one could measure oneself against the impossible; in 1907 the idea was launched for an expedition to cross Asia and Europe, from Peking to Paris, over lands where there were neither roads nor possibilities for refueling.

The Crazy Twenties and Thirties

World War I had been left behind and life had never been so good for those lucky enough to belong to “high society”. Art Nouveau style evolved into Art Deco, ladies’ skirts got shorter, and female shapes established themselves in the most disparate fields including those traditionally reserved to men. These were the Roaring Twenties and the crazy 1930s.

Aerodynamics

For the first time in the design of mass-produced cars, aerodynamics, the study of the behavior of the air when penetrated by moving bodies was applied to cars. With this science, performance and road holding were improved, and the lines of the car revolutionized.

All Change

The gilded world of the great European entrepreneurial aristocracy, of luxury cruise liners and sumptuous banquets, was about to be turned upside down by a set of events that would affect the whole of society, starting with the economic crisis of October 1929. New cars were put on the market in a world where the old and the new had a turbulent coexistence.

The Italian Revolution

The reconstruction of Italy after World War II began with creativity and skill in designing. The car industry in Italy got back on track thanks to industrialists, engineers, designers and mechanics who started again almost from nothing. The art of creating car bodywork went through one of its most fertile periods, so that it became its own school.

Years of Recovery

The first signs of well being started to spread in Italy in the early 1950s. The Fiat 600, here in the Multipla version, gave mobility to classes of the population who had hitherto been excluded from it. These were also the years of the Giulietta Sprint – not a car for the masses, certainly, but a symbol of the beautiful Italian line.

David and Goliath

American style against European style: Vehicles with Baroque lines, very high fuel consumption needing wide open spaces and highways, versus small cars designed to cost very little, consume less, be extremely useful and allow populations exhausted by five years of war to start to live again. There could be no more startling contrast between American designs and European ones at the end of the Fifties, as the vehicles on this display tangibly demonstrate.

Happiness Arrives

This is the happiness of consumerism: two showcases, inspired by those of the famous “Rinascente” Italian department store chain, offer items from the “economic boom” years that finally became affordable to many. The first electric household appliances – washing machines and fridges – arrived, television became popular and advertising became an integral part of our daily lives; we are moving into the modern age.

Youth Conquers the World

Not the world, perhaps, but youth certainly conquered a different awareness of itself. The world of young people became a world apart, with its own rites, utopias, dreams, aspirations and languages. And also cars: the Citroen 2CV and the Volkswagen Transporter became universal symbols of freedom and lack of prejudice, adventure and non-conformity.

New Trends in Europe and in the World

The oil crisis of the early years of the 1970s, which hit a world that until that time, had lived as if oil were inexhaustible. Therefore on one hand, we had the glamour of extraordinary, high performance Italian cars while, on the other, fuel shortages upset whole sectors, such as the large-scale retail sector, linked industries, tourism and show-business.

Website for futher information: Museo Dell’Automobile

Next week: The first floor and lobby.