In a sort of peninsula surrounded by railways in Turin, there’s one of the most important sites that witness the role of Turin as “Italian Motown”. There were not only mass producers such as FIAT and Lancia, but also coachbuilders like Bertone and Pininfarina. Role of these companies, somewhat almost disappeared in the contemporary automotive business, was to design and sometimes produce special cars for mass carmakers that didn’t have enough know-how to do something different than “commuting machines”. Ghia was one of these: it was founded in 1918 by Giacinto Ghia and gained a lot of fame manufacturing aluminium-bodied cars. After the war, in 1958, the company built a new factory near Corso Dante in the district of Crocetta: here some of the most beautiful cars of the entire car history were built.
Led by designers Felice Mario Boano and, since 1953, Luigi Segre, Ghia designed and produced cars not only for domestic brands like FIAT and Ferrari, but also for foreign makers: models like the Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia and Volvo P1800, which have today high value among collectors, were designed by Ghia.
To improve the manufacturing operation, Segre and lawyer Arrigo Olivetti founded in 1960 OSI (Officina Stampaggi Industriali – Industrial Stamping Work), where an assembly line for small productions was created: most important customer was FIAT, which commissioned to Ghia the design of the wagon versions (called Giardinetta) of some models like the 1300 and 1500. OSI was responsible for the production. Other models produced here were the sporty FIAT 2300 S Coupé and Ford 20 M TS OSI.
The relationship with Ford was so strong and successful (the Anglia Torino was designed and built by OSI), that the Dearborn company used for many years the Ghia name and logo for the top trim level of its cars. The business was so good that the company took over an old cannon factory (not visible in the draw) in 1959 and created a further assembly line. Car production ceased at OSI in 1968 (the cooperation with Ghia ended in 1963 after the death of Luigi Segre), but the company continued to produce industrial stampings and equipments. Today the area, abandoned for many years, is experiencing a drastic redevelopment which includes the almost total demolition (only some parts of the factories will be preserved), but at the time of the writing the buildings are still in their original conditions.
Where: Turin, I 45° 2’59.88″N 7°40’9.35″E
