Vittorio Millo, director of the Lucca factory of the Andrea Croce spinning mills of Genoa (which would later become Cotonificio Piaggione S.A.), developed a motor-driven tricycle around 1896. Although this ended up being destroyed, in 1902 he built a vehicle that would then be tested with satisfactory results. Alessandro Minutoli had also worked on the construction so the two engineers decided to set up the Società Minutoli-Millo & C in Lucca in 1903.
This traditional looking vehicle fitted a 2,413 cc (80 x 120 mm) 4-cylinder twin-block engine able to deliver about 8-10 hp at 1000 rpm. Other features were the intake valve that opened by vacuum while the exhaust valve was controlled, the low tension magneto ignition, the leather cone clutch, the 3-speed gearbox plus reverse and the chain drive.
Technically the Minutoli-Millo was by no means on the cutting edge but it would have found a market if the death of Vittorio Millo in the same year as the setting up of the company had not put paid to the venture.
The car in the Museum is therefore the only example built. It was donated to the newly constituted Car Museum in 1935 by the Cotonificio Piaggione in whose factory it had always remained since the death of Millo.