Turin-based producer SVA made waves in 1949-’50 with a miniature racing car that many consider the most beautiful ever conceived. Astonishingly, its designer Giovanni Savonuzzi was motivated by an order from America for a midget racer.
Bearer of a degree in Industrial Engineering at the Turin Polytechnic, Savonuzzi honed his skill on Fiat aero engines during World War 2 and later at Cisitalia.
In Italy, a country that’s home to numerous small, specialized companies making exotic sports and racing cars, few can compete with SVA in their combination of obscurity with exotic engineering. Turin’s SVA flourished briefly at the end of the 1940s and produced at maximum two cars and a few more chassis. Yet the dazzling design of one of them, a single-seater, well-deserved its presentation by leading publications around the world.
SVA can best be viewed as a spiritual offshoot of Turin’s Cisitalia. That company, brainchild of industrialist and passionate car enthusiast Piero Dusio, created a sensation with its thrusting initiatives at a time when Italy’s major carmakers were struggling to recover from the privations of the wartime years. With its 1,100-cc single-seaters and sports cars Cisitalia was a shining star, attracting the best drivers of the day including Germany’s Hans Stuck and the unforgettable Tazio Nuvolari.
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