• Mille Miglia eligible
• Known history and never exported from its home country
• Restored in Italy to concours condition and barely ‘run in’
• ASI and FIVA certified to the highest standard

Cisitalia’s reputation was established in just two days.

The first was 3rd September, 1946 when a trio of 1,100cc D46 monoposti swept the field in the first race in Italy after the end of World War II, the Coppa Brezzi in Turin.

It helped that Tazio Nuvolari had started the race in another of the Cisitalias and easily led the opening laps before the steering wheel came off in a famous incident that did nothing to diminish the reputations of either the Flying Mantuan or Cisitalia.

The second was 21st June, 1947, the first post-war Mille Miglia, when Nuvolari, so sick no one gave much thought to his prospects, had the 2-seat version of the D46, the 202 Spider, eight minutes ahead of all the competition at the halfway point in Rome. His advantage was erased when it took twenty minutes to dry out the ignition system after encountering drenching rain on the Turin-Milan autostrada but Nuvolari still finished second – just sixteen minutes behind Biondetti’s Alfa Two-Nine. Cisitalias driven by Bernabei and Minetti were next, beating a phalanx of new, highly developed, 1,100cc Fiat coupés.

The Garelli- Stabilimenti Farina spider that Nuvolari drove in this epic performance was based on a tube frame chassis, one of the first of its kind. Independent front suspension was derived from the ubiquitous Fiat 500 with a transverse leaf spring upper link and telescopic shock dampers. The live axle rear suspension originally employed coil springs but was refined during development to use semi-elliptical leaf springs and four telescopic dampers.

Power came from a highly developed 1,089cc four-cylinder engine that produced 50 to 65 brake horsepower depending upon the buyer’s desired stage of tune. It was based on the standard Fiat 1,100cc block but virtually every other part was specially built and machined in Cisitalia’s large and fully-equipped machine shop. It had dry sump lubrication not only for reliability but also to lower the engine in the chassis to drop the centre of gravity and lower the bonnet line.

The coachwork was a triumph and the open two seat spider coachwork by Garelli and Stabilimenti Farina was honored by the name of Tazio Nuvolari, who received a royalty for its use. Lithe, low and streamlined, the Cisitalia 202MM Nuvolari Spider foreshadowed the styling idiom which would soon dominate automobile design. Its skirted rear wheels and rear wing fins emphasized the aerodynamic themes that came from designers experience with airplanes in World War II.

Only approximately 30 of the classic Nuvolari Mille Miglia Spiders are believed to have been built, making them one of the most important, significant and successful automobiles built in the years immediately following World War II.

Cisitalia 202MM Nuvolari Spider ‘021SMM’ importantly has a continuous history in  Italy, backed by its original Italian libretto registration document. Its certificate of origin was issued in Turin on 27th February 1947, the first road registration taking place on 29th April 1949 to Signor Ignazio Salonia in Ragusa, on the island of Sicily where there was an active racing scene immediately post-war, thanks partly to the patronage of wealthy Sicilian nobility. Subsequent owners were Giovanni Miceli on 16/5/52 and Michele Turnaturi on 18/5/54. On 14/3/59 it was registered with its current registration ‘MI 416738’ to Angelo Beretta in Milan from whom Mario Mori, an official of the ASI historic car club, acquired it on 25/6/86. The present owner, a private Italian collector of mainly pre-war British sports cars, acquired it on 13/12/99.

A photograph of this car with its original ‘RG 3055’ Ragusa registration in a competition setting believed to be the Catania-Etna hillclimb of 1948 (but possibly 1949) substantiates a competition history with one or another of its early owners.

A beautifully restored and maintained example of one of the most important automobiles of the early post-war period in Italy, it features carefully preserved original features including the amber Bakelite knobs on the dashboard, switches and gear lever and the wonderful, comfortable cork-rimmed four-spoke steering wheel with gold Cisitalia centre boss; two tone Veglia instruments; correct spare wheel clamp and correct rear wheel spats. Every aspect of Cisitalia 202MM Nuvolari Spider ‘021SMM’ has been meticulously and sympathetically restored to original configuration while being brought up to modern standards of safety and reliability with features such as steel sleeved flexible pressure hoses, a steering damper and an electric cooling fan, all of which are easily reversible if desired. Restoration was carried out from 2000-2002 by specialists in the Brescia area and a detailed inspection of the car to verify the quality of the work is likely to impress any potential buyer. We understand that both engine and coachwork are original to this car.

Appropriately finished in Rosso Corsa with matching leather upholstery and interior cockpit trim, the car has a pair of individually adjustable folding aeroscreens for the protection of the driver and passenger. It has covered only some 4,500km since its restoration including the Historic Mille Miglia, sufficient to fully shake down and refine the restoration yet still preserving the restoration’s quality both mechanically and cosmetically. It has been certified by FIVA on 11/10/2003 as “A3” (Authentic/Restored) and confirmed by the ASI on 18/11/2003 also as “A3” with the relevant “gold” standard plaque affixed inside the cockpit.

Piero Dusio’s success with the Cisitalia D46 and 202 could have been the basis for a new Italian sports car marque which might have altered the entire history of the post-war Italian high performance car industry. Success, however, fueled Dusio’s ambition to compete at the highest levels of competition and lured him into thinking Cisitalia could afford to build a Grand Prix car. It was the company’s undoing, eventually leaving the 202MM and the memory of Tazio Nuvolari’s epic 1947 Mille Miglia as the enduring image of the marque and what it might have achieved.

This is the kind of vehicle sought by the Mille Miglia organizers, an example of the legendary cars that ran the Mille Miglia when it was the world’s foremost open road race and one of the top two or three competitions in the world. Its performance, appearance, history and even its sound are competitive and evocative of an era of heroes and of the accomplishment of Tazio Nuvolari, the legend whose last great race was run in a Cisitalia.