1957 Bandini Sport Internazionale
Cliff Reuter and I suffer from codependency. The phone calling and emailing is incessant. I regularly disturb him while he’s giving tennis lessons and he has a particular talent for ringing my cell phone just when I’m beginning to do surgery on the bones. But we share a passion for racing history and sports cars of all types so the social disorder and interruptions somehow seem alright to us. My wife says Cliff and I have a long distance automotive love affair with no strings attached. Which is mostly great except that Cliff is particularly skilled at helping me spend money on things I don’t need.
In those odd moments when he’s not sending me emails and text messages, Cliff’s number one area of activity is the small displacement special-bodied cars of Italy. His unbridled passion and abundant knowledge led him to launch www.etceterini.com in 2005 and the site is definitely worth a look. Cliff owns a Crosley-powered 1951 Bandini Siluro which I wrote about in the April, 2010 installment of “Hidden Treasures.” Until recently his was a two-Bandini family as father Jack owned a 1955 Bandini DOHC sports racer (chassis #358). A few months ago Jack sold the twin-cammer to someone in Greece where it is now part of a wonderful collection.
