Isotta Fraschini Tipo KM: pre-war pacesetter

Inside, that aviation quality includes extensively drilled, 5in-diameter pistons of the finest Derihon steel that tipped the scales at just 32oz. Even the long, polished tubular conrods – that stroked nearly 8in – weighed only 7lb.

This mighty motor, designed by Giuseppe Gaetano Stefanini and Giustino Cattaneo, produced 140bhp at a very relaxed 1800rpm.

So impressed was one fortunate Tipo KM owner that he installed Plexiglas inspection plates into the block, just to admire the internal engineering beauty.

There is a super view from the Isotta Fraschini Tipo KM’s cockpit, with entry from the passenger side, due to the gearlever

Pioneer racing driver Charles Jarrott rated the Tipo KM the “tops of pre-1914 sports cars”, so Iʼm eager to get behind the wheel.

With no driverʼs door – the gearlever obstructs entry – you have to climb up from the passenger side. Thereʼs a ridge divider between the seats, so the support is snug in a high driving position that gives an imposing view of the road.

Thereʼs no need for the Autovac when the engine is already warm, but it helps to manually prime the carburettor needle.

Pump up the fuel-tank pressure, click back the steering column-mounted advance/retard lever, switch the ignition and hit the starter. After a few churns, the engine wakes with a lazy, lumpy burble.

The gearbox is one of the best early changes Iʼve experienced, far better than a vintage Bentley; the four-speed, all-ball-bearing transmission is exquisitely engineered.

With twin differential units on the jackshaft, the Tipo KM has semi-direct drive on first, second and third, with direct on fourth.

The hefty, beautifully made unit sits well back in the chassis, just behind the driverʼs seat, which aids weight distribution.

The gearlever is positioned to the right, just inside the body, and the deep gate has first out and back in a conventional ʻHʼ pattern. The action is a dream as you push in the multiple-disc Hele-Shaw clutch and slice the tall brass lever up and down the gate.

The Isotta Fraschini brand was established in 1900, its last car launched in 1946

Once you have experienced the rewarding transmission, the rest of this fine machine immediately becomes less intimidating.

The steering lightens with speed and the action via the chunky wood-rimmed wheel becomes sharp and well-weighted. Any initial dead feeling is lost, and even when the front wheels slip on gravel itʼs telegraphed to the driver.

The Isotta strides along with an effortless gait as the big ʻfourʼ delivers its deep reserves of torque: this green giant burbles along at 70mph while the huge updraught Zenith carb feeds fuel to the deep bores at 1400rpm.

Torque is relentless, and itʼs easy to imagine those huge pistons working the Isotta up to the ton without much effort.

If you want to be more flamboyant thereʼs an exhaust cut-out on the floor that transforms the muted rumble into a guttural bellow, but the biggest drama comes when you pull up and it emits a Howitzer-like bang.

The Tipo KM was a tour de force of innovative features, including its front brakes: designer Cattaneo had patented internal expanding front drums as early as 1910.

Isotta Fraschini buyers had a choice of two wheelbase lengths and four styles of radiator

Various attempts had been made with front brakes, but lock-up during cornering discouraged development. The exuberant Venetian had the inspired idea of locating the brakeʼs transverse operating shaft through the front beam axle and up inside the kingpin.

As a result, brake application was less sensitive to the axleʼs movement on early, rough roads – even when on full lock. These pioneering drums had five centrifugal fins to keep them cool and were operated by a lever mounted outside the bodywork.

The KM driver has three brakes to help curb its massive performance, including two pedals: one to operate the rear drums and the other working a pair of water-cooled, contracting transmission brakes.

Regardless of the surfeit of methods of operation, however, the most effective way to slow it is simply to lift off the throttle: the engine braking from the 10-litre motor is hugely inspiring.

Just 50 examples of the Isotta Fraschini Tipo KM were produced

The mechanical refinement is enhanced by the enclosed chain drive, which is protected from road dirt by a substantial, oil-tight casing.

Thus the strange noises usually encountered in fast chain-drive machines are silenced, while it also protects the bodywork from the grease thrown off the chain.

