New in the archive: the Radio section

The archive has a new section under Accessories: Radio. Five makes and twenty-three sets, from valve radios of the late 1950s to the pull-out pocket set of 1980. Autovox and Voxson came from Rome, Incis from Saronno; then Philips from Eindhoven and Sonora from Puteaux near Paris.

The 500 never had room for a radio – in the R, Fiat left none at all. Each maker found its own way: the Voxson Junior, so the advertising said, fitted into the ashtray slot; on the Vanguard the control unit takes the place of the rear-view mirror and sits on its bracket; and the Sonora AR 5970 of 1970 was not installed at all but stuck to the dashboard with an adhesive disc.

One of them is not even a radio: you push a single into the Philips Auto-Mignon, it does the rest, and the sound comes out of the car radio. Several sets come with their papers: fitting instructions, data sheets, a Voxson advertising leaflet from 1962.

To the Radio section