The baby Ferrari from Turin
05/15/2013
No one is too small to be a Ferrari driver. At least that was the thinking of the company that offered the "Bimbo Racer 12", a mini Ferrari, in the 1950s. According to the sales brochure, the car was designed for four to ten-year-olds - there was room for two people in the Barchetta. And it offered everything that children would dream of at such a young age, i.e. real tires, real brakes, working lights, a gearshift and an accelerator pedal. It even had an Italian sports car horn.
The 12-volt motor produced 125 watts at 1,000 rpm and was powered by a normal car battery. The sleek sports car is said to have been 7 miles (or 11 km) per hour fast. The range was 35 miles or around 50 kilometers, which was enough for the youngsters to drive for five to six hours without interruption.
The "Bimbo Racer 12" was marketed by the company "Ferrari, Inc" in San Francisco.
"Look Daddy ... it's just like a Big People's Car!" was written on the brochure, meaning something like: "Look Daddy ... the car looks just like the grown-ups' cars" ... and so it should, because the salespeople claimed that the design came from Michelotti, who had probably actually drawn the model. Incidentally, the Mini Ferrari was built by hand in Turin.
We have of course stored the original brochure in the Zwischengas archive. Have fun!
