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Acting as Porsche's official representative in Italy, Austrian-born Carlo Abarth joined the fledgling Cisitalia company early in 1947.

This was the result of agreement between Cisitalia founder Piero Dusio and the Porsche family to develop a revolutionary Grand Prix car following Porsche designs. Unfortunately, the project proved too ambitious and despite numerous successes, Cisitalia went bankrupt nearly two years later. As compensation for his services, Abarth received several racing cars in various states of completion when the assets were liquidated.

Among them were two complete examples and a third that was still under construction of the Cisitalia 204A model, which Abarth had helped develop. The type had made its debut in May of 1948 and was the first Cisitalia that showed the Porsche influence. It used an all new steel tubular chassis with the twin-trailing arm and transverse torsion bar front suspension that was so typical of all Porsche-developed cars of the era. Consisting of a live axle with a transverse leaf spring, the rear-end was more conventional. Compared to the existing and already very successful 202 chassis, the Cisitalia 204A was considerably lighter.

What was carried over from the existing Cisitalia line-up was the Fiat-sourced four-cylinder engine. The production-based unit displaced 1,089 cc and featured a single, laterally mounted camshaft that actuated the valves through push-rods. Equipped with Carlo Abarth's tuning kit that included twin Weber carburettors, the performance of the diminutive engine was nevertheless impressive. Running on exotic fuel with 50% alcohol, it could produce as much as 80 bhp. It was mated to a four-speed manual gearbox, which was also of Fiat origins.

To make the most of the very light chassis, aerodynamicist Giovanni Savonuzzi was tasked to design a very efficient body. He was helped by the Porsche-style front end, which allowed for a considerably lower nose. Savonuzzi penned a tightly wrapped body that more closely resembled Cisitalia's single seaters than the 202 sports racer it was due to replace. On the original design, the 204A still featured an all-enveloping nose but this was later replaced by cycle fenders. The bodies were built by Rocco Motto, who specialised in lightweight constructions.

As a Cisitalia 204A, the car was raced only a handful of times. It immediately proved faster than the existing Cisitalia racers, which had handsomely won their class and finished second in the Mille Miglia the year before. Highlight of these few outings was the Giorgio and Alberto Nuvolari Cup in June of 1948 where Adolfo Macchieraldo and Felice Bonetto finished first and second in the new Cisitalia. Sadly the company was already in decline at this time and the development halted during the second part of the year. Fortunately, the cars were given a new lease of life as Cisitalia-Abarths in 1949.

Abarth had also managed to attract some of the best engineers and drivers from the now defunct Cisitalia. As a result the newly formed 'Squadra Carlo Abarth' hit the ground running. Piero Taruffi finished a strong season as Italian Formula 2 sports car champion and Guido Scagliarini won the title in the under 1100 cc class. Now sporting the famous 'scorpion' badge, the cars were raced again in 1950 when the legendary Tazio Nuvolari scored the final victory of his long career in the Palermo-Monte Pellegrino hill climb at the age of 57.

During the season, the open racers were gradually replaced by a fixed-head machine. Confusingly still known as the 204A, it boasted a new platform chassis and a coupe body designed by Giovanni Michelotti and built by Vignale. It is believed that a total of five 204As were built, including the two cars produced in 1948. They serve the distinction of being the last Cisitalias, the first Abarths and the last car raced to victory by the great Tazio Nuvolari.

The Making of a Legendary Racecar

In the days immediately after the Second World War, a group came together in Italy that has been, before or after, unmatched in automobile history. Drivers, engineers, designers, industrialists, they were a dream team such as the world has never known. Their names are legend: Tazio Nuvolari, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, Karl Rabe, Carlo Abarth, Rudolf Hruska, Ferry Porsche, Louise Piëch, journalist Corrado Millanta, Giovanni Savonuzzi, Piero Taruffi, Count Giovanni Lurani, and Piero Dusio.

The catalyst for this gathering was Tazio Nuvolari. Popularly known as “The Flying Mantuan”, he was sometimes called by those awestruck by his car control skills, “Figlio del Diavolo”, the Devil’s Brother.

Abarth and Hruska offered their services to Nuvolari and in turn involved Ferry Porsche and Karl Rabe at the Porsche design bureau in Gmünd. Porsche offered to create a new, innovative mid-engined GP car with a 1.5 liter supercharged flat twelve. Millanta introduced them to industrialist Piero Dusio who had made a fortune during the war providing the Italian army with shoes.

