Tipo3 or Not Tipo3...
that is the question!


     In February, 2015, we became aware that a seemingly-identical car, *01858*, had been sold by Fantasy Junction in Emeryville, California. The existence of that car casts a shadow over the story below, but anything is possible. We hope to find out more at some point in the future.
     For a long time we have carried *01883* in the PhotoBase as a "hybrid" Tipo3, thinking that some enterprising craftsman had grafted a Primavera greenhouse onto a regular Tipo3 that must have sustained terminal roof damage at some point in its life. We may have been mistaken.

     In January of 2013, I received an email message from the current owner of *01883* stating that we had it all wrong. Rather than being a simple "hybrid", *01883* was actually a purpose-built one-off created by none other than Mario Boano himself, possibly to try out an alternative to the normal Touring CSS coupé.

     As you can see from the comparison at top right, there may be some truth to this claim. The greenhouse on *01883* clearly is NOT that of a Primavera, although there are great similarities.

     Another possible clue to a Boano origin of the roof modification is seen in the taillights, which appear to be exactly the same as those of Boano's Peron-style coupe on chassis # *01846*, in the middle photo. However, these taillights are a later modification. The original configuration is shown below, in this column.

     How old is this roof modification? We don't know for sure, but Peter Marshall was able to locate a grainy, 1978 B&W photo of what appears to be *01883*, so there's obviously some antiquity to the roofline.

     For now, the matter rests in the hands of the owner, Peter Marshall and Hans-Jürgen Döhren for further investigation and, hopefully, ultimate resolution.



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