Fiat-SPA 36R

The Fiat-SPA 36R, or simply SPA 36R, was a light military truck produced in Italy and acquired in small numbers by the Royal Italian Army. It was born of the army's need to replace the old SPA 25C. In 1933 the Società Piemontese Automobili, a brand controlled by Fiat and specialised in trucks, presented two models: the water-cooled Fiat-SPA 38R and the air-cooled 36R, the latter thought ideal for African theatres and for mountains in winter, where radiator water was scarce or frozen. The army adopted both in 1935, sent them to Libya in 1937 and to Italian East Africa in 1938, where the 36R proved particularly prone to breakdowns, so no further orders followed for it, while the 38R was bought in quantity and used in the Spanish Civil War and on every front of the Second World War. The 36R had the chassis and mechanics of the 38R but a Fiat six-cylinder in-line petrol engine of 4,426 cubic centimetres giving 50 horsepower, cooled by air, which added a little to the empty weight, and a semi-cylindrical top to its radiator grille and bonnet.