From Stuttgart to Turin: the Frua Mercedes

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We wonder if any of you would have been able to identify this convertible correctly without any prior knowledge. We would never have guessed what the base vehicle was. The coachbuilder is Italian, that much is a given, but which one? Ghia? Vignale? Stabilimenti Farina or Pinin Farina? In the late 1940s, all of these automobile artisans constructed bodies in this sort of style: smooth and elegant, perhaps slightly overbodied with its fully integrated ‘pontoon fenders’, but certainly not unattractive.

Most were built on Italian chassis. Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Maserati and Ferrari all donated chassis to the worthy cause of the carrozzerie. So did some Delahayes and the odd Bentley and Bristol. Our first guess was that this was a Lancia Aprilia clothed by one of the carrozzerie already mentioned, but with no visible coachbuilder’s badging, no Lancia radiator grille, no distinctive wheels or hub caps and the badge on the grille too small to make out, there are very few giveaways. The five lines behind the rear wheel arch are unusual but are just there for æsthetic reasons, we suppose.

Of course, you know what it is from the title of the piece: it’s a Mercedes, a 170V of 1949 vintage to be precise. The body is one of the early works of Pietro Frua, who bought a bombed-out factory after the Second World War and started work there. According to the website Carrozzieri Italiani it was announced as the Mercedes-Benz 170V Spider but remained a one-off. ‘Only one specimen was built and its fate is unknown,’ it discloses. That makes us hungry for more information. Someone out there must know something…

Words: Jeroen Booij; pictures: Carrozzieri Italiani
 

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