MiniInnocenti, with some Alfa content

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

David Willis mentioned, and Keith Walker corrected on one detail, that
Innocenti at one time built Minis under license. An undoubtedly rarer,
but also interesting, Innocenti was an A-H Sprite with a very nice
Italian-styled body. I do not remember who did the styling, and my books
are elsewhere, but it was clean conventional Italian Spider styling of
the period, probably closer in style to the very handsome Pininfarina
Fiat 1200/Fiat-Osca 1500 Spiders than to the Giulietta and definitely
nicer, to my eyes, than the British Sprite.

 Frank Formeister, active on the digest at one time but apparently
lurking or missing more recently, has or had a thoroughly warmed-over
Alfa 1750 engine and box in a bug-eye Sprite which weighed in at 1490
pounds with 50-50 weight distribution, better weight distribution than
any 105/115 that I know of and considerably lighter too, and I can't help
thinking what a sweet bomb a Formeisterized Innocenti Sprite would be,
perhaps even with the seriously oversquare 1300 from the Giulietta Nuova.
Like many conversions the chassis might be not really up to the engine,
but it could be fun if treated with reason

 I will not swear to it but I have a strong impression that Innocenti
also built under license a version of the relatively lovely Pininfarina
styled Big Mini which BMC built as the MG 1100 and also in badge
engineered Austin, Morris, Wolesley, Vandenplas and Kitchensink versions.
I had, and greatly enjoyed while it lasted, an MG 1100. The shared
lubrication system with gearbox in oil pan caused failed transmission
bushings (perhaps caused by my trailer towing habits) to get pumped
through the main and rod bearings, although it was a broken piston,
perhaps caused partially by the godawful piston speeds, which later
definitively killed that engine. I had at the same time my first Alfa, a
101 Spider, and as I was just not quite yet grown out of old
engine-swapping habits I seriously considered stuffing a Giulietta power
train into the 1100, but my relatively sensible wife prevailed and we
bought a new Giulia Super instead. Thus ended my sixteen years of British
car ownership and began thirty five with Alfas, which I have seldom
regretted.

 Off-topic, there is a poignant history to the Innocenti name. Many
Italian cities have or had handsome Renaissance buildings, often with
beautiful dellaRobbia terracottas of the Madonna and Child in the
spandrels of their street arcades, called Ospedale degli Innocenti. They
were foundling homes; abandoned newborn babies found still alive in the
streets at dawn were taken to the hospice for the innocents, and those
that survived to adolescence were discharged with Innocenti as their
surname. The past was not always an idyllic world.

 Also off topic, I recently switched from Microsoft Outlook to
earthlinks native mail program and have since been coming up with
squares in place of some punctuations. I am bugging earthlink and hoping
for a cure. Until we get one I apologize for the peculiars.

 John H.

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