In a possibly lazy effort to continue two of our featured series at once, we present the mysterious, undeservedly forgotten Silver Fox, a car built by the often-overlooked Italian Officine Stampaggi Industriali. In this way we provide yet another story on etceterini, and also honor our tradition of reiterating the bad news about making racing cars: it's a great way to get rid of all your money in a hurry.
Sharp-eyed readers will already be asking a question or two. Isn't that really two motorcycles yoked together? Does that add up to a car? Really sharp-eyed readers will notice the slanting "A" logo of Jean Rédelé's Alpine (later Alpine Renault) concern in the top photo, right in front of the "1000 cc" . This 1967 Silver Fox can't be a species of etceterini if it's French, can it? We'd answer that it is especially Italian, as the eccentric body and chassis design are from Sergio Sartorelli at OSI, and they follow in the tire tracks of the Nardi 750 Bisiluro* (twin torpedo) from a dozen years earlier. Note how the two pods are separated by a trio of air foils designed to enhance downforce, and to minimize frontal area. Note also that this is a mid-engined design, with driver and spare tire on the right pod, and engine, fuel tank and cramped passenger seat on the left. Note also how the engine has been angled towards the car's centerline, as if it was just casually tossed over the designer's shoulder to land there...
While you're absorbing all that, note the low height, the lightweight tubular space frame chassis and the upward tilt of the rear fenders which end in abrupt flat tail surfaces in accord with Professor W. Kamm's theory of reducing air resistance and increasing downforce. Note, too, how the rearmost airfoil has a bump in the middle to allow space for the differential and inboard disc brakes. Your gaze keeps returning to that crazy engine angle, doesn't it? This may be more of an Italian theme than the twin-torpedo body. The Lancia D50* Grand Prix racer had an engine (and drive shaft) angled slightly to seat the driver out of the wind (aerodynamics again) and the Pininfarina "X" concept car* had a diamond-plan wheel layout with a single center-mounted rear wheel driven by another engine plunked at an angle because…well, just because.
Officine Stampaggi Industriali ("industrial stamping workshop") had its origins in 1960, as an offshoot of the more famous Carrozzeria Ghia*, and remained tied to that firm by producing stampings for Ghia designs that Ghia's limited production capacity wouldn't allow. These included the Innocenti 950 and the Fiat 2300S coupe, which were sold with Ghia badges. By 1963, the year its ex-Ghia founder Luigi Segre died, OSI was producing bodies with its own labels on Fiat chassis, and later would series-produce special GT coupes on German Ford Taunus chassis, as well as luxe sedans on the Alfa 2600. When new contracts for series-produced bodies began to dwindle, OSI tasked ex-Ghia designer Sartorelli with the idea of a radical Le Mans racer built around a double vision of twin hulls and mid-engine placement. It worked well enough that it achieved 155 mph on just 80 horsepower from the Alpine Renault inline 4. The car attracted plenty of attention at the Turin Show in OSI's home town, but the company ran out of money before Silver Fox could race at Le Mans…
Officine Stampaggi Industriali expired the year after our subject car was built, with production of bodies for Fiat and Alfa Romeo, including the visionary mid-engined Alfa Scarabeo prototypes, as well as OSI series models like the Ford Taunus 20m-TS coupe, ending in that year. Sergio Sartorelli went off to work for Fiat, a common fate for car designers, and sometimes car manufacturers, in the years after the mid-century etceterini boom was over.
Postscript: We've kept our promise to A.J, in the Comments below by posting a brief history of the TARF twin-torpedo speed record cars conceived by, and built for, race driver Piero Taruffi. A.J,.was correct; these cars influenced subsequent twin-boom racers like Nardi's Bisiluro, and especially OSI's '67 concept car, which was given Taruffi's nickname of Silver Fox. The post appeared yesterday, June 11, 2024, as Part 31 of our Etceterini Files.
*Footnote: For photos and discussion of the 1955 Nardi 750 Bisuluro, see our blog archives for "Architect-Designed Cars: Part 1", from May 7, 2017, while the Pininfarina "X" is featured in "Architect-Designed Cars: Part 2" from May 21, 2017. The Bisiluro is pictured with other Nardi cars in "The Etceterini Files Part 14—The Cars of Enrico Nardi: Present at the Creation," from February 26, 2018. The Lancia D50 is pictured and described in "Prancing Elephants: Lancia's D Series" from October 8, 2016. And Ghia's designs, including some by Sergio Sartorelli, are given a retrospective in "The Italian Line: Ghia Part 1" from October 22, 2020, and "The Italian Line: Ghia Part 2", posted October 31, 2020.
Photo Credits:
Monochrome photos and drawings: Officine Stampaggi Industriali
Color chassis perspective: italmotor.tech
Color chassis perspective: italmotor.tech
Color photo front: OSI on pinterest.com
Color photo rear: auta5p.eu
I hope the Silver Fox comes with a rearview cam. Otherwise, how do drivers see behind them?
ReplyDeleteNo rearview mirrors anywhere, and only forward vision thru the airfoil linking the two cabins. Today Silver Fox would get rearview cameras, and I've often thought it would make a great driver education car; just add a steering wheel and brakes to the cabin for the (probably terrified) teacher / passenger...
ReplyDeleteHoly moly... Those Italian car designers are brilliant maniacs.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if this thing is clever, or too clever by half. It does cut down frontal area, as witnessed by the top speed with the small motor. And it may well have provided downforce at a time the Fords and Ferraris were getting light at speed. At first glance the center wing seems too thick to work, but the rear wing would have some “slot’ effect, perhaps keeping flow attached. And it apparently has an adjustable flap. I doubt it ever saw a wind tunnel. I wonder if it ever got so much as the classic yarn tuft test. The angled engine would presumably have required only one bevel gear set to connect to the differential. Or transaxle? The line drawing shows only what looks like a clutch housing on the engine, but the color phantom drawing seems to show a tranny. It would presumably have acquired mirrors, I believe the rules required them. In any case prudent on a car going 155 down the Mulsanne with the Fords doing 200+. But I sure wouldn’t want to be driving it and take a hit on the driver’s side.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, the most important factor in any race car, financing, doesn’t seem to have been well thought out.
Hi Paul. Almost missed this comment, which asked some great questions. I was also trying to figure out the transmission placement, while on the mirrors my guess is they dropped them for the car shows, as the car never competed on the track. And the section drawing implies the thick center airfoil moving, while the dashed line above the rearmost airfoil seems to imply upward movement as an option...
ReplyDeleteYou trace the concept back to Nardi. In fact, it goes back even further, to the TARF, a series of record-breaker designed, patented, built and piloted by Italian racing legend Piero Taruffi.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it is no coincidence that Piero Taruffi's nickname was La Volpe Argenta (The Silver Fox).
DeleteHats off to you, AJ, for identifying perhaps the first link in the chain of influences. I vaguely remembered TARFs 1 & 2, but forgot how early they were (TARF 1 appeared in '48) and that they featured twin-boom design. The SIlver Fox name is unlikely a coincidence, and Taruffi's TARF cars deserve their own post...
ReplyDelete