sep 19, 1947 - 1947 PRIMO Automobili Lusso Liscio

Description:

The '47 Lusso Liscio is Primo's debut car. It took the company almost 9 years to unveil their first model since it was founded in early 1938. As you might have guessed, World War II happened and took the world by storm, delaying the company's progress for a few years.

After the war, Francesco Moretti, Primo's founder, picked up right where he left off and started work on his brainchild. Having no background in anything mechanically related, he wasn't able to take this on by himself. He needed all the help he could get.

Being a Moretti, naturally, he has very deep pockets to reach into. Even despite the war, the Moretti family made sure that their assets and funds were well kept, and Francesco took full advantage of that by hiring in the best talent he could get. The idea? Create real estate on wheels. A luxurious and comfortable ride fit for royalty, no expenses spared.

Following the war, Francesco had become a bit of a airplane enthusiast, and was especially fascinated with the now famous Merlin V12 engine. Therefore, his car should feature a big V12 engine!

After pushing his engineers to the limit, they eventually came up with an engine that was unofficially named "The Reale V12", a 11 liter monster of a engine making 366 horsepower and a mind boggling figure of 777 Nm of torque.

Obviously for this time period, using cross-ply tires, this engine was overkill to say the least. To try to counter the seemingly endless wheelspin, it was fitted with a 2 gear manual gearbox with long gearing. It did mend the problem somewhat, but finesse was still required to prevent rubber burning.

Another issue was brake performance, which was abysmal for this 1.8 ton barge, and crash safety was questionable, especially in a car capable of reaching north of 220 kmh.

And the Lusso was not cheap. Back in 1947 it set you back $5.100. To put that into perspective, in 1947 a median family annual income was around $3.000.

With all those issues, and a steep pricepoint, you might have come to the very reasonable conclusion that Primo's debut car was a total flop. Think again, and don't underestimate the Moretti name.

When people think of Moretti, usually riches and luxury are the first things that come to mind, and the Lusso was true to the spirit. It was expensive, yes, but it was indeed luxurious from top to bottom. The interiour felt like a first class train cabin and was unmatched in it's time. Suspension was very soft and in urban driving, you never left 1st gear, so the ride was seemless.

The Lusso was not mass produced. There were a total of 130 cars ever made and each car was sold before it left the factory. Everyone with the means wanted to buy into the Moretti-made luxury machine and it set the tone for the years to come. A step was made in a direction of becoming a world renowned high-end automaker.

Price at launch in 1947:
$5.100

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