[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Questa storia di potrebbe anche intitolare Nemo propheta in patria. Giusto per ricordare quanto sia difficile farsi apprezzare dai propri concittadini, soprattutto quando si hanno idee che rompono le convenzioni.
In 1984, a small engineering company in Cherasco (Cn), Rayton Fissore, decided to produce a new type of vehicle. In the wake of the good commercial success of pure off-road vehicles such as the Range Rover, Toyota's Land Cruiser and Mitsubishi's Pajero, a simple consideration came to mind: why not produce an off-road vehicle with a more urban and sophisticated body and a luxury car interior?
The company recruited car designer Tom Tjaarda, who had just resigned as director of the Fiat Style Centre. A chassis was created by lowering and shortening that of the Iveco 4×4 WM40-10 (which would later also provide much of the mechanicals). Part of the components were taken from production cars. For the interior, all-leather upholstery, air conditioning, electric windows, a hide-away stereo system, adjustable steering wheel and heated rear window were chosen, all as standard. After months of intense but passionate work, the first examples were produced and marketing began. It was 1985 and the world's first SUV was borneven though nobody called it that back then. The selling price was around 45 million lire (twice as much as a Fiat Croma, in line with the Range Rover).
The market reception was a little cold. Those were the years when cars were at two volumes (utility cars), to three volumes (sedans) or at most small garden (station wagons, bought only by travelling salesmen and gardeners). That big, exaggerated, unspeakable car was not understood. What's more, at Rayton Fissore it wasn't as if they had the money to run advertising campaigns in the press and on TV. Finding the sales network had already been a serious problem, solved by using part of that Iveco.
Yet those who bought it fell madly in love with the car, which made the driver feel like the master of the roadwith a 360-degree elevated view and an opulent interior. From a reliability point of view, the standard was not constant, there were a few examples that were born bad and made their owners suffer, and many examples that were almost perfect (especially those powered by VM turbodiesels), clocking up hundreds of thousands of kilometres and leaving an indelible memory in the minds and hearts of their owners. The vehicle actually must have done quite well if various state administrations ordered a total of 1,500 examples for the police force. And even today, some retired policemen still comb the internet on the hunt for used Magnum specimens, which are often sold at a higher price than they were purchased for.
But back to the bitter fate of the domestic prophets: it must be known that the history of this car at some point also began to unfold on a parallel track, across the Atlantic Ocean. As early as 1989, the Magnum was exported to the USA by a local company, Laforza Automobiles Inc, which found itself in a completely opposite situation. The car, re-engined with the 5-litre petrol V8 from the Ford Mustang, was immediately appreciated by the Americans, both for its design and the luxury of its interior. Trade magazines of the time ('Road & Track' and 'Car and Driver' among others, and you know that the specialised US press is never subtle about Italian cars) expressed flattering judgements on the LaForza (as it was renamed), especially regarding its ease of driving, off-road capabilities, road holding and interior. Production in the USA continues until 2003and the total number of vehicles sold comes to 1,200, which is a good result bearing in mind that it was offered at the top end of the market, the luxury car segment.
Rayton Fissore Magnum
Some design details of the Rayton Fissore Magnum have since been taken up by all of today's SUV manufacturers: the roof profile without drip edges; bumpers painted and incorporated into the design line of the car; large windows; rounded lines; luxurious interiors with plenty of real leather and briarwood; the classic powerdome on the bonnet, that bulge suggesting the presence of a vitaminized engine.
The Magnum car designer, Tom TjaardaWith regard to his creature, he declared that he had wanted to minimise the objective bulk of the vehicle by designing soft, rounded shapes, in contrast to the angular style of the time. A happy intuition that has made the Rayton Fissore a vehicle that has aged well, proving pleasant and well-balanced even today, with quotations for the best used models reaching as high as 15,000 euro.
With such a successful track record, it remains even more incomprehensible how FIAT managed to produce no SUVs for a good 15 years (from the global success of the first Mercedes M to the launch of the 500 X). After BMW, Land Rover, Hyundai, Kia, and just about every manufacturer in the world had proved that drivers really wanted to drive such vehicles.
Sources: www.wikipedia.org[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][mk_button dimension=”outline” corner_style=”full_rounded” size=”medium” icon=”mk-icon-home” url=”/” align=”center” margin_top=”30″ margin_bottom=”0″ margin_right=”0″]Torna alla Home[/mk_button][/vc_column][/vc_row]
