Adventures of the Cisitalia


Cisitalia (the name comes from Consorzio Industriale Sportive Italia) was founded by Piero Dusio, an ex-footballer who had become a rich industrialist through the success of his own firm, CISI (textiles, banks, sports goods, hotels). He was an amateur race driver in the 1930s (driving Alfa Romeos) who decided to build his own cars after the Second World War. His idea was to create a race series using his to be cheap single seaters, with mainly Fiat parts (1100 engine and 500 suspension).

This car was designed and built by Porsche for the grandiose Italian entrepreneur Piero Dusio owner of the Cisitalia Holding (Consorzio Industriale Sportivo Itália). It was a great engineering masterpiece and technically it was ahead of its time. It was fitted with a supercharged engine located in the back of the driver and an innovative four wheel drive system. The 12 cylinder engine developed 385 bhp at 10600 rpm, and had a top speed of 300 km/h (186 mph). Amazingly, all this in 1949, and with a small engine of only 1493 cc.

Abarth and Hruska were also asked to find an Italian manufacturer willing to produce the Formula 1 car designed by Ferdinand Porsche. Like the one devised by Ferdy himself on behalf of Auto Union in 1933, the new single-seater had a rear mounted engine.

Tazio Nuvolari, an old Italian friend of Abarth's, paved the way for the new venture by mentioning the project to Piero Dusio, a Turin manufacturer who was the founder and driving force of *Cisitalia, a company whose corporate goals included the construction of racing cars. The collaboration between Cisitalia and Porsche thus got under way. In addition to the new Formula 1 single-seater, they were planning to build a 2000 cc Grand Sport 5-6 seater, an 11 HP universal tractor, and a small turbine. Soon afterwards, however, Piero Dusio met with serious difficulties and in 1949 moved to Argentina taking the Formula 1 car along with him. As a result, Cisitalia died and Abarth & C came into being.

Ferdinand Porsche had just returned from imprisonment after being arrested for this part in developing German war machines. Interestingly enough, the money made designing the Cisitalia was what allowed Ferry to free his father, Ferdinand. Needless to say, he was was very pleased with the car that gained his freedom. Penned by Ferry Porsche, when it was reviewed by his father, Ferdinand, he said, "If I had designed it, I would not have done it any differently."