Named after Tazio Nuvolari, Italy’s leading prewar racing driver, who drove it in the 1947 Mille Miglia, this “speeder” was designed under the direction of Giovanni Savonuzzi, Cisitalia’s chief engineer from 1945 to 1948, in a very original style. It has an all-alluminium bodyshell and its streamlining fins are barely noticeable on the rear mudguards. The Museum’s exhibit is one of the ten or so that still remain out of the approximately twenty built from 1947 to 1948.
In the sensational race in which Nuvolari was the protagonist, the Mantuan champion finished second but was considered the moral winner and his road test gave a new credibility to the concept of the open, light and easy to handle bodywork.
The car exhibited in the Museum comes from South America and was purchased by the previous owner in 1988, from a Ferrari dealer. It had belonged to the same owner from 1948 to 1980.
