1950 Cisitalia 202 SC Coupe
Country of Origin: Italy
Design Info: An aluminum-bodied, two-seat sports GT car, the SC Coupe is widely considered the first modern fastback. The car’s chassis was adapted from its racing sisters, the 202 MM and SMM, which in turn were derived from the Cisitalia D46 race car’s space frame. Because of this, the 202 SC is likely the first production road car with a space frame chassis. Though heavier than its racing forebears, the 202 SC Coupe still comes in at just under 2000 lbs.
Engine Info: Like the D46 race car, all versions of the 202 used a modified version of the 1089cc Fiat 1100 inline-four, a design which dated all the way back to 1937. While the original engine made about 32 hp, the modified and performance-tuned version found in the 202 SC made 55hp, good enough for over 100 mph.
Type: As a small, low-displacement sports car derived from a racing model, the 202 SC is comparable to cars like the Maserati A6, Porsche 356, Simca 9, or MG T-type. The 202 would also share similarities with larger and later sports cars like the Mercedes 300 SL, Ferrari 166 Inter, and the Jaguar XK120.
History: It’s not uncommon for certain cars, especially in the categories of sports and luxury, to be compared to works of art. Some have a greater claim than others, however. The Cisitalia 202 SC Coupe, for example, was exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City as early as 1951, with seven other cars. Unlike these other cars, however, the museum wasn’t done with the Cisitalia, and reacquired it in 1972 for permanent display amongst distinguished works by Picasso, van Gogh, Dali, and many others. But what goes into making an automobile that doubles as a work of art? Where does one start?
In the case of the 202 SC Coupe, it starts on a soccer field (or football pitch, if one prefers). Piero Dusio played for a football club called Juventus in the early 20s, but his career was cut short due to a knee injury. He remained involved in the sport (and the club) in a managerial role, but also started a textile business focused on sports uniforms (and later sports equipment). He had a major windfall when his company was contracted to manufacture all the military uniforms for Italy by Benito Mussolini.
With this money in hand, Dusio began to pursue interest in a new sport: auto racing. His first entrance into a professional event was the 1929 Mille Miglia, an event which he competed in through 1938 with some moderate success. With World War II largely putting a hold on racing, Dusio focused on soccer, and in 1942 was appointed president of Juventus, a position he would hold until 1948.
In 1944, with the war coming to a close, Piero once again began to focus on cars. Perhaps based upon his experience running Juve, Dusio sought to put together a dream team of designers, engineers, and drivers to field his race cars under the name “Cisitalia” – Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia, a name which he had also applied to his textile company, as well as to the football club in an effort to keep his players safely exempt from military service.
First among the dream team were Fiat executive Gianni Agnelli and Fiat engineer Dante Giacosa. Agnelli was the son of Edoardo Agnelli, who had been president of Juve for over ten years while Dusio was involved with the club, and the grandson of Giovanni Agnelli, the founder of Fiat. A young vice president of the company, Gianni was heir apparent, and though he would not take control of Fiat until 1966, was influential enough to secure Fiat engines and other components for Dusio’s planned race car. Giacosa, meanwhile, was already the director of engineering and had a hand in several Fiat designs like the 508 C, as well as cutting his teeth in engineering a race car based on that model, the 508 C MM, in 1938. Working in his spare time, he began designing a single seat race car that would become the D46.
To drive the D46, Dusio recruited several talented drivers, most notably a driver he had repeatedly competed against (and often lost to) in the Mille Miglia: Tazio Nuvolari. Widely regarded as the greatest driver of his age (and perhaps the greatest of all time), Nuvolari was now in poor health, but nevertheless put on a good show, winning several races against larger, faster cars in the lightweight D46.
Overall, the performance of the D46 in competition was strong enough to convince Dusio to build a Formula One car, in collaboration with Ferdinand Porsche. However, such a project would require more funding, and Piero’s plan to acquire this funding was to build a road car based on the D46 mechanicals. This car would be called the Cisitalia 202.
Giacoso and Fiat aircraft engineer Giovanni Savonuzzi (later responsible for cars like the Fiat 8V Supersonic) worked on a two seat design that would be suitable for street use and road racing, still using the Fiat 1100 engine and a version of the space frame chassis that Giacoso had designed for the D46. An engineer, driver, and collaborator on the Formula One project named Carlo Abarth joined the project to design the racing version of the car, the 202 MM (and later SMM), and several coach builders were approached to body the road car, most notably Battista “Pinin” Farina.
The Pininfarina design (largely the work of employee Alfredo Vignale) would become the preeminent version of the 202 SC, its flowing but largely unadorned lines a stark contrast to the designs coming from other European firms at the time. Common design philosophy for cars had, in the past, been somewhat modular: Design the cabin, the engine compartment, the fenders, etc., and combine them into a functional car. Vignale’s design, instead, emphasized the car as all one single idea, with each section an extension of the last.
So impactful was this design that, in 1951, one of Pininfarina’s 202s was shown at MoMA as part of the “Eight Automobiles” exhibition, sharing space with a Mercedes-Benz SSK, a 1941 Lincoln Continental, an MG TC, a Cord 812 Beverly, a coachbuilt Bentley and Talbot-Lago, and a Willys Jeep. In 1972, Pininfarina donated the 202 to the museum, where it remains on display today.
Unfortunately, while the beautiful road cars and successful racing version of the 202 did manage to win some customers, it was not enough to fund the Cisitalia Formula One car. High development costs and the need to “ransom” Porsche from the French government (where he had been imprisoned since December of 1945) ultimately killed the project, and the 180 produced 202s across all variants couldn’t save the company’s finances.
Why it’s cool/unique/significant: Cisitalia’s short-lived efforts as an auto manufacturer might seem like a footnote in history at first glance: A scant few years building cars from a former textile company, swallowed by financial troubles as many small builders are.
Not all was lost, however. Former employee Carlo Abarth had founded his own company in 1949, and acquired what remained of Cisitalia after its bankruptcy. Abarth’s first model, the 204A, was in fact a Cisitalia design, also based on Fiat components and the 1100 engine. In some ways, Abarth could be considered the successful continuation of the brand’s heritage.
But look at the 202 SC Coupe, and the cars that came before and after. You will see the 202’s DNA in virtually every front-engined, rear wheel drive sports car that came after it. Its influence on design is frequently cited as the first modern grand tourer, the first modern fastback, the first modern sports car, or even occasionally the first modern car design. Its elegance and simple beauty somehow make it both classic and timeless.
