Professor Enrico Bernardi from Verona was one of the greatest pioneers of the automobile, and to him we owe important inventions and patents, including his first patent for a petrol engine and its application to a three-wheeler, the first vehicle to circulate on the Italian roads. He began studying internal combustion engines as early as 1876 and in 1882 built the Pia engine (named after his daughter) which, applied to a sewing machine, was presented at the 1884 National Exhibition in Turin. In the same year, he applied the Pia engine to his son’s toy tricycle, which he used on the streets of Quinzano in Verona. Later, the same engine was used to power a three-wheeled car. The 3½ HP was his first three-wheeled car.