Alfredo Vignale

Click HERE for Italian Vignale information -
'Concept Cars' website by Mario Buonocunto.

  Alfredo Vignale was born in 1913. As a seventeen year old boy he already worked for Stabilimenti Farina, then managed by Giovanni Farina, the older brother of Pinin. He became an allround technician and his first steps in coachbuilding only started at his mid thirties when he traded an old motorbike for a Fiat Topolino. The coach work of the Topolino was so rusty that Alfredo decided to give it an aluminium body. A second body for a Topolino was made and this one even got attention from the English ‘Autocar’ magazine.
In 1948 the Carrozzeria Vignale was founded at Via Cigliano, Turin. It became a well known Italian coachbuilding company. Vignale designed and built cars for Ferrari, Maserati, Lancia and many others.
Alfredo Vignale also started producing cars under his own name. In 1961 he opened a factory near Fiat's Mirafiori factory in Crugliasco/Turin. [The Vignale logo shows the famous church in Turin]. In this factory a whole range of Vignale cars was produced using conveyor-belt production methods.
Mainly using rolling chassis from Fiat the following cars were built:

Vignale 125/Samantha
Vignale 124/Eveline
Vignale 1500
Vignale 850 Spider
Vignale 850 Coupé 2+2
Vignale 850 Coupé 4
Vignale Gamine

In December 1969 Alfredo sold his Carrozzeria Vignale to DeTomaso Automobili. DeTomaso, like the Ghia Studios, already belonged to Ford's Italian product development group. Three days after having sold his company, Alfredo died in a car crash while driving a Maserati...
Carrozzeria Vignale, being a very modern factory, was used to built the mid-engine DeTomaso Pantera sports cars.