Drin Drin 1947

Testadoro Drin-Drin - 1947

The first evolution

 History and Context

Also in 1947, after the experimental "Sport", Giusti built a second "barchetta" with the same technical base as the first. The car's distinctive name seems to be due to the nickname of Giusti's wife, Andreina. As mentioned, even on this car the original Fiat 500 "Topolino" engine equipped with the "Testadoro" still in the primordial 660cc version. The chassis was also that of the popular Turin car, although always modified, lowered and stiffened. This was the last testadoro not to be equipped with a Gilco tubular frame. According to the chronicles of the time, the Drin Drin won a race in Montlhéry (France) and obtained numerous good placings.

Style

This time the design of the car was entrusted to the expert hands of Zagato, who designed a car characterized by extreme clean lines. Although it may seem too simple in the definition of volumes, the car achieves a sober balance between aesthetics and function, with many "full" and few and well-balanced "empty" functional to the entry and exit of the air necessary for cooling the engine. The "Drin-Drin" is the first Testadoro to have the characteristic "hump" behind the driver's head, a decisive "racing" element that will characterize all the cars of the Torinese brand from that moment on. The Drin-Drin is decorated with a charming writing in lowercase italics bearing your name (on the front hood) and, for the first time, by the stylized logo that resembles a lightning bolt that rises upwards, a stylization of the logo that also appears in the advertising of the "plug & play" head for Fiat 500. This is the last Testadoro with a split grille, vaguely in "BMW" style, before the adoption of the unique grilles of the Marinella, first, and Daniela then.
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