Officine Meccaniche or OM was an Italian car and truck manufacturing company. It was founded in 1899 in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

as Società Anonima Officine Meccaniche to manufacture railway rolling stock and car production began in 1918. It disappeared as such in 1975, subsumed into

Iveco IVECO, an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy commercial vehicles. The name IVECO first appeared in 1975 after a merger o ...

, but still exists as a

forklift A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various c ...

builder.

Origins

The inception of the company resulted from the merger of two companies, Grondona Comi & C and Miani Silvestri & C in 1899. Originally, OM manufactured railway stock. Car production started in 1918, using the plant of the former

Brixia-Zust (Brixia-Züst) Zust (originally Züst) was an Italian car manufacturing company operating from 1905 to 1917. The company was founded by engineer Roberto Züst, an Italian industrialist of Swiss origin, who owned a precision tool manufacturing plant at Intra, ...

, just after OM took over Zust car company of

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

, Northern Italy. The first OM car, Tipo S305, primarily an old Zust model, appeared in 1918 with a four-cylinder side-valve in-line engine.

The OM cars era

Further models were Tipo 465 (with a four) in 1919, Tipo 467 () and Tipo 469 () in 1921. 1923 saw an all new model, Tipo 665 'Superba' with a six-cylinder engine. This model was extremely successful in racing, winning top five positions in the class in 1925 and 1926 at the

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

but its greatest achievement was the victory in the first

Mille Miglia The Mille Miglia (, ''Thousand Miles'') was an open-road, motorsport endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi, which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before World ...

race in 1927 where

Ferdinando Minoia Ferdinando "Nando" Minoia (2 June 1884 – 28 June 1940) was an Italian racing driver with an exceptionally long, distinguished and varied career. In 1907, he won the Coppa Florio driving an Isotta Fraschini. In 1923, he drove the world’s ...

and

Giuseppe Morandi Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph, from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף. It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it. The feminine form of the name is Giusep ...

led home an O.M. '123' at an average speed of for 21 hours 4 minutes 48 seconds. Some cars were equipped with Roots superchargers. In 1925 OM began to build trucks and buses, using licensed Swiss Saurer engines and other mechanical components. Ties with Saurer persisted through all of OM's history.

Fiat take-over and post-war years

OM was taken over by the

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

Group in 1938 and in the following year passenger car production ceased, and OM became a commercial vehicle and train part manufacturer. Main new product in the WWII post-war era was the ''Leoncino'' (1950) a light truck in the range, which was an immediate success. It became the forefather of several series of heavier but structurally similar models, namely ''Tigrotto'', ''Tigre'', ''Lupetto'', ''Cerbiatto'' and ''Daino'', launched between 1957 and 1964. Bus chassis versions of several of these models were also available. In the 60s and 70s the light and medium-weight OM truck ranges were sold in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

as Saurer-OM or Berna-OM, in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Steyr Steyr (; Central Bavarian: ''Steia'') is a statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3rd l ...

-OM, in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Unic Unic was a French manufacturer founded in 1905, and active as an automobile producer until July 1938. After this the company continued to produce commercial vehicles, retaining its independence for a further fourteen years before being purcha ...

-OM, and in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Büssing Büssing AG was a German bus and truck manufacturer, established in 1903 by Heinrich Büssing (1843–1929) in Braunschweig. It quickly evolved to one of the largest European producers, whose utility vehicles with the Brunswick Lion emblem were w ...

-OM.

The end of OM

In 1968 OM was definitively merged into the Fiat Group as a brand belonging to the Commercial Vehicles division, which also included Fiat and

. In 1975 it was absorbed (as part of the Fiat Group) into

IVECO IVECO, an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy commercial vehicles. The name IVECO first appeared in 1975 after a merger o ...

and the OM brand disappeared from the truck and bus markets, although it still survives as an independent

manufacturer.

Products

FS ALn 772 The ALn 772 (''Automotrice Leggera a nafta'', Light Diesel motor car) series are a group of Diesel railcars built for the Italian public railway company Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) between the 1930s and the 1950s. As the first project in Italy to a ...

OM X-series The OM X-series is a light to medium-duty truck model produced by the Italian manufacturer OM in 1972. While being superficially similar to the OM Lupetto, Leoncino, Daino, and Tigrotto, it was an all-new design - except for using the same doors ...

External links