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1927 Diatto Tipo 20A Tourer
Registration no. BF 6409
Chassis no. 20308
Engine no. 20304
Footnotes
- Originally a carriage maker, the Italian Diatto company later turned to railway engineering before abandoning its traditional businesses to become a motor manufacturer, setting up a new enterprise in 1905 in collaboration with Adolphe Clément. Its first cars were licensed Clément-Bayard designs, known as ‘Diatto- Cléments’. After Clément’s departure in 1909 the firm began making cars of its own design, the most significant and successful being the 12/15hp Tipo Unico, which formed the mainstay of production up to WWI. Diatto added a light car to its range after the war but found itself unable to compete with FIAT in that market sector and turned to the production of a high-quality sporting car: the Tipo Diatto’s most famous model, the Giuseppe Coda-designed Tipo20 was powered by a 2.0-litre overhead-camshaft four producing 40bhp. Breathed on by the Maserati brothers, racing versions produced up to 70 horsepower. A short-wheelbase Tipo 20S sports model followed, the original touring version being re-designated Tipo 20A. After a succession of financial upheavals and reorganisations, Diatto quit car production in 1927, though the reconstituted company continued with other forms of manufacturing. In 2007 CarrozzeriaZagato revived the name for a concept car displayed at the 2007 Geneva Motor: the Diatto Ottovù Zagato.This Diatto Tipo 20A was sold new in rolling chassis form to Australia and bodied by Coffey Brothers in Melbourne where, reputedly, it was first owned by the notorious gangster, Joseph ‘Squizzy’ Taylor. Restored in Australia in the 1980s, the car was purchased by the current vendor in 2013 and brought to the UK. Over the last ten months the Diatto has undergone a most thorough re-commissioning and is presented in generally very good condition, running well. Works carried out include overhauling the magneto (bill on file); rebuilding the water pump; overhauling the camshaft drive; fitting new valve springs and grinding in the valves; fitting a new solid copper cylinder head gasket; replacing and re-covering the floorboards; removing a dickey seat modification at the rear; fitting new rear wings; re-covering the running boards; nickel plating the brightwork; stripping and rebuilding the carburettor; making a new dashboard centre and sides; fitting correct Jaeger instruments; making new aluminium bonnet sills; and fitting discreet LED indicators. The vendor also rectified numerous minor mechanical defects (see detailed list on file). Spare parts with the car include a Magnetti Marelli magneto, half shaft, fuel gauge, clutch aligning tool, exhaust cut-out, ignition cable tube, head gaskets (x2), a box of miscellaneous magneto spares and a set of side screens, etc. The toolbox contains a hub extractor, spare spark plugs, carburettor float, universal joint components, shackles, a box of lightbulbs, and many and various small parts. Accompanying documentation consists of an old Australian logbook, sundry restoration invoices and a V5C registration document.
Lancia Lobello
XG-31-71