From Isotta Fraschini to Lancia Kappa, classic cars on show in Rome amid history and passion

A 1910 Isotta Fraschini, very fashionable at the time in the United States. A 1919 Lancia Kappa, the Turin-based company's first model after the First World War. An OM 469 sport from 1922, a sports car that distinguished itself in racing, and an Alfa 8C 2300, powerful and very fast, driven by the greatest racers of the time. These are the four jewels on display in Rome, in a new space to admire cars from the past. This is the classic car exhibition of the Mauto, the National Car Museum at the new Aci exhibition space in the Galleria Caracciolo in Via Marsala in Rome, just below the national headquarters of the Automobile Club d'Italia. An exhibition that recounts 90 years of automotive history and brings to the fore the passion for historic cars that involves thousands of enthusiasts.

An exhibition in the making, that of the Galleria Caracciolo, where over the next few months other cars from the past will take turns to allow the public to admire many cars that we are used to seeing only in books or photos. A passion for classic cars that involves thousands of enthusiasts. According to the 2023 report on historic motoring in Italy, the circulating fleet of cars of historic interest is 4.3 million, a fleet worth over 100 billion euro. A cultural, social and economic heritage.

'The Galleria Caracciolo,' explains Angelo Sticchi Damiani, president of ACI, 'is named after Prince Filippo Caracciolo di Castagneto, who was president of the Club d'Italia for over twenty years. It seemed important to us to be able to host some of the most beautiful cars of the Turin Car Museum, of which we are founding members. This is a way of trying to spread the word about historic motoring, giving people the opportunity to see these cars also by passing through this gallery, probably to take the train to Termini station'.

Testimony to the technology that already characterised powerful and fast Italian cars at the time is the Lancia Kappa, the first model from the Turin-based manufacturer after the First World War. 'The Lancia Kappa of 1919, a name that, moreover, was recovered in the 1990s for production cars, is a very prestigious car,' underlines the president of ACI, 'not least because Lancia was, after Isotta Fraschini, the brand that built robust, refined, well-kept cars. Lancia had great merit, because it has always been a car with very advanced technological innovations compared to its competitors'. Power, comfort and the possibility of travelling at a good speed, but above all with a lot of comfort'.

The Isotta Fraschini is the most prestigious car on display. "It was the Rolls Royce of Italian production. It was the car destined for the nobility, for big industrialists, for people who really had a lot of money. Machines with great attention to detail, with mechanics that were certainly advanced, but above all indicative of comfort, convenience and luxury,' recalls Sticchi Damiani.