Vignale Record Sperimentale 1000
The November 1962 Turin Motor Show marked a pivotal moment for Alfredo Vignale. It was his company’s first major appearance since parting ways with the brilliant designer Giovanni Michelotti, whose work had defined many of Vignale’s most striking creations.
Now working independently, Michelotti was no longer shaping Vignale’s vision—so to make a strong impression at Turin, Vignale arrived not only with coachbuilt versions of the Fiat 1300 and 2300, but also with a radically experimental showpiece: the Record Sperimentale 1000.
The roots of this 1962 prototype stretched back to a more famous Vignale-built project from 1957, designed by Michelotti: the extraordinary Abarth 750 Sperimentale “Goccia” (“Teardrop”).
Widely regarded as the precursor to the modern “monovolume” or one-box concept, the Goccia was engineered for extreme aerodynamic efficiency and built on Abarth 750 mechanicals. A few examples were made, and one even competed in the 1957 Mille Miglia.
Five years later, Vignale revisited the teardrop idea—not solely as a record-breaking machine, as suggested, but very likely as a dramatic way to capture attention at Turin.
The car’s form drew directly from aerodynamic studies that idealized the falling water droplet as the most efficient shape. Vignale produced a long, low, and surprisingly wide body with an enormous wraparound windshield and a glass roof that anticipated today’s panoramic sunroofs.
The headlights sat behind smooth Plexiglas covers, the front bumpers were shaped like bullets, and the sharply truncated rear end followed Kamm-back principles. Numerous ducts fed cooling air to the rear-mounted engine.
The two-seat cabin embraced the jet-age aesthetic. Three instruments were set into a wooden dashboard housed in a deep pod stretching forward to the base of the windshield. The sculpted seats featured unusual wraparound “grab-handle” contours, and the passenger side included an aircraft-inspired headrest. A spare wheel was mounted behind the seats.
At its Turin debut in 1962, the Record Sperimentale 1000 wore conventional wheel openings, but by the time it appeared at Geneva in March 1963, it had been modified with fully faired-in wheels covered by spats—presumably the result of ongoing aerodynamic refinement. Vignale claimed that the car achieved a drag coefficient of just 0.25.
Like its 1957 predecessor, the new Sperimentale was built on the Fiat 600D platform, retaining its suspension and rear-engine layout. The engine was enlarged from 767cc to 1.0 liter by Turin tuner ZM, the workshop of Edoardo Zen, Giannini’s representative in the city and later co-founder of OTAS with Franco Giannini.
Although the car’s name suggested it was destined for record attempts, no evidence has emerged to show that any such trials ever took place.
