The De Tomaso hot hatch you never knew existed: 1974-1982 Innocenti Mini

De Tomaso is one of those carmakers that is legendary, but doesn't get talked about much (but that has changed thanks to the P72).  But did you know De Tomaso actually made a hot hatch once?  Yes indeed, it did.  That hot hatch was the Innocenti Mini, made from 1974 to 1982.  Thing was, though, it wasn't all De Tomaso's doing.  Bertone helped out with the styling, naturally.  The finished product was quite good looking, too....But before we get into the little details, lets take a moment to learn some history about the Innocenti company.

       Innocenti was founded in 1947, originally making motor scooters, but then moving on to produce cars in 1961, mostly Minis and Austin Healeys, but all with slightly different styling from the original car thanks to Italian coach-building firm Bertone.  The British Motor Corporation bought out Innocenti in 1972, but went bankrupt three years later, and the Innocenti company was sold to Alejandro De Tomaso. 

De Tomaso was impressed with the performance of the Innocenti Mini, but he wanted more.  So he bumped the power up from 65hp to 71hp, gave the Mini new custom parts, let Bertone slightly tweak the design of the car, and gave it new wheels.  In 1976, the car was revealed to the public, and in 1977 production began.  Production of the Mini kept on until 1982, and in 1983 it was overhauled with Daihatsu parts and less power, due to the expiration of the license from British Leyland.

Well, the Mini wasn't made in large numbers, and wasn't extremely powerful either, but we need cars like this.  Small, obscure, and sometime even cute cars like this that pop up at random on the web is what makes our day.