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Ferdinando Minoia was born in Milan on June 2, 1884. Known by his friends as Nando, he started racing in 1904 and his first major race was the 1907 Targa Florio. That year he won the Coppa Florio held near Brescia in Italy in an Isotta-Fraschini. In 1914 he drove a Peugeot in some Italian hill climb races including Poggio di Berceto and Moncenisio. At the 1923 Italian Grand Prix at Monza he finished fourth in the world’s first mid-engine Grand Prix car, the Benz Tropfenwagen, trailing behind the superior supercharged Fiats. Edmund Rumpler’s ground breaking design used a normally aspirated, 1991 cc, 6 cylinder, twin cam Benz engine delivering only 65 bhp (48 kW) which was mounted behind the driver in the ‘tear drop’ design. The car also featured swing axle independent rear suspension and inboard brakes.
