What's the origin of 'inter' as a model description?

I've heard several explanations over the years but think most people are guessing at best. I would think that "Inter" is a synonym for "Standard" - a basic version that could be updated to more expensive version often called "Export". I also think that deviding industrial production into two categories "Standard" vs. "Export" was very common in Europe after the war and largely based on that domestic sales were heavily taxed in many countries as the economies needed as much income as possible to recover! Many factories aimed a very basic product for domestic market to cut down taxes and charged much more money on luxury "Export" models.

This very quickly became the accepted way to organize production and occasionally one can still run into products (beverages, filter cigarrets etc.) and I do think that Europa/America is really a continuation of Inter/Export... Best wishes, Kare

 

One on the sources for the Inter designation used by Ferrari was in reference to the International Cup which goes back to I believe the late 1940s as a champiomship series of races for two litre road cars.The proincilple event was the Supercordemagiore[?] which was a long distance race[1000kms] held a Monza each year. The Inter title was used to differentiate a road car from the SC[super corsa] competition and formular race cars. However some of the cars with the I after the model number were built as competition cars. hope this helps. tongascrew

 

Very "inter"esting (sorry). I've often wondered about this myself. I had always assumed (wrongly, apparently) that it meant "interim".

Jack

 

I think that here too "inter" was a synonym for "standard" - Coppa Inter being a race for uniform cars as defined by a set of rules. Best wishes, Kare

 

Agree

 

as far as i know it was the name to commemorate scuderia inter which earned many victories with ferrari 166 S

 

"Inter" is mainly known as designation for the road cars, but this is only partly correct. Already in December 1947 Ferrari issued a sales folder for the competion car generally known as 166 Spyder Corsa under the name "166 Inter". It says
"per la formula internazionale Sport"
"per la formula internazionale Corsa n.2"

A few months earlier the FIA introduced the new race formulas for 1948 onwards. They confirmed the Grand Prix formula (now Formula 1) at 1.5 litre s/c resp. 4.5 litre u/s, and added a newly created Formula 2 with 2 litres. Also introduced was a new sports car 2 litre formula.

The 166 Inter was the ideal car for both series, basically a sports car it could be converted to race car by removing lights and cycle fenders. Interesting that also in Germany various cyclewing sports cars generally had been designated "Intertyp".

About the bodywork the folder only says "carrozzata Spyder". The last "166 Inter SC" left the factory before the first 166 Inter road car (#005S) was built. I have no idea why they adopted the designation of a pure competition car for a road car, possibly it should help to underline the sporting nature. I also have no idea where the designation "Spyder Corsa" comes from, but most probably it was introduced only later to differ the road cars from the original Inters.