Ermini is back!
03/05/2014
The name will mean nothing to most people: Ermini. But fans of Italian sports cars will raise their eyebrows and nod knowingly. Pasquale Ermini built extremely competitive sports cars in the fifties, which achieved class victories at the Targa Florio. They were mostly equipped with small-volume four-cylinder engines and designed according to the motto "light is better".
The Ermini 357 Sport, for example, had the typical barchetta shape of the time, i.e. it was an open sports car with a low windshield. The engines were small works of art; the 1100, for example, produced 92 hp at 7100 rpm and was made of aluminum. The design was based on the successful Ferrari sports cars of the time, such as the 750 Monza. This was probably also due to the fact that the famous coachbuilder Scaglietti worked on both Ferrari and Ermini.
The Ermini company was closed in 1962, but has now been resurrected. Although it is now called "Ermini Automobili Italia Srl" and no longer "Officine Ermini", the old spirit is still present in the latest design, which the Ermini people are proud to present to the general public for the first time at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, together with the ancestor Ermini 357 Sport from 1955.
The 686, or as it sounds much better "seiottosei", is an open-top sports car with a fighting weight of just 700 kg, powered by a refined Renault Megane Cup engine with around 320 hp, which is mounted midships. Shifting is via a sequential 6-speed gearbox and everything about the new car is reminiscent of a racing car, which is hardly surprising as the designers are from Osella.
Ermini plans to build just nine road-legal cars and then design the next type. The tradition lives on here too, as Pasquale Ermini also had a very modest output. And that is why the cars are unknown to most people, even though they were probably better priced than the new 686 compared to a Fiat 1100 at the time than a current Fiat Bravo.
In Geneva, everyone can decide for themselves whether the new or the old Ermini is closer to their heart. We have already published our detailed report on the preservation of tradition at this year's motor show .
