On Monday, we presented this week’s shifter and asked you to identify the make and model of the vehicle whence it came. We had banked on this week’s shifter being obscure enough to defy identification, but you proved once again that obscurity can’t stump your sleuthing. The shifter belongs to an Italian car that was never sold in the U.S., the Innocenti Minitre SE. The first commenter to correctly identify it was John Christie; even though he was off slightly on the model—he guessed it was the hotter De Tomaso version—he will receive a Save the Manuals button and sticker as a reward.
The Innocenti pictured here is from our March 1985 issue. It was part of a three-way comparison test between cars sold in Canada but not the U.S., which included the Škoda 120GLS and the Hyundai Pony 1400GLS. (Apparently, Canadians dug GLS badges.) The Innocenti was based on the original Mini, and production originally began in the mid-1960s. It was re-bodied in 1974 with squared-off, Bertone-designed duds, and later gained a Daihatsu-sourced three-cylinder engine. Our test car had the three-banger, which put out just 54 horsepower, and a five-speed manual. Top speed was just 83 mph, while the 0–60 run took 15.6 seconds—a figure that actually wasn’t the slowest in the comparo. We never said we regretted not being sent any of these Canadian-market cars.
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