Engineer Enrico Nardi went to work for Lancia in 1929 at age 22, starting in the truck division and eventually working directly for Vincenzo Lancia and racing some of the company's cars. Moonlighting in 1932, Nardi created a small racer powered by a motorcycle engine with partner Augusto Monaco. His racing efforts attracted the attention of Enzo Ferrari in 1937, the year Nardi left Lancia. After Ferrari left Alfa Romeo In 1939, he asked Nardi to work on developing the chassis for two cars to be entered in the 1940 Mille Miglia. These were the Auto Avio Construzioni Type 815s. Engine troubles sidelined these not-quite-Ferraris during the race, and then World War II shifted the attention of their makers, and all of Europe, to more urgent concerns. But after the war, Nardi partnered with Renato Danese and resumed building bespoke racers, at first building two more cars based upon the chassis design and aluminum engine blocks of that 815, a pushrod straight eight using two cylinder heads from Fiat's inline fours. Two competition spiders were built, one a 1.5 liter and one a 2.0 liter. These cars seem to have disappeared, but a couple of specimens survived of a tiny handful of competition spiders powered by the Alfa Romeo 6C-2500 engine. The cycle-fendered body design of these cars resembled the earliest Abarth race cars, as well as the earliest road racers which Enzo Ferrari built under his own name.
In addition to those cycle-fendered torpedoes, Nardi and partner Danese also built at least one luxury cabriolet based on the 6C-2500 during this period; the ornate grille and hood ornament contrast with the more restrained envelope body, which is credited to Bertone.
By 1952, Nardi was again collaborating with Lancia, this time directly with Gianni Lancia on a Formula 2 project which correctly predicted the form of racing cars a decade hence. This intriguing Nardi Lancia F2 began with a 2 liter variant of the Aurelia V6 and mounted it behind the driver, just ahead of the Lancia transaxle. Rear brakes were inboard, while the team experimented with outboard discs in front. This project was abandoned before it could bear fruit, and Lancia stayed committed to the front engine with rear transaxle format for its coming sports racers and the D50 Formula 1 car which appeared in 1954*. But it's tantalizing to speculate about what might have happened if this car had been the subject of the development Lancia lavished on their D Series. A mid-engined Cooper won the F1 Championship seven years later and repeated in 1960. In 1961 it was the turn of a mid-engined Ferrari, powered by a Dino V6...
During this same period, Nardi built a small series of coupes and spiders using the French Panhard air-cooled twin. The most fetching body styles were designed and built by Frua, some with wire wheels and some with Panhard discs, often with a center-mounted fog light.
Also at this time, Nardi began to branch out into accessory production to supplement the small number of cars then being sold. These included the famous Nardi wood and alloy steering wheel which first appeared on a Touring-bodied Pegaso in 1952, and floor shift conversion kits for the Lancia Aurelia as well as the Peugeot. Perhaps as a result of the latter initiative, Frua built the artfully contoured, perfectly proportioned Nardi coupe shown below with Peugeot 203 power in 1953. This design has its counterparts in contemporary Frua bodies on Maserati and Ermini* chassis.
The Nardi 750 competition spider shown below was bodied by Rocco Motto in 1954. The body design, with hood and deck surfaces peaking well below the fender arches, is predictive of sports racers that would appear half a decade hence. It seems to have no echo in the bodies Motto was building for Siata during the same period, nor in subsequent Nardis...
Certainly not in the radical, twin-torpedo Bisiluro which architect Carlo Mollino sketched and Nardi built for the 1955 Le Mans. This project, with driver in the right hull and engine and driveline in the left, is detailed in our post for May 7, 2017 entitled "Architect-Designed Cars."
Also in 1955, the Nardi Blue Ray 1 appeared. Styled by Giovanni Michelotti and powered by a modified Lancia Aurelia V6, the wildly futuristic Vignale coachwork showcased Nardi accessories and performance equipment.
It was followed in 1958 by the more restrained, elegant Blue Ray 2*, also using an Aurelia drivetrain under Vignale bodywork. Michelotti also used this front end treatment with oval grille enclosing the headlights on a one-off Lotus Eleven around the same time.
The rear window merged with the transparent roof panel to enhance the open feeling of the cabin; this feature might have been improved with a sunshade and ventilating panel, if the car had been placed into limited production.
Both Blue Rays remained one-offs, and were displayed together at Pebble Beach in the 1990s...
By 1958, most of Nardi's small-scale automotive production, like that of Abarth, derived from modifying the Fiat 600 chassis and engine introduced in 1956. This led to a number of delicately-proportioned, glassy 750 coupes styled by Michelotti and built by Vignale, often with small detail variations from one car to the next. With the exception of the one-off, Plymouth-powered Silver Ray coupe from 1962, these rear-engined coupes seemed to signal the last act in Nardi's career as a car builder.
Today, far more car enthusiasts are familiar with those wood-rimmed, alloy-spoked steering wheels with Nardi's signature on them than with the cars they once steered. And those drivers lucky enough to sit behind a Nardi wheel can reflect on an engineer who was never afraid to try an unconventional idea. Enrico Nardi died in 1966.
The Lancia D-Series competition cars are outlined in our post for 10-8-16 entitled "Prancing Elephants: Lancia's D-Series in the Heroic Days of Road Racing." The Frua-bodied Ermini coupe is featured in "The Etceterini Files Part 1: Ermini" from 12-7-15. And the Nardi Lancia Blue Ray 2 is featured in "One of One: A Brief History of Singular Cars" from 9-7-15.
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2nd: IMCDb.org
3rd: Lancia Motor Club
4th: panhard-racing-team.fr
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Leave it to the Italians, haute couture in alloys
ReplyDeleteTrue enough, and it looks like this period was their Golden Age.
ReplyDelete