Originally Posted by
bikingshearer
The best part about the Cinelli Super Corsa moniker is that it only exists because of a decal supplier's typo. Up until (I think) the early to mid-70s, Cinelli always called the model "Speciale Corsa." Somewhere along the line, they ordered new decals. They wanted "Speciale Corsa." The printer gave them "Super Corsa." I am not sure if this happened before or after Cino sold the company to the Columbos (somewhere around 1978), but it appears that whoever was in charge said "what the heck" and used them. Hence the names "Speciale Corsa" and "Super Corsa" became interchangeable. "Super Corsa" eventualy won out. It probably did not help that, up until the 1960s sometime, the sticker that went on the frames said "Mod. S.C.", meaning "Super Corsa" was a reasonable guess at the model name for the non-cognoscenti.
Actually, the opposite is true, "Speciale" was the "mistake". The 1963 and 1973 Cinelli catalogs called it the Super Corsa. Also around 1963, the bike started to appear with the Speciale Corsa decal, up until about 1970 when they went "back" to Super Corsa. Personally, I don't buy that 7 years was an "error".
Also, prior to Cino's involvement, when Giotto owned Cinelli, he sold a Speciale Corsa frame. Masi and Bianchi also used "Special" in their bike names. Not as common as Super, but still pretty common.