• Chassis no. 002S

• Engine no. 029

60 hp, 1,089 cc OHV inline four-cylinder engine, dry sump with two valves per cylinder, two 36 mm Weber carburettors, four-speed manual gearbox, independent front suspension via lower wishbones and transverse leaf spring with telescopic dampers, live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs and telescopic dampers, and four-wheel drum brakes. Wheelbase: 2,400 mm (94.5 in.)

• Unique all-steel prototype for the 202 Spyder

• First raced by Cisitalia founder Piero Dusio

• 1947 Mille Miglia works team car

• Placed 4th overall at the 1947 Mille Miglia

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.