248
Cisitalia 1950 Cisitalia 202 B berlinetta (Stabilimenti Farina)
Chassis no.156 SC -Engine no. 281
Estimate
€ 450.000 - 600.000
Sold
€ 407.645
The price includes buyer's premium
Do you have a similar item you would like to sell?
Information
- Highly acceptable for the Mille Miglia and other main historical re-enactments
- Acceptable for the main Concours d’Elegance
- Always in Italy.Comprehensive and documented history
- It has been owned for 40 years by Adriano Cimarosti, renowned author of books on motorsport history.
Documents
Registration and Italian plates.
Eligibility
Registration and Italian plates.
Eligibility
- Mille Miglia. Eligible.
- Giro di Sicilia. Eligible.
- Targa Florio. Eligible.
- Goodwood Revival. Eligible.
- Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti. Eligible.
- Vernasca Silver Flag. Eligible.
- California Mille: Eligible.
- Nürburgring Classic. Eligible.
- Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Eligible.
- Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. Eligible.
- Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille.Eligible.
- Concorso d’eleganza Villa D’Este. Eligible.
Provenance
The model
Cisitalia (Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia) was founded to manufacture sports equipment in 1939 by Piero Dusio, a Turinese textile industrialist. An experienced amateur driver, Dusio used his fortune to become involved with the sport that he loved. After winning his class in the 1937 Mille Miglia, he began to explore the possibilities of building his racing cars. Cisitalia's first model was the D46 and appeared in 1946 as a small single seater which used a tubular steel space-frame chassis crafted in Cisitalia’s bicycle factory under a readily-available Fiat mechanics. Cisitalia focused on building small passenger car based on the D46. In the summer of 1946, the 202 CMM (Coupé Mille Miglia) was initially designed by Dante Giacosa and then brought to finish by Giovanni Savonuzzi. The first coupé was built by Alfredo Vignale, at the time the departmental head of Stabilimenti Farina. The Cisitalia 202 SMM (Spyder Mille Miglia) was derived directly from the coupé. Subsequent competition spiders were known as 202 SMM Nuvolari, after Nuvolari’s epic effort.
Savonuzzi’s design was submitted to Battista Pinin Farina as an initial concept for the new coupé 202 Gran Sport and inspired the master to create one of the most significant examples of body styling in automotive history. Cisitalia provided Pinin Farina with the chassis on which the Cisitalia's body was placed. Its shapes are the finishing point of all the previous research: the hood, body, fenders, and headlights are integral to the continuously flowing surface, rather than added on, creating a general sense of beauty and speed. Unveiled in 1947 at the exhibition of Coachbuilders at the Milan Triennale and Paris Motor Show, it won the Coppa d’Oro prize at the Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance. The Cisitalia 202 Gran Sport was defined as “a rolling sculpture” in 1951 when it was chosen, along with seven other cars, for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA). The 202 is the progenitor of all modern sports cars and stands as a timeless bridge between pre and post-war sports car design. Its lines had a substantial impact on the aesthetics of car design at the time, breaking with tradition and introducing new style concepts. The 202 were built on Fiat components including a redesigned chassis and a 1089cc four-cylinder engine delivering 66 horsepower.
The first “Gran Sport” model has only two seats and is the first car in history to have the brand name even in the back. The first development, the 202 B can instead accommodate four people (three in front and one, badly, behind) and is distinguished by its more massive grille and chrome bumpers. The 1951 202 C has the trunk accessible from outside and the rear window wider. The first 202 grill was aluminium and had 23 individual teeth shaped like a "D" with the curved part facing forward, and a narrow surround. The later 202 had a chrome plated grill with 18 thicker teeth and a thicker surround. The twin windscreen was later replaced with a one-piece curved windshield. The 202 body production by Pinin Farina soon shifted over to Stabilimenti Farina and, to a lesser extent, Vignale. Both built the 202 with Battista Pinin Farina's original design, although there are some differences. Approximately 100 coupes were built.
The Car
This 1950 Cisitalia 202 with the body by Stabilimenti Farina, chassis no. 156 SC, is an example of the B version, different from the previous “Gran Sport” model for the additional rear seat and other details. It is a 100% Italian car, as it has travelled from owner to owner all over the Italian peninsula: registered in Milano, it later passed to Roma, Isola d’Elba, Piombino, Gorizia, again Milano and, finally, Pordenone where it remained in the same collection for 40 years. For over 40 years Adriano Cimarosti has been its attentive owner and caretaker. He was sports editor of Automobile Revue, the oldest automobile magazine in Europe. Cimarosti lived and followed all the golden period of the Grand Prix, from the beginning of the sixties onwards. He is also well known as the authoritative author of books on motorsport history. He has been indeed the perfect owner of a car that made the story of Sports cars. Cimarosti traced the vehicle in the 70s, thanks to a report by Nino Balestra, the famous automotive expert and a great connoisseur of the Cisitalia brand, author of many books. Some of them, of course, dedicated to the Cisitalia history. Together with Balestra, Cimarosti went to Milan and bought chassis no. 156 SC. Utmost importantly: it was again Balestra who brought his experience and gave tips for the restoration of the car. Although the owner lives in Switzerland, he always preferred to keep the car in the family home in northern Italy, to preserve the old Italian license plates. The car, despite the excellent pedigree, has not yet been presented in the traditional circuits of historical re-enactments and concourse d’elegance, where it would be well accepted and surprising new entry.
