Bianchi

Italy, 1899 – 1939, 1957 to date

(1) Edoardo Bianchi, Milan, 1899 – 1905

(2) Fabbrica Automobili e Velocipedi Edoardo Bianchi, Milan, 1905 – 1939

(3) Autobianchi SpA, Milan, 1957 – 1968

(4) Fiat SpA (Sezione Autobianchi), Milan, 1968 to date

Edoardo Bianchi was a cycle manufacturer who graduated to cars via the inevitable motor tricycle, his earlies efforts being in the De Dion Bouton idiom with single-cylinder De Dion engines and tubular frame. A 942cc unit featured in his 1903 Bianchi models, but serious manufacturer dates from the company reorganization of 1905. Inevitably large and expensive machines in the classical Italian idiom were produced, with 4-cylinder engines (Bianchi never made a six, apart from a few staff cars built for the Italian army in the late 1930s), side valves in a T-head, it magneto ignition, multi-disc clutches, 4-speed gearboxes and side-chain drive. Capacities of the first types Bianchi cars for sale were 4½ litres and 7.4 litres respectively. However, the Bianchi company’s bid for honours in the 1907 Kaiserpreis led to some more sporting models, such as the enormous 11.4-litre 70hp Autobianchi E-type with hight-tension ignition, standardized on the smaller Bianchis by 1908; they were also available with shaft drive. New for 1908 was a modern L-head Monobloc four; initially this Bianchi Tipo G had three forward speeds, the extra ratio being added in 1910, when Bianchi delivered 450 cars. Further Monobloc fours followed, with 2.1-litre and 4.4-litre engines, though alongside these was a traditional chain-driven sports model, the ohv 8-litre Bianchi 60/75hp that survived until 1915. A remarkable development for an Italian manufacturer was the Bianchi Tipo S of 1914, an inexpensive 1.244cc 3-speed affair available in only one body style and one colour. Electrics were an optional extra, but were standard on Bianchi’s wartime newcomer, the orthodox 3.3-litre Bianchi B type of 1915. The Bianchi S for sale was enlarged to 1460cc in 1916, but disappeared shortly after the end of World War 1 in favour of a one-model policy based on the 1693cc Bianchi Tipo 12 for sale.

Vintage Bianchi cars typified the more conservative strain in Italian design, with little sporting flavor, if an abortive contender for the 2-litre Bianchi GP formula laid down in 1922 is excepted. Its dohc 4-cylinder engine had dual magneto ignition and 90bhp was claimed. By 1923 the Bianchi Tipo 12 for sale had given way to Bianchi Tipo 16 for sale with detachable cylinder head, and at the same time the company marketed the 2-litre pushrod Bianchi Tipo 18, a solid family machine popular with British specialist coachbuilders of the period. Four-wheel brakes arrived in 1924 on the 2.3-litre Bianchi Tipo 20 with 59bhp engine: so did the Rolls-Royce style of radiator, used by the firm until 1931. In 1925 came Bianchi’s answer to the Fiat 509, the 1.3-litre ohv Bianchi S4 with four-wheel brakes and 4-speed gearbox; this sold steadily for nine years, acquiring coil ignition in its Bianchi S5 version (for sale in 1928), and growing up to 1452cc and 40bhp in 1932. Less fortunate was a medium-sized luxury straight-8 Bianchi unveiled in 1928; initially of the 2.7 litres’ capacity, it was enlarged to 2.9 litres in 1930. Wheelbase was 10ft 10in and features of the pushrod engine were mechanical pump feed and dry-sump lubrication; a short-wheelbase sports version, the Bianchi S8bis for sale in 1933, was said to do 85mph.

In 1934 Bianchi reverted to a one-model programme with the Bianchi S9, a pretty little 1½-litre sports saloon with 5-bearing crankshaft. Brakes were still mechanical, but by 1936 this successor to the Bianchi S5 had acquired hydraulics and synchromesh, though unusually for a cheap Italian car it rode on beam axles all round and wore Rudge-type wire wheels. A Bianchi six/seven-seater long-wheelbase version did duty as a taxicab in Italy. Production was on a modest scale and had petered out (in favour of trucks and motorcycles) by the time Italy entered World War 2 in 1940.

These engaged Bianchi’s attention in the immediate post-war years, a projected Bianchi S9 replacement only reaching the prototype stage in 1950. The revival of a private-car production resulted from an infusion of Fiat and Pirelli capital in 1955, and when the Autobianchi Bianchina appeared at the 1957 Turin Show it was revealed as a deluxe rolltop convertible edition of Fiat’s new 2-cylinder air-cooled 500. By 1963 quite a wide range of bodies was available on the Bianchina chassis, but Fiat were now in sole command, and henceforward Autobianchi’s role was to be that of a forcing house for new Fiat ideas. 

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Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

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