Dusio had started Cisitalia (Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia) after the war to build a Fiat 1100-based single seater, the D46 designed by Dante Giacosa, as the basis to renew racing in Italy. He immediately seized upon the idea proposed by Abarth, Hruska, and Porsche for a modern car that would humble the resurrected Alfa Romeo 158s, Maseratis, Delahayes, and Talbot-Lagos.

Although the Cisitalia GP was stillborn, and bankrupted Dusio, the project brought Ferry Porsche and Karl Rabe to Italy where they observed the success of the Cisitalia sports cars.Built around a lightweight triangulated tubing frame using modified Fiat 1100 engines, transmissions, and axles, the independent front suspension Cisitalia 204 Spyders were immediately competitive and found a willing market even at prices that approached $5,000 in the lire of the day.

As Karl Ludvigsen describes in his monumental Porsche history “Excellence Was Expected”, “The merits of Dusio’s idea – that of using simple, inexpensive parts to make a two-seater sports car that could be sold at a very high price and at considerable profit – were not lost on Ferry Porsche and Karl Rabe … when they went home they had more than the 360 [Cisitalia GP project] on their minds.”

And thus was born the idea of the Volkswagen-based Porsche design project 356. In pursuit of his grand prix dream Dusio named Abarth sporting director responsible not only for the GP project but also for racing the Fiat-based Cisitalias. When Dusio’s reach exceeded his grasp with the parallel development of the Porsche-designed GP car and the 202 series of sports cars it became prudent for him to accept an offer from Juan Peron to emigrate to Argentina.

Carlo Abarth nimbly regrouped, accepting four Cisitalia 204 A Spyder Corsa race cars, two of them not completely assembled, and the race team’s equipment and machinery as severance. Squadra Piero Dusio became Squadra Carlo Abarth. The 204 A was designed by Giovanni Savonuzzi with spare botticella style Spyder Corsa coachwork crafted by Carrozzeria Rocco Motto adaptable to both formula competition and, with fenders and lights added, as sports cars.

The Racing Legend Nuvolari

Tazio Nuvolari was an Italian motorcycle and racecar driver infamous on the track and legendary for his multiple championships. German engineer and founder of the luxury brand, Ferdinand Porsche, called Nuvolari “the greatest driver of the past, the present, and the future.” He was born in 1892 and died in 1953.

He began racing in 1920 at the age of 27. In 1925, he captured the 350cc European Championship. From then until the end of 1930, he competed in both motorcycle and automobile racing. In 1932 took home two wins and a second place in the three European Championship Grand Prix, winning him the title. He won four other Grand Prix races including a second Targo Florio and the Monaco Grand Prix. After his Alfa Romeo partnership ended when they left Grand Prix racing, he stayed on with Scuderia Ferrari and then left the team in 1933 for Maserati. At the end of 1934 he returned to Ferrari when Italian Prime Minister Mussolini convinced the company to take him back. He then raced in the Swiss Grand Prix and continued racing until Grand Prix racing was put on hiatus by World War II.

Nuvolari tamed Ferdinand Porsche’s diabolical Auto Union grand prix cars. In 1935 he brought one of Alfa Romeo’s outdated front-engined Tipo B (P3) GP cars home ahead of the Auto Unions and Mercedes-Benzes at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. In the days after the war Nuvolari, racked by tuberculosis and facing the imminent end of his racing career, sought a successor to the surviving pre-war Maseratis available to him in Grands Prix for one last, glorious campaign.

Upon his return to racing after the war, and at age 54, he finished first in class. This was in 1950 and would later be known as the racing icon’s last race. Nuvolari achieved over 90 grand prix victories in his car during his long racing career from 1924 to 1950 making him one of the most significant and celebrated pre-war drivers in history. Nuvolari was infamous on the track as an early proponent, or founder, according to Enzo Ferrari, of the four wheel drift technique. He raced and won with incredible cars from Buggati, Alfa Romeo, Auto Union, Maserati and the Cisitalia-Abarth. The car in which he drove his last race, the 1950 Cisitalia-Abarth 204A Spider Sport, is a significant piece of racing history.