1946 Cisitalia 202
Cisitalia took the idea of coach building to a new
level. One of their first post-war ventures, the D46, was a racing car built
mostly from Fiat parts – a 70 bhp engine from the Italian manufacturer was
placed in a body that weighed just 400 kg.
It wasn’t until the 1947 iteration of the 202 that
the company really started to rise to fame. The company handed their innovative
space frame chassis to Pinin Farina who styled a handcrafted one-piece
aluminium bodyshell, incorporating features like lights into the sleek design –
commonplace nowadays but back then groundbreaking stuff.
This original 202 was difficult to mass-produce
owing to it being hand built. A dedicated team at Cisitalia took it upon themselves to construct over 200 202 MMs’ to
meet demand. While only around 200 Cisitalias were made their design influence
can still be seen in the cars produced by major European manufacturers to this
day.
