1947 Cisitalia 202 SMM Spider Nuvolari

This car owes its name to Nuvolari’s heroic drive in the 1947 Mille Miglia, while its aggressive shape owes a great deal to pre-WWII aerodynamics

by Donald Osborne

Italian industrialist Piero Dusio built up the Consorzio Industriale Sportivo Italia into a successful conglomerate before WWII. He was also an uncommonly good amateur racing driver and like many successful racing drivers, he dreamed of creating a car of his own.

When the war ended, super salesman Dusio enticed Fiat engineers Dante Giocosa and Giovanni Savonuzzi to join in his dream. The first of the new Cisitalia cars were the diminutive 1,100-cc D.46 monopostos. When seven of the new Cisitalias debuted in September 1946 in the Coppa Brezzi in Turin’s Valentino Park, it was against Maseratis, Simca-Gordinis, and Enzo Ferrari’s Auto Avios.

With some of Europe’s top drivers in contention, Dusio was first across the finish line in one of his own cars. Although a Grand Prix car—ultimately designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche—was part of Dusio’s plan, the logical next step was to produce a series of road-going sports cars.

The first, known as the...