With the collapse of the American market, and the consequent closure of Isotta Fraschini Automobili, Castagna loses his best market, as well as the chassis that he most likes to make.
It is the first sign that times are changing, and with them, the type of person and customers’ interest in a certain type of motorcar.
In the pre-war years, Castagna builds official vehicles for Pope Pious XI, for the Savoy family and members of the establishment of the time, based on Fiat 2800 and Lancia Astura chassis.
The concept of custom-built vehicles is applied to cheaper chassis and mechanics, producing vehicles with an unaltered appeal, no longer only as official vehicles, but also for recreational purposes.
Ercole’s three sons also take part in these changes, having just come into the company after attending the prestigious Swiss college of Neuchatel. Each has a different task, based on his specific aptitude: Carlo takes care of the sales aspects and will later be appointed as manager of the business, while Cipriano and Savinio respectively deal with production and administration.
Unfortunately the motoring Milan is no longer what it used to be. Of all the motor manufacturers that made Italian motoring history, only Alfa Romeo and Bianchi still exist and there is an attempted revival of Isotta Fraschini.
Custom-built vehicle production is a symbol of a distant past, and a firm such as Castagna no longer has a reason for being. In 1954 the “dream factory”, “…that gives elegance to speed”, as defined by Gabriele D’Annunzio, and survivor of the bombings in 1942, does not survive the changing times.

Years later the film world takes the surviving specimens on loan: Billy Wilder chooses the magnificent Coupé de Ville based on the Isotta Fraschini chassis, a symbol of times past, as depicted in “Sunset Boulevard”, while the bright ivory of the Torpedo Sport 8 A SS represents James Dean’s restlessness in “Giant”.