Cisitalia 202 SMM 1947 - World Of Classic Cars -

Cisitalia 202 SMM 1947

Following the great success of pre-World War II Italian sports and racing cars like Ferrari and Maserati, other wealthy Italian industrialists with a passion for motor sport yearned to build their own cars.
Piero Dusio was born in Scurzolengo in the province
of Asti. He was an Italian footballer and played for Juventus from 1921 to 1922 but his soccer career was cut short after a knee injury. Dusio went into the textile business, initially manufacturing oilcloth followed by sporting goods, specializing in tennis rackets, bicycles, and clothing and, during the war, military uniforms. He was also a property developer.

Cisitalia 202 SMM 1947

The former football star became a very capable amateur racing driver, contesting the Mille Miglia between 1929 and 1938, during which time he finished sixth in the 1936 Italian Grand Prix driving a Maserati 6C-34 for his own team, Scuderia Torino, and won his class in the 1937 Mille Miglia in a 500cc Siata.
After the war, in 1946, Piero Dusio’s conglomerate, Consorzio Industriale Sportiva Italia, went into the car building business. They opened a factory in Turin and became the first company to build entirely new cars in Italy after the war, beating Fiat and Ferrari by some considerable time.
The company name was shortened for the cars that they produced and Cisitalia was derived as the marque. Dusio enticed Fiat engineers Dante Giocosa and Giovanni Savonuzzi to join him in the fledgling operation. Grand Prix driver Piero Taruffi became racing director, technical consultant, and chief tester.

Cisitalia 202 SMM 1947

Cisitalia’s first cars were based on Fiat mechanical components, and the space frame chassis were arguably the first used in motor racing and production cars, the rigidity providing precise handling and predating the ‘Birdcage’ Maserati by several years.
The first Cisitalias were the single-seater 1,100cc D46s. Seven of these cars were entered in the Coppa Brezzi held in Turin’s Valentino Park in September 1946.
Against some of the greatest racing cars of the day, including Maseratis, Simca-Gordinis, and Enzo Ferrari’s Auto Avio Construzioni (the first Ferrari), Piero Dusio achieved a dream start to his career as a constructor, racing against some of the sport’s best drivers. He won the event in one of his own D46s. Amazingly it was a one-two-three for Cisitalia with Franco Cortese coming second and Louis Chiron finishing third. Raymond Sommer came home fifth whilst the man who would give the company its finest hour, the great Tazio Nuvolari, finished 13th.

Cisitalia 202 SMM 1947

Dusio’s ultimate plan was to produce a Formula 1 car and this was eventually designed by Dr Ferdinand Porsche’s company, the Porsche Büro. Dusio tried to qualify the car in the 1952 Italian Grand Prix, but failed because of engine problems. A company like Porsche might have been able to develop the car into a race-winning proposition but Cisitalia, by then cash-strapped, could not. If the work of Porsche designer Karl Rabe and that of Piero Dusio had been as they had envisioned, the history of Grand Prix motor racing could have been very different.

Cisitalia 202 SMM 1947

Following the D46, the next logical step for Cisitalia was to produce a road-going sports car. The 202 was based on the same basic design as the D46 and used the space frame chassis. The first was bodied by Carrozzeria Colli and the second by Vignale. Most of the 170 or so cars built bore Gran Sport berlinetta coachwork by Pininfarina. The car was introduced to the public at the Villa d’Este Concorsa d’Eleganza at Como in Italy and at the 1947 Paris motor show. The Cisitalia 202 GT was a great success and was considered an aesthetic and technical masterpiece that transformed post-war automotive body design. The Pininfarina design was honoured by New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1951: the museum staged an exhibition on automotive design called ‘Eight Automobiles’, and the Cisitalia was one of the eight.

Cisitalia 202 SMM 1947

Five Cisitalias were entered for the first post-war running of the famous Mille Miglia road race in 1947 and a small talented group at the company composed of Giacosa, Savonuzzi, and Carlo Abarth made several variants of the 202. The 202 MM was named after the Mille Miglia and two of these coupé chassis, numbers 001 and 002, designed by Stabilimenti Farina were built.
A spider version called the SMM was also produced and in the 1947 Mille Miglia in the hands of the great – but by then sick – Tazio Nuvolari, the car, one of the lowest powered in the race, led for nearly the whole distance, finally finishing second and first in class. Cisitalias also finished third and fourth overall. After such a tremendous achievement the Cisitalia SMM became known as the SMM Nuvolari Spider.

Cisitalia 202 SMM 1947

Piero Dusio’s dreams came to an end when, thanks to flamboyant spending, much of which went towards the cost of the stillborn Grand Prix car project, his company went bankrupt. Carlo Abarth started his own automotive empire with the assets of the failed company, and the initial Abarth cars were based on the Cisitalia designs.
Piero Dusio moved to Argentina were he established Automotores Argentinos S.A.I.C. with financial backing from Juan Peron. Dusio died in Buenos Aires in 1975.

Cisitalia 202 SMM 1947

Cisitalia 202 SMM, chassis number 005, was raced extensively by Piero Dusio throughout 1948. He competed in the Mille Miglia of that year with his son as co-driver but the pair failed to finish. After the race the headlamps were faired in to improve the aerodynamics. Dusio left for Argentina in 1949 and the car was sold to Nico Dellepiane, who raced it with considerable success, winning the 1,500cc Championship in 1950. It was then sold to Ernesto Tornquist and won the Championship again in 1951.
The engine was subsequently changed to the 1.4-litre competition Gordini unit that the car retains to this day, at which point the car became known as a 202 SMM Speciale. Tornquist went on to win the Championship in 1952, 1953, 1954, and 1955.

Cisitalia 202 SMM 1947

Colin Crabbe bought the car in 1985 – he found it attached to a Buenos Aires garage wall. It was owned at the time by Tornquist’s mechanic, who was a very old man. Crabbe returned the car to England, where he carried out an extensive restoration before selling it to Abba Kogan.
Piero Dusio’s life, from soccer star to successful racing car driver, to manufacturer of his own sports car, reads like a young boy’s deam. It is, however, a true story and for a brief shining moment Cisitalia were at the top of their game. This car – built for Dusio himself – affords its next keeper a place in the history of Dusio’s dream.