The story
19th century
In 1835 Guglielmo Diatto, a 30-year-old wheelwright from Carmagnola, founded a workshop on the banks of the river Po in Turin for the manufacture and repair of carriage wheels. The business developed into building carriages for nobility and Diatto Manifattura di Carrozze (Carriage Manufacture) became a successful industrial concern.
In 1838 Guglielmo Diatto was awarded his first patent for a 'perfected wheel'. The patent is held at the 'National Museum of Automobiles' in Turin.
In 1874 the founder’s sons, Giovanni and Battista, began building luxury railway carriages for Compagnie des Wagons Lits et des Grands Express Europeens of Paris who ran the Orient Express, the Nord Express, the Sud Express and the Transsibérien across Russia.
Diatto-Clément
In 1905 the grandsons of the founder, Vittorio and Pietro Diatto, believed that motor-vehicle production represented the future for the 'carriage market'. On 12 April 1905, they founded the Società Diatto-A. Clement in partnership with the French company Clément-Bayard, owned by Adolphe Clément-Bayard of Paris. Diatto-Clément had a workforce of 500 (Note: Fiat had 776) and produced cars with 4 and 6 cylinder engines.
The company achieved significant sporting success from the outset. In 1906 it won the Herkomer Competition in Germany against 134 competitors (1800 km from Frankfurt to Innsbruk); the Lugano-San Gottardo (speed trial over 7 hours through the mountain passes) in Switzerland; and the Italian Gold Cup, defeating 48 competitors over 4000 km in 11 daily stages across Italy.
It also won the 1907 Cannes Cup, for fuel economy and the 1908 Saint Petersburg-Moscow 700 km race.
Autocostruzioni Diatto
In 1909 the Diatto brothers bought out Adolphe Clément-Bayard and renamed the company 'Autocostruzioni Diatto'. The new company continued with its sporting reputation and traded on the slogan: Queen of lightweight vehicles, fast, comfortable, elegant.
The company developed a worldwide sales and support network, with vehicles being exported to:
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In the year 1911, 100 automobiles were manufactured.
From 1912 onwards Diatto expanded rapidly, becoming one of the top Italian industrial groups. In 1915, it acquired both the Scacchi factory in Chivasso, in which the workforce of 100 built five cars per month, and the 'Vetture Automobili Leggere Torino' (V.A.L.T.) factory.de:Vetture Automobili Leggere Torino It then consolidated both the workforces and plant in the new factory in 'Via Frejus' (Turin) where they were able to produce over 40 units a month.
Gnome et Rhône
Diatto acquired a controlling share of the leading aviation engine manufacturer Gnome et Rhône from 'Weiter and Waugham'. Gnome manufactured around 200 rotary aviation engines per month. Under Diatto ownership their technological know-how was also integrated into the motor-vehicles.
The Gnome et Rhone 9 cylinder rotary engine won several prestigious trans-European prizes such as the Mediterranean crossing; the Gordon Bennet Cup; the Reims Meeting; plus the Raids of Friedrichshafen, Düsseldorf, Cuxhaven, Zeebrugge, and Dunkerque.
The build-up to World War 1 lead to orders for 5,000 aviation engines for Italy, Russia, France and United Kingdom.
1920s
After the First World War they added 8 cylinder supercharged engines with aluminium pistons and 4 valves per cylinder, up to 6,000 cc.
1930s, 1940s, 1950s
During year 1932 the company changed ownership and limited production only to spare parts for cars already produced, which was then ceased in 1955
From Wikipedia’s article on Diatto, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4