As first reported in VRJ in October 2000, the legendary Cisitalia has moved a little closer to making its comeback. Now Italo and Massimo Dusio, sons of the company’s founder and racing driver Piero, have signed a letter of intent to build a new factory in the Santa Fe province of Argentina, where Cisitalia cars will once more be made.
The plant will be able to produce an annual 100 replicas of Piero’s small sports roadsters, which will be named after Tazio Nuvolari (who so nearly won the 1947 Mille Miglia in an 1100 cc Cisitalia) and Piero Dusio. The new cars will be powered by modified engines from the current Fiat Marea, the Turin manufacturer’s top-of-the-range sedan.
The new Cisitalias – the name stands for Consorzio Industriale Sportivo Italiana – will be sold in North America and Europe at an estimated cost of between $65,000 and $85,000 each.
Cisitalia was founded by the mercurial Piero Dusio, an Italian entrepreneur, industrialist and gentleman racing driver, soon after the Second World War. With Fiat support, his company produced a single-seater racing car and a series of small sports roadsters, the latter of which cleaned up in the 1100 cc class of Italian road racing and hill climbs.
Submitted by Robert Newman