The awesome grunt of the Tipo KM was confirmed in 1913, when the American racer RC ʻRayʼ Gilhooley turned up at Indianapolis with a road car.

Fully equipped with windshield, spare tyres and wings, plus four intrepid passengers, Gilhooley wound up the Tipo KM to full speed around the new ʻBrickyardʼ oval to clock a remarkable 1 min 52 secs lap.

On one single circuit, Gilhooley hunkered down and gunned the Italian 10-litre harder to record a stunning 80mph tour. Consider that Jules Gouxʼs Grand Prix Peugeot had set a race average that year of 75.93mph, and the Isottaʼs pace looks even more staggering.

Not surprisingly, such performance came with an exclusive price-tag attached. Before WW1 disrupted production at the impressive Via Francesco Melzi factory in Milan, just 50 Tipo KMs were completed from 1911-1914.

To further personalise the cars, Isotta offered four radiator options to harmonise with a chosen body style. These included a conventional flat front, the ovoid type featured here and two vee-fronted designs.

Two wheelbase lengths were also available – corto at 124in and lungo at 130in.

‘The biggest drama comes when you pull up and it emits a Howitzer-like bang’

The American market was important to the Italian firm, which established a sales office on New Yorkʼs Broadway where the prestigious new model wore a hefty price of $9000.

With a top-of-the-range Cadillac then costing $3250, complete with limousine body, the Tipo KM was a seriously elite motor.

American clientele were offered various choices of body style by selected European coachbuilders and, if they desired, their completed car could be prepared for collection from a city of their choice. New owners could then tour Europe before their car was shipped home.

Among the early customers was Caleb Smith Bragg, a millionaire playboy with a passion for speed in all its forms. As well as motor racing – this dapper Californian was a works driver for Mercer – Bragg also competed in speedboats and was a pioneering aviator.

British Isotta owners included Lord Vernon and Humphrey Cook, the wealthy patron of the ERA team.

Fitted with a spartan body featuring a pointed tail and an extended radiator cowl, this black beauty was quite a car for the 21-year-old Cook to start racing in, and the Isottaʼs impressive speed confounded Brooklandsʼ bookies with several victories in 1914.

ʻIn the 100mph Short Handicap at the Summer Meeting it pulled out a lap at 92.74mph,ʼ recorded Bill Boddy in Brooklands Giants, proving it was a genuine 100mph machine.

Cook also set the pace at hillclimbs and sand sprints, including Saltburn, but sadly this spectacular car failed to reappear after the Armistice and has long since vanished.

The innovative Isotta Fraschini is a rewarding pre-war car to drive

Amazingly, the three surviving Tipo KMs were found in America. Itʼs hard to believe such a significant machine could ever be discarded for scrap, yet in the late ʼ40s not one but two KM Isottas languished in the legendary Long Island salvage yard of Mike Caruso.

Just think of stumbling across a pair of part-stripped Bugatti Veyrons in a junkyard in 2040, and you get an idea of the significance of this discovery.

Caruso, a successful builder and promoter in midget racing, clearly had little regard for preservation, and many of the great cars he dragged back to his Hicksville automotive graveyard were butchered.

Yet had he not saved these unwanted exotics from grand East Coast estates, they would have been scrapped. The Isotta KMs were both towed back from Long Island homes, but frustratingly their former owners were not recorded.

This Isotta Fraschini Tipo KM achieved £787,000 in Bonhams’ Monterey auction in 2008

Throughout WW2 these chain-driven giants had lain in the packed, ramshackle scrapyard, exposed to the elements, together with a supercharged Indy Mercedes, plus a Stutz Bearcat and various Bugattis.

Caruso knew the significance of these Isotta Fraschinis and when Cameron Peck, one of Americaʼs early car collectors, expressed interest, the asking price for the sad wrecks was still a hefty $500 each.

Peck already owned an amazing Tipo KM ʻGunboat roadsterʼ, so he knew what he was after and eventually chiselled the price down to $700 for the pair.

But Caruso made an extra 100 bucks from the use of his crane to lift the cars on to a railroad flatcar.

