1957 Fiat 1100 TV coupé Printemps by Vignale

Chassis No. 103E127323115

Few automobiles capture the exuberance of 1950s Italian coach-building like the Fiat 1100 TV Printemps. Designed by Giovanni Michelotti and built by Carrozzeria Vignale, it debuted at the Pincio Concours d'Elegance in Rome in the autumn of 1956. Its lines shared clear kinship with a Michelotti prototype for Ghia and with the Bill Frick Special GT Coupe, the Cadillac V8 powered grand tourer Vignale built to Michelotti's design for Bill Frick. The Printemps was built in similarly small numbers, its delicate air intakes, wrap-around rear glass, and hand-formed panels adapting Michelotti's flair for proportion onto Fiat's modest 1100 platform.

As noted by a copy of its original Libretto, this example was sold new in Milan and first registered on 26 May 1957, fittingly, in the spring for which it was named. Its libretto records a continuous chain of Italian ownership thereafter, registered in Milan to Ettore Bonfanti in 1971, then passing to Pietro Marelli, to Antonio Faralli of the Pisa area in 1998, and to Agostino Barello of Cagliari in 2005, in whose care it remained until its export. It was later comprehensively restored in full prior to its presentation at the 2006 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, one of the most prestigious stages the Fiat could grace. That work transformed the Coupé into its present two-tone ivory and dark blue livery, paired with a dark blue leather interior true to Vignale's original intent. It then remained in Italy until 2022, when it left the country for the first time, exported to Germany to enter the collection of its current owner.

Built in extremely limited numbers, the Printemps ranks among the rarest of Vignale's 1950s output. Beautifully restored and thoroughly documented, this charming Printemps offers a rare chance to acquire one of the most charming and distinctive coach-built Fiats of the postwar era.