A frequent contributor sent these photos of a friend's car, noting that it might be for sale, and that it appeared to be some kind of Lancia prototype...
As it turns out, it's a kind of prototype Lancia, but not from the Lancia factory. Like the Sinthesis 2000* and Lombardi FL-1* featured here a few years back, the Studio Due Litri was a mid-engined GT originally designed around the Lancia Flavia's boxer four-cylinder engine and 4-speed transaxle. In building two prototypes, Neri and Bonacini moved the entire drivetrain to a position behind the two seats...
They also designed and produced a tightly-contoured alloy shell to cover a 92-inch wheelbase chassis formed as a central sheet steel tub, with tubular subrames for front and rear suspension. The duo had the idea that Lancia, which was still a very independent company, would be interested in adopting their design for production, and this red car, the 2nd of two prototypes they built, was presented as a roadworthy specimen. When Lancia indicated an unwillingness even to provide engines, the Nembo team tested alternatives including the Ford Taunus V4 and the ATS* 2.5 liter V8, and the cars were also called Nembo GTs, maybe because of the uncertainty as to engine supplier or even engine size...
And who were Neri and Bonacini? Giorgio Neri and Luciano Bonacini began partnering on car projects in Modena in 1959, and because they worked as tuners and chassis builders as well as chassis and body designers, we're placing them in the Etceterini Files rather than the Italian Line series on body designers. Like Enrico Nardi, they were jacks of all trades, and perhaps hot rodders at heart. The first car to gain some attention for them was the 1962 Ferrari 250 GT Breadvan, a hot rod SWB designed by Giotto Bizzarrini and bodied by Drogo, with mechanical mods by Neri and Bonacini. The car was commissioned by Count Giovanni Volpi for his Serenissima* racing team, and it annoyed Ferrari by passing all his GTOs at the start of the 1962 Le Mans 24 Hours, where it retired while running 7th after 4 hours, with a busted driveshaft. It went on to win the GT class at two races during the season, and prompted the creation of two similar cars with mechanical mods by Neri and Bonacini...
By September 1963 the ASA* GTC endurance racer was in the Neri & Bonacini workshops. With a chassis design by Giotto Bizzarrini, it was an attempt by the De Nora family, which owned ASA, to create interest in their 1000GT road cars (with SOHC inline fours derived from Colombo's Ferrari V12) by notching some class wins in road racing...
The completed car, also called the Berlinetta Competizione, was a low-slung, intuitively streamlined creation, but forecast the future of Nembo Carrozzeria's efforts by failing to exceed a tiny production.
The first Nembo Spyder, a re-body built in 1966 for American Tom Meade on a 102" wheelbase Ferrari 250GT chassis, also presaged a single-digit series, including a short-wheelbase, 330-powered Spyder and a coupe resembling Ferrari's GTO64, but the Meade projects garnered a lot more attention than the little ASA, appearing in Stateside car magazines.
The short but well-publicized (if not prolific) partnership between Neri, Meade and Bonacini allegedly led to the Bonacini & Neri shop's name change, but that might also have had a convenient link to an Italian cartoon character named Nembo. In any case, it led to a brief increase in the company's fortunes, as wealthy Americans purchased the re-bodied Ferraris.
This first Nembo Spyder echoed the body forms of the 275 GTB as well as the 2nd Series GTO, and the attention the car garnered in the USA may have influenced Luigi Chinetti to push Ferrari to release an open version of the 275GTB. Ferrari paid attention, and the 275 GTS/4 Spyder (also called the NART Spyder for Chinetti's North American Racing Team) appeared the next year. Ironically, while that car was even better than the Nembo Spyder at attracting publicity (one appeared in "The Thomas Crown Affair"), it was slow to move off showroom floors, and only 10 were built of a planned 25.
That probably means that the ratio of press releases and car mag column inches to actual cars sold is pretty similar for the Nembo and NART Spyders, and it's a reminder that during what is now called the classic period, these cars were not always easy to sell.
After the Nembo Spyders, Tom Meade went on to produce other, more flamboyantly-styled Ferrari specials, including Thomassima 1 with its awkward, headroom-restricting roofline, shown below. It was the last Meade project bodied by Neri and Bonacini, and was destroyed by flooding on the Arno River, shortly after completion in 1966.
Perhaps because of the Bizzarrini* connection, Neri and Bonacini were selected to build the tubular chassis for Lamborghini's prototype 350GTV, and the chassis for the first Lamborghini production cars. In 1966, they designed and produced light alloy bodywork on the Lambo 350GT chassis with power from the new 4 liter V12, called the 400GT Monza. This car was slated to run at Le Mans, but was perhaps denied entry because of non-standard bodywork. Nembo's Monza design might have prompted more orders for a light, short-wheelbase Lambo 2 seater when Lamborghini moved on to the longer, steel-bodied 400GT 2+2, but in spring of 1966 Bertone showed the startling, mid-engined Miura, and that's where the orders for sports Lamborghinis went...
As for the Nembo GT prototype that began this story, it's the only one that we can confirm still exists. The photo below shows the two prototypes under construction at Neri and Bonacini. The first prototype, in the background, had less of an arc to the roof and door tops, and lacked the retracting headlights of the 2nd car in the foreground.
That first car, shown below, also had a more pronounced curve to the rear fenders, and larger tail light units. If someone finds it in a barn somewhere, the first thing they should do is open the engine lid to see if there's an ATS V8 hiding in there. The lack of success in finding a big sponsor to adopt the Nembo GT project led to the end of the Neri and Bonacini partnership by 1968.
*Footnote:
The following cars mentioned in this piece were featured in previous blog posts; dates are in parentheses.
ASA: "The Etceterini Files Part 3: ASA, the Ferrarina" (Feb. 2, 2016).
Serenissima: "Forgotten Classic: Serenissima——The Winged Lion is the Rarest Beast of All" (March 20, 2019).
Sinthesis 2000 + Lombardi FL-1: "The Etceterini Files Part 15" (October 26, 2018).
ATS: "Anti-Ferraris Steal the Show at Automezzi 2022" (July 26, 2022). And also "Forgotten Classic Revival Show: ATS 2500GT and GTS" (Nov. 11, 2018).
Bizzarrini designed the original Lamborghini V12 engine and a prototype chassis. His namesake cars are profiled in "The Etceterini Files Part 17" (Feb. 14, 2019) and "The Etceterini Files Part 18" (Feb. 27, 2019).
Photo Credits:
Top three: Current owner of Nembo GT #2 (supplied by LCDR Jonathan Asbury, USN.)
4th thru 7th: Wikimedia
8th: Autodrome Paris
9th: Christie's Auctions
10th: Bonacini and Neri
11th: Christie's Auctions
12th & 13th: carrozzieri-italiani.com
14th: Wikimedia
15th + bottom: pinterest.com
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