State of the Art: Not recently but wholly restored, interiors and engine to pristine condition.
Cisitalia (Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia) was founded to manufacture sports equipment in 1939 by Piero Dusio, a Turinese textile industrialist. An experienced amateur driver, Dusio used his fortune to become involved with the sport that he loved. After winning his class in the 1937 Mille Miglia, he began to explore the possibilities of building his racing cars. Cisitalia's first model was the D46 and appeared in 1946 as a small single seater which used a tubular steel space-frame chassis crafted in Cisitalia’s bicycle factory under a readily-available Fiat mechanics. Cisitalia focused on building small passenger car based on the D46. In the summer of 1946, the 202 CMM (Coupé Mille Miglia) was initially designed by Dante Giacosa and then brought to finish by Giovanni Savonuzzi. The first coupé was built by Alfredo Vignale, at the time the departmental head of Stabilimenti Farina. The Cisitalia 202 SMM (Spyder Mille Miglia) was derived directly from the coupé. Subsequent competition spiders were known as 202 SMM Nuvolari, after Nuvolari’s epic effort.
Savonuzzi’s design was submitted to Battista Pinin Farina as an initial concept for the new coupé 202 Gran Sport and inspired the master to create one of the most significant examples of body styling in automotive history. Cisitalia provided Pinin Farina with the chassis on which the Cisitalia's body was placed. Its shapes are the finishing point of all the previous research: the hood, body, fenders, and headlights are integral to the continuously flowing surface, rather than added on, creating a general sense of beauty and speed. Unveiled in 1947 at the exhibition of Coachbuilders at the Milan Triennale and Paris Motor Show, it won the Coppa d’Oro prize at the Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance. The Cisitalia 202 Gran Sport was defined as “a rolling sculpture” in 1951 when it was chosen, along with seven other cars, for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA). The 202 is the progenitor of all modern sports cars and stands as a timeless bridge between pre and post-war sports car design. Its lines had a substantial impact on the aesthetics of car design at the time, breaking with tradition and introducing new style concepts. The 202 were built on Fiat components including a redesigned chassis and a 1089cc four-cylinder engine delivering 66 horsepower.
The first “Gran Sport” model has only two seats and is the first car in history to have the brand name even in the back. The first development, the 202 B can instead accommodate four people (three in front and one, badly, behind) and is distinguished by its more massive grille and chrome bumpers. The 1951 202 C has the trunk accessible from outside and the rear window wider. The first 202 grill was aluminium and had 23 individual teeth shaped like a "D" with the curved part facing forward, and a narrow surround. The later 202 had a chrome plated grill with 18 thicker teeth and a thicker surround. The twin windscreen was later replaced with a one-piece curved windshield. The 202 body production by Pinin Farina soon shifted over to Stabilimenti Farina and, to a lesser extent, Vignale. Both built the 202 with Battista Pinin Farina's original design, although there are some differences. Approximately 100 coupes were built.
The Car
This 1950 Cisitalia 202 with the body by Stabilimenti Farina, chassis no. 156 SC, is an example of the B version, different from the previous “Gran Sport” model for the additional rear seat and other details. It is a 100% Italian car, as it has travelled from owner to owner all over the Italian peninsula: registered in Milano, it later passed to Roma, Isola d’Elba, Piombino, Gorizia, again Milano and, finally, Pordenone where it remained in the same collection for 40 years. For over 40 years Adriano Cimarosti has been its attentive owner and caretaker. He was sports editor of Automobile Revue, the oldest automobile magazine in Europe. Cimarosti lived and followed all the golden period of the Grand Prix, from the beginning of the sixties onwards. He is also well known as the authoritative author of books on motorsport history. He has been indeed the perfect owner of a car that made the story of Sports cars. Cimarosti traced the vehicle in the 70s, thanks to a report by Nino Balestra, the famous automotive expert and a great connoisseur of the Cisitalia brand, author of many books. Some of them, of course, dedicated to the Cisitalia history. Together with Balestra, Cimarosti went to Milan and bought chassis no. 156 SC. Utmost importantly: it was again Balestra who brought his experience and gave tips for the restoration of the car. Although the owner lives in Switzerland, he always preferred to keep the car in the family home in northern Italy, to preserve the old Italian license plates. The car, despite the excellent pedigree, has not yet been presented in the traditional circuits of historical re-enactments and concourse d’elegance, where it would be well accepted and surprising new entry.
State of the Art: Not recently but wholly restored, interiors and engine to pristine condition.
Literature
Nino Balestra – Cesare De Agostini, Cisitalia Catalogue Raisonné 1945-1965, Automobilia, 1991
Nino Balestra, Cisitalia, Una storia di coraggio e passione, Giorgio Nada Editore, 2016-Mario Simoni, Un sogno chiamato Cisitalia, Angelini Photo Editore, 2004
Giorgio Piacentini, Cisitalia come opera d’arte, Polo Books
Dante Giacosa, I miei 40 anni di progettazione alla Fiat, Centro Storico Fiat, Torino 2014.
Nino Balestra, Cisitalia, Una storia di coraggio e passione, Giorgio Nada Editore, 2016-Mario Simoni, Un sogno chiamato Cisitalia, Angelini Photo Editore, 2004
Giorgio Piacentini, Cisitalia come opera d’arte, Polo Books
Dante Giacosa, I miei 40 anni di progettazione alla Fiat, Centro Storico Fiat, Torino 2014.