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Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A?


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Saw Sunset Blvd. on TCM for the umpteenth time, still a great movie.

Got me wondering about Norma Desmond's car. I remember seeing a '29 IF at the Imperial Palace collection in Vegas years ago, which was claimed to be the actual car from the movie. However it had been repainted (if I remember correctly) in a two tone brown/tan color at that time and bared little resemblance to the movie car. A current search turned up the info that the original car has been back in Italy at the  Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile since 1972 and still has the Norma Desmond initials painted on the rear doors. A few other stories have popped up here and there with the dubious claims of being the car as well.

I'd like to think it's still out there somewhere with that fancy cane-work body and leopard skin interior intact.

Anyone here know what is actually correct?

i054604.jpg

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It is likely this car was  part of the Pacific Auto Rental Fleet at one point in its life and probably appeared in several movies. If it went back to Italy in 1972, it was not sold at the famous auction that was the final liquidation of Pacific Auto Rental. I was at the auction but don't remember this car.

Great car. Thanks for posting the photo

Edited by motoringicons (see edit history)
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I found this picture of the IF that the museum has. Sorry for the poor resolution.  If it is the car from Sunset Blvd. it looks to be greatly altered, (paint, wheels, interior, etc.) which begs the question: Why then, would anyone bother to put Norma Desmond's initials back on the doors?

351x189-images-stories-collezione-isotta_fraschni_8a_1929.jpg

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Hi all,


Isottas have been an area of research interest, largely due to the fact that they were clothed with some extremely beautiful and ornate coachbuilt bodies yet there wasn't any centralized source of individual car histories that I could find when writing about one of the cars some years ago.

 

The Nethercutt car has been in the collection since the 60s and is different from the brown/tan Landaulet Imperiale that was in the IP collection.

 

GregLaR, it is true that the car in the Turin museum is "THE" actual factual Sunset Boulevard car, used in the movie in 1950 while under the ownership of Pacific Auto Rentals. PAR owned a number of IFs so swapping wheels, stone guards, and headlights was not as difficult as it would be today, and of course cars were painted multiple times in PAR ownership to change the appearance as needed for a new film. And to motoringicons' point, PAR sold a number of cars throughout the 50s/60s as rental demand for prewar cars waned, so the auction inventory was not nearly as substantial as what was in the rental inventory back in its heyday.

 

Cheers,


Jonathan

 

 

 

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