Members of Hagerty Classic Insuranceโs Driverโs Club were recently asked what car was the most luxurious ever. The answers ranged from Studebakers to Rolls-Royces. No one suggested either Hispano-Suiza or Isotta Fraschini, the worldโs truly most luxurious marques. Of those two, Isotta Fraschini is my pick. Gianni Rogliatti wrote an article titled โThe Fabulous Isotta Fraschini โ Majesty in Motionโ in Automobile Quarterly Volume XII, Number 1, First Quarter 1974. In it, he said the marqueโs badge, with its block letters โIF,โ could appropriately stand for either โIsotta Fraschiniโ or โIntrepida Fides,โ which translates loosely to โIntrepid Faith.โ Owners of these automobiles could be fearless in their faith in these cars โ they were that good.
Isotta and Fraschini
IF was very familiar with the Renaults of the early 1900s, so it is probalby not a surprise that their first car looked like a Renault.
As the world closed on the end of the 19th century, it was not uncommon for adventurous men of wealth to think about building their own automobiles. Cesare Isotta and Vincenzo Fraschini were two of these men. Isotta, a lawyer and scholar, was the dreamer. Fraschini, the automobile enthusiast, was the practical partner. They began their adventure in 1898, as did others in Italy, by importing cars built in other European countries. Renaults and de Dions, as well as Aster engines, were imported. But these cars did little to satisfy the passionate nature of Italians, and the two friends began planning to build their own automobile. The first cars to display the IF badge were assembled primarily from foreign firmโs parts. Those first cars, in 1902, looked very much like Renaults but with an Aster single-cylinder engine. The company shortly became a family affair. Vincenzo Fraschiniโs brothers, Antonio and Oreste joined the company. Then Isotta and both Vincenzo and Antonio Frashchini married sisters in Bianchi Anderloniโs family, making them brothers-in-law. This extended family would continue to intertwine for many years. In 1926, Felice Bianchi Anderloni joined with Ponzoni and Vittorio Ascari (brother of Antonio) to form Carrozzeria Touring partly because IF needed a reliable source of bodies for their cars.