Cisitalia 202smm Spyder Nuvolari
Cisitalia was founded in 1946 by Piero Dusio in Turin.
They started by building little single-seat race cars with an eye on Formula One (Dusio entered one F1 race in a Cisitalia but DNQ’d). Instead, the company shifted focus to road-going sports cars and in 1947 the 202 SMM was introduced.
Because it was proper Italian form to send your new sports cars to the circuit, the 202 made its debut at the 1947 Mille Miglia, the first running of the race after the war. Five were entered and one was driven by Tazio Nuvolari, who despite great odds, came home second. After that, the 202 SMM was nicknamed “Spider Nuvolari.” My favorite design feature of this body, by Stabilimenti Farina, are the little fins at the back of the car. The engine is a 60 horsepower 1.1-liter straight-four.
Around 28 ever built
Throughout the 1930s, Turinese texile industrialist Piero Dusio indulged his passion for motorsport. After winning his class on the 1937 Mille Miglia, he began to explore the possibilities of building his own racing cars. In 1946, the D46 single-seater appeared, built using readily-available Fiat mechanicals within a tubular steel space-frame chassis crafted at Cisitalia’s bicycle factory. The lightweight car swept all before it in the hands of Dusio and some of the greatest names of the day, such as Clemente Biondetti, Piero Taruffi, and Raymond Sommer.
Meanwhile, the D46 provided the foundations of Cisitalia’s first sports car, the 202, which was engineered by former Fiat aircraft designer Giovanni Savonuzzi. It was the racing variant, the 202 Spyder, which would write one of the greatest legends in motorsport at the 1947 Mille Miglia, when the maestro himself, Tazio Nuvolari, wrung a mighty performance from the little Cisitalia against the more powerful Alfa Romeo of Biondetti. Although suffering from the respiratory disease that would ultimately claim his life, the “Flying Mantuan” put in one of his most mesmerizing performances at the head of Cisitalia’s three-car works team.
Leading by eight minutes at the Modena checkpoint, only ignition problems caused by the torrential rain denied the maestro a historic victory. Nevertheless, he restarted and pressed on relentlessly to claim 2nd place overall and lead a 2-3-4 result (this particular example car placing 4th overall) for Cisitalia in the world’s most celebrated road race—with the 202 Spyder being dubbed ‘Nuvolari’ in his honour.
(Pictured) This actual car, chassis 002S, was one of the three works entries for the 1947 edition of the Mille Miglia. It was first driven in competition by Dusio himself in May 1947, and it was the only steel prototype Spyder that had some different features, such as shorter doors and other detail work, which made it unique from its sister cars. One month later, Dusio entered chassis 002S into the 1947 Mille Miglia as one of its three works entries, and it was driven by Eugenio Minetti, with Piero Facetti alongside, to an incredible 4th place, in a time of 17 hours and 40 seconds for the 1,133 mile course.
The history file of 002S contains fabulous black-and-white period photos of Minetti and Facetti at the wheel of this works Cisitalia on the roads of the 1947 Mille Miglia. Given the impressive finish, it is no surprise that photos of his actual car can be found in many of the definitive Mille Miglia books.