Boneschi

Introduce

Est. 1919

The Carrozzeria Boneschi S.r.l. was founded at the end of the First World War with headquarters in Cambiago (MI). The founder, Giovanni Boneschi, first directed his field of action towards some prestigious cars of that time, but without much luck. It was only in 1922, with the launch of the then innovative Lancia Lambda, that things began to change. Enrico Minetti, Lancia dealer for Milan and the surrounding area, met Boneschi and informed him of his project: offer his customers at that time products that were different from the usual, characterized by luxury and customized bodies. Boneschi was interested and soon began the production of a limited series of Lancia Lambda with bodywork by the Milanese designer. After a small interlude in which Boneschi also worked for the newborn Citroën Italiana, from 1924 to 1926, then returning to take care of the Lancia cars. It was at that time that Boneschi made some of his happiest interpretations, based on the Lancia Dilambda, Astura and Aprilia models. The years immediately before the outbreak of the Second World War saw Boneschip also interested in a collaboration with Alfa Romeo. This was the period in which the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 was customized by the Milanese coachbuilder. During the war the activity was suspended, also because of the damage due to bombing. Once the conflict ended, the plant was rebuild and the activity resumed with a new interpretation based on the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500, which became a representative car for some political personalities of the time. Shortly after, in 1953, it was the turn of the Alfa Romeo 1900, reviewed by Boneschi and produced in two units. In the same year a lucky interpretation based on the Lancia Aurelia B53 followed. In 1957 saw Boneschi once again take care of an Alfa Romeo, a Giulietta recharged in a brand new giardinetta dress. In 1960 still an Alfa, this time a 2600, proposed both as a coupe and as a convertible. In 1962, a beautiful Lancia Flaminia Spider was created in collaboration with Rodolfo Bonetto. But at this point the activity in the automotive sector became scarce, due to the less and less sustained demand. On the other hand, however, the request for industrial bodywork, buses and trucks became more pressing. We are at this point in the seventies: the Milanese company, reconverted to the industrial bodyshops, proposed some revisions on Iveco and OM basis. In the eighties there was a revisitation based on the Lancia Thema and then the company, which no longer sailed in good waters, was taken over by Carrozzeria Savio, a Turin company that over time had to undergo the same adaptations to industrial purposes that it has known as Boneschi herself. Among the other brands Boneschi has dealt with in the past, it is still worth mentioning Talbot, Rolls-Royce and Fiat. Nowadays Boneschi is still active both in the field of sanitary, commercial and protected installations (its is the VM90, on an IVECO chassis), and in the railway sector. At the end of 2006 the historic production plant, located in Cambiago, was sold by the Savio Group, which had already sold the Turin plant, to date the only production site of the company remains the Germatex plant in Atessa, also about to be sold due to the low workload. Of the Boneschi and the Savio, now only the brand remains, owned by the Savio Group, in turn controlled by a holding company based in Genoa, more devoted to the real estate business than to productive entrepreneurship.