VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Intermeccanica F Jr

Helping Sam Caronia

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Lancia Scorpion, waiting.

Story by Tom Gonnella
Photos taken by the Editor circa 2004 unless otherwise noted

In the 1970s, Sam Caronia had some interesting cars in the shop on 38th Street in Norfolk, Va. In addition to the three Allemanos, the Intermeccanica and the 300SC, he also had a couple of OTR or OTS 1000s, a Simca and a Porsche Abarth Carrera. In addition to the usual Fiat’s, MG’s, Healey’s, VW’s and old Porsches, behind the shop there was a Ferrari 250, a Buick another Simca, several Series 2 Alfa Spiders and a GT Junior.

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The Fate of the Intermeccanica Formula Junior

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The one, the only, Intermeccanica F Jr.

By Pete Vack

From the VeloceToday Archives, 2010

Guys are incredibly insensitive sometimes, cruelly defining even friends not by who he or she is, but by what cars they own, as if the vehicle was more important than the owner. Contact begins with not “Hey Sam, how have you been,” but with “Hey Sam, you still have the Intermeccanica?” We are as guilty of this sin as anyone, and we all do it from time to time, I would guess.

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Working with Sam Caronia

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Sam in his Intermeccanica Formula Jr. Photographer unknown, courtesy Same Caronia collection.

By Tom Gonnella

After my mother impressed Sam, anything she wanted he gave her, including a job for me. I worked for Sam for three summers and he was a great friend for the rest of his life.

I had discovered road racing at 14 through a friend whose father ran a Triumph Spitfire in the SCCA and we were his ‘crew.’ I also told Sam I had now started autocrossing my Alfa and asked Sam if I could get his rare Intermeccanica Formula Junior running to drive as I thought it would be more competitive.

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Ford’s Italian Shooting Brake

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Story by Wallace Wyss

In 1964, it seemed like the entire world loved the Ford Mustang. Even the Italians welcomed Iacocca’s baby, and when Canadian Frank Reisner, who ran Intermeccanica in Turin, heard that an American ad agency wanted him to rebody a Mustang, he leapt at the chance. Reisner was already a Mustang fan and owner, having ordered a green 289 convertible for his wife Paula to drive in Italy. “It was my first car ever,” she said. The couple used it to drive from their new apartment in Coazze to Turin, where Frank was engaged in constructing a new Scaglione-designed coupe called the Veltro Titiana.

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