The 180hp diesel-engine was a SAME and not purchased somewhere else.
More important SAME and their founders were popular in several groups
of cars like Alfa Romeo because of SPICA as per following text.
The Cassani brothers, and especially Francesco, the engineering mastermind of the company, were firm believers in diesel technology and wanted to extend its use to new sectors. In the late 1930s, an early model of a Cassani engine was used as a replacement for the petrol engine of a Fiat truck used by the military, whilst a second prototype was installed in the speedboat “Este 1”, which won the “Duke of Genoa” offshore race from Venice to Trieste.
Francesco Cassani, 1970
In 1937, moreover, the Cassani brothers had secured an order from the Italian Air Force for three new high speed propulsion units- eight-cylinder barrel engines built to an original design – which, on paper, were expected to be appreciably lighter and therefore suitable for use in aviation. The pre-production engines were built at the “Odero Terni Orlando” workshops in La Spezia, but their installation and use would be prevented in 1940, with Italy entering the Second World War. However, the experimental work enabled Francesco Cassani to reflect on the importance of thermodynamics, and in particular of the injection system, where performance issues were concerned, and in 1936 the brothers set up a company to develop and manufacture injection pumps: “Spica” (acronym for “Società pompe iniezioni Cassani”- Cassani Injection Pumps Company). Significantly, the production of injection pumps for diesel engines at this time was almost entirely in the hands of the German company Bosch, which supplied all the major engine manufacturers. The Cassani brothers were not intimidated, however, and succeeded in breaking an established monopoly with their product. In 1938, Admiral Arturo Ciano and the entrepreneur Luigi Orlando joined Spica. They took over the company and transferred the business to Livorno, keeping the Cassani brothers as privileged collaborators- a position endorsed in 1939 not least when considering the recognition accorded to Francesco Cassani by the National Research Council at the time of the Leonardo da Vinci celebrations, namely a certificate and a silver medal acknowledging the technical value of his research and his many patents in the field of engines for land, sea and air. In 1941, on the death of Luigi Orlando, the company was acquired by the Industrial Reconstruction Institute and put under the control of Alfa Romeo, which entrusted Francesco Cassani with setting up the first Research Centre studying fuel feed systems for internal combustion aircraft engines.
However Cassani, after a few months in this new position, elected to go back to his roots and focus on agricultural mechanization. lt was a decision that led him and his brother Eugenio to set up the Same company in 1943. After the death of Eugenio in 1959, Francesco lived on until 1973; in 1960 he received an Honoris Causa degree from the University of Pisa, faculty of industrial engineering, mechanical section, in recognition of his activity as pioneer, innovator and creator in the field of mechanical engineering. On 2 June 1962 he was named Cavaliere del Lavoro and in March 1965 he received the “Oscar of agriculture”, an award promoted by the International Exhibition of Verona. Then he received the “Mercurio d’oro”, given to companies considered worthy of recognition and, in 1972 the “Seminatore d’Oro”, given by the President of the Republic and dedicated to pioneers and architects of agricultural mechanization worldwide. In 1973, the Museum of Science and Engineering in Milan dedicated a room to Francesco Cassani and his company.
J-P
