The Etceterini Files, Part 8-----Bandini: The Art of Endurance

Endurance recalls the Bandini saga not only because Bandini contested several endurance races (the Mille Miglia, the Sebring 12 Hours) but also because Bandini lasted longer in the business of making sports racing cars than most of its Italian competitors. Ilario Bandini's workshop in Forli, a city in the Northern Italian province of Emilia-Romagna, was one of the first after World War II to begin producing race cars based on Fiat mechanicals.  In 1946 Bandini offered the 1100 Siluro, a cycle-fendered torpedo which would soon find competition from similar cars offered by Cisitalia and Stanguellini.  By 1950 New York importer Tony Pompeo had imported the first Bandini 1100 Sport, with wind-cheating envelope body by Rocco Motto and Fiat engine block, to which Bandini added a twin cam head with inclined valves adapted from Alfa Romeo designs.  The photo below shows driver Giovanni Bracco with that car in New York.

But Pompeo wanted to get Bandini to offer a 750cc car, and sent him an American Crosley engine to study and modify.  Bandini liked this engine, to which he added his own twin-cam head design. It became the basis for most subsequent Bandini engines, which eventually shared little with the original Crosley template.

By the time Zagato bodied the Bandini 750 Veloce coupe in 1955, the Crosley-based twin cam engine had become the standard Bandini power plant.  Here's a shot of the curvaceous coupe racing at Sebring in 1960. The curved side glass and rear window vents resemble the rear-engined Zagato Fiat Abarths which came a bit later, but the overall proportions on this front-engined car give no clue to the tiny size.

Bandini built only one Zagato coupe, but followed it with a number of the sleek Saponetta with engines of 750, 850 and 1000 cc, starting in 1957.  The name Saponetta ("little bar of soap") may have referred to the car's slippery contours. Alloy bodywork produced in Bandini's workshop formed a tight, elegantly elongated shell over the somewhat conservative chassis design, still with a rigid rear axle and drum brakes.  Still, the car succeeded as a racer, and some came to the USA.

The closest thing Bandini made to a practical road car, the '63 1000 GT pictured below featured 4 wheel independent suspension and front disc brakes along with its wind-up windows, heater and bumpers.  It was also the first Bandini with a 5 speed gearbox, and if it had advanced beyond the prototype stage would have made an interesting alternative to the overpriced ASA 1000GT (see our post for Feb. 2, 2016) and the underpowered Lancia Appia GT Zagato.  While bodywork resembled Zagato’s efforts on Abarth and Lancia, it was by the undeservedly obscure Corna.

The independent-minded engineer, having been one of the first etceterini builders to look beyond Fiat for engine blocks, may have been the first Italian builder to apply the mid-engine formula to sports cars.  Drawing upon a design for a Formula Junior racer, Bandini adopted the mid-engine configuration in 1959, earlier than Abarth or Ferrari.  The 1000P was in limited production until 1965, and was successful in hillclimbs.  In the photo, one of the last 1000P spiders sits next to the last Bandini built, a 1000 Turbo from 1992.

 

This Saloncino competition coupe, a 1968 design, was based upon the 1000P chassis.  Like the 1000P, the Saloncino featured alloy bodywork designed and built, along with engine and chassis, in the Bandini garages.  Unlike it, the Saloncino remained a singular prototype.

The glassy, curvaceous shell resembled a 7/8 scale version of the Dino Ferrari 166SP...

…and put the mid-mounted engine and transaxle assembly on display.

This is the 1300 competition spider.  With the singular exception of a Masserati-engined 6 cylinder 1500 which raced at Sebring, this car from 1980 had Bandini’s biggest engine.  By now the design had outgrown the cast iron Crosley-based block, and consisted of an aluminum block, 4 valves for each of the 4 inline cylinders, a dry sump and fuel injection.  Fiberglass composite* bodywork was by Bandini.  Nearly all the other makers of etceterini had long disappeared by the time Bandini made this car, and all had disappeared when he made his last car in 1992.  Today, the Bandini family museum displays 10 Bandini cars.  The 46 known survivors include this 1300 competition spider.

*Possibly meaning a mix of fiberglass and aluminum panels, not carbon-fiber...

Photo credits:  Wikimedia