Intermeccanica (formally Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica) was founded in Turin, Italy, in 1959. Later the company moved their headquarters to California (USA). Since 1981 it has been based in Vancouver (Canada).

Its first project was speed equipment kits for Renault, Simca, Peugeot, and DKW. Kits consisted of dual throat carburetors, intake manifolds, high-performance cams and oil filters. :ater they started to build cars. At first the Italia was named the Torino but Ford already had a model in their portfolio with the same name.

The second model was the Italia, a beautiful two-person convertible. Those cars had a big 5.7 liter V8 engine from Ford under the hood. The great design came from Franco Scaglione. About 500 of the Italia were made between 1966 and 1970 . For the first three years the model was only available as a convertible, after that they were also sold as a coupé.