Mival,1960s, Delfino

Mival “Delfino”, 1960s

At the Museo Nicolis there is a red Acqua scooter – Delfino – Mival, with a 30cc 2-stroke jet engine, produced in the 1960s. It could tow a person in sea or lake water. It was driven with a lever accelerator. It could be started thanks to a crank load.

It was made by MI-VAL, a Brescia motorcycle manufacturer active from 1950 to 1968. Acronym for Minganti-Valtrompia, it was founded in 1950 with headquarters in Gardone Val Trompia by a group of entrepreneurs composed of Pier Giuseppe Beretta, Giuseppe Benelli and Guglielmo Castelbarco Albani led by Ettore Minganti. The aim was to put on the market cheap means of transport in line with the post-war recovery. These were two-stroke engine motorcycles inspired by the German DKW, they had to be cheap and durable. Minganti, always inspired by German production, ventures into the creation of light three-wheelers and microcars. In 1953, he presented the “Mivalino” at the XXXI Motosalone in Milan in 1953, built under license from Messerschmitt, of which a 1956 model is exhibited at the  Museo Nicolis. With the advent of small cars and the death of Minganti, Fabbrica d’Armi Pietro Beretta acquired Mi-Val which became Metalmeccanica Italiana-Valtrompia as it converted, precisely, to the production of tools.

Thanks to the inventiveness of the Gardone designers, this means of transport for moving in water was also created: the “Delfino”. A real jewel, a water kart or a vessel powered by a two-stroke engine which, thanks to the thrust imposed on the water, allows you to move in the sea or lake without swimming, even at 12 mph and without the risk of a rotating propeller. An ingenious vehicle, which if it accidentally slips out of the driver’s hand, starts to spin in circles, thus remaining easily reachable. The starter was a crank, which loaded a spring on the flywheel that once released generated the impulse to start the single-cylinder. The “Delfino” was an ingenious object for those who went diving, being able to carry oxygen tanks with them, a tool for sea rescue and for a thousand other possible uses in bodies of water. It is too bad that the 10% mixture fueling generated the release of unburned oil and other waste products that made the vehicle polluting. Despite this, the project was truly ingenious, so much so that “Mi-Val” sold the license to Canada, where the “Delfino” was produced for a few years and then definitively disappeared from the commercial scene.
Source: Monte Club Vizzolo