Both were then sold at a profit to fellow collectors, with Lloyd Partridge taking the oval-radiator-style chassis 5946.

This Isotta Fraschini Tipo KM, as found in the 1940s (left), and Mike Caruso’s well-known scrapyard on Long Island

Although it was missing its bodywork from the scuttle back, the handsome Isotta was remarkably complete.

Partridge carried out a through rebuild and fitted a ʻRaceaboutʼ-style body with bucket seats and a single oval screen. The dramatic Tipo KM then became a familiar entry on various American ʻantique carʼ rallies, clocking up thousands of miles.

The Isotta featured in several renowned, US-based collections before a second body-off restoration was carried out in the 2000s for a German owner.

The mechanical overhaul was entrusted to respected British specialist Eddie Berrisford, and a new three-door, four-seater tourer body was crafted by Classic Restorations in New Zealand, modelled on Carrozzeria Castagnaʼs work for Isotta.

When Bonhams announced the rebuilt KM as a star lot at Monterey in 2008, there was immediate fervour for the Latin leviathan. At Quail Lodge the Tipo KM burbled up the ramp and bidding raced to an impressive £787,000.

Were I the lucky new owner, its body would be restyled with a sportier skiff design and the detailing improved with a set of huge Grebel headlights.

Then the Isotta Fraschini Tipo KM would head for the Pyrénées. Just imagine commanding this majestic machine through Vallée dʼAspe, its long bonnet punching through early morning mist on epic, empty French roads.

Images: James Mann

This was first in our December 2008 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication

Isotta Fraschini: did you know?

• Famous owners included publisher William Randolph Hearst, boxer Jack Dempsey and film stars Clara Bow and Rudolph Valentino. Faded starlet Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) owns a Tipo 8A landaulet in Sunset Boulevard. It had to be towed because Erich von Stroheim, who played her chauffeur, couldn’t drive
• Isotta established agents at fashionable centres for the rich and flamboyant in the ’20s, including Paris, New York, London, Brussels, São Paulo and Buenos Aires
• When the luxury car market collapsed with the Great Depression, Isotta Fraschini was hit hard. It was eventually bought out by Count Caproni de Taliedo, who considered its aircraft manufacture essential. From 1931, production focused on aero engines and trucks
• The last Isotta Fraschini was the Tipo 8C Monterosa, designed by Luigi Rapi and Aurelio Lampredi. Launched in 1946, only six prototypes were built. Its advanced aerodynamic design used a rear 3-litre V8, a platform chassis and independent suspension. An American tester reported it ‘far superior’ to a Tucker. Two survive, one a saloon in Milan’s Science Museum
• The Italian Air Force kept Isotta Fraschini busy in the late 1920s with aero-engine development. Its Asso-series motors powered various Schneider Trophy seaplane racers and the long-distance flights of Italo Balbo. Most spectacular of all was the Asso 1000, a 57-litre W18 fitted to the record-setting Ca90
• During WW1, Isotta made a powerful marine engine for a new torpedo boat developed by the Italian Navy, which inflicted severe losses on the Austro-Hungarian fleet. The Fascist poet Gabriele d’Annunzio was a great enthusiast of Isotta engines and regularly attended flight or boat trials. D’Annunzio’s son even set up Isotta’s New York office, and several surviving Tipo 8As carry special d’Annunzio dashboard plaques

Isotta Fraschini Tipo KM

• Sold/number built 1911-’14/50
• Construction steel ladder chassis, aluminium body on wood frame
• Engine all-iron, ohc 10,618cc ‘four’, four valves per cylinder, cylinders cast in pairs, Zenith updraught carburettor; 140bhp @ 1800rpm
• Transmission four-speed manual with chain drive, RWD
• Suspension: front beam axle rear live axle; semi-elliptic leaf springs f/r
• Brakes drums, plus transmission brake
• Wheelbase 10ft 4-10in (3302-3150mm)
• Top speed 90mph+
• Price new 30,000 lire

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Mick Walsh

Mick Walsh is Classic & Sports Car’s International Editor