Story by Dino Brunori

Enrico Nardi, described by the Americans ‘the wiz who can squeeze more power from an engine than the official R&D of the factory’ is a name well known to all car enthusiasts. His career began in 1930 with Fiat as a test driver. In 1932 he went to Lancia where he became the pupil of Vincenzo Lancia, then in 1937 landed a job with Scuderia Ferrari with increasingly greater responsibilities, so much so that from 1940 he was Enzo Ferrari’s right-hand man.

The adventure with Ferrari ended in 1947, when, after receiving a substantial cash settlement together with the remaining pieces of engine type AAC 815, Enrico returned to Turin and with a partner, Renato Danese, established Nardi Danese. The company’s purpose was the construction of sport cars and the production of components for tuning engines.

From here started an adventure that unfolded for fifteen years, not only creating tuning accessories but also about sixty beautiful cars; sports racers, F2, and F3 open wheelers, GT cars, show cars for exhibitions, and models produced on commission. Most of them had a tubular frame, of which Nardi was the forerunner, and powered by a variety of engines, such as BMW, Maserati, Lancia, Alfa, Fiat, Panhard, Crosley, and even Plymouth. Bodied by the most talented masters of Turin such as Allemano, Bertone, Boano, Frua, Motto, Vignale, they were unique or were produced in very small batches.

Nardi Danese 750 BMW today preserved in original condition in a collection in Italy.

The first sport cars built in 1947 were a small number of siluros (torpedoes with mudguards) equipped with a 750 cc twin-cylinder engine taken from the BMW R 75 motorcycle, which were available in abundance in the war surplus scrapyards, and promptly tuned by Nardi who built an unbeatable hillclimb car. This was followed by a sport car with an 8 cylinder 1500cc engine, called ‘Marco’ by the customer, Count Rudy Crespi. It was in many ways the copy of the AAC 815 and was made using the components received as a settlement of the Ferrari years. Why do we talk about these two models? Because we will find them later engaged in various editions of the Mille Miglia.

In 1948 Nardi Danese constructed five sports models with the ‘marine’ Alfa Romeo 2500 cc 6 cylinder engine: it was a splendid car equipped with an open wheel body designed by Bianco and built by Motto. Its limitations were the excessive weight and the low power of the engine. With only 150 hp, it actually didn’t deliver more than 125 hp and was never truly competitive. Three of these cars entered the Mille Miglia; number 30 of Tadini / Canavesi, with the number 65, Gurgo Salice / Rosa, and with number 251, Beneventano / D’Agata. None of them reached Brescia, being all forced to retire due to trivial mechanical failures.

The Beneventano/Danese Nardi-Danese at the Mille Miglia in 1949. The car failed to finish.

In 1949, two of these ND Alfa 2500 models were at the start: with the number 636, Beneventano / Danese and with 646, Gurgo Salice / Cornaggia Medici, whose body was replaced by Motto, at the request of the owner, with a more comfortable coupe model to deal with adverse weather conditions. Again, neither of the two cars arrived in Brescia and after this race their Italian history ends.

The 1950 edition saw the start of the flagship model of the ND production, the slim car powered by the 750 cc BMW engine: the Scala / Trevisan crew, with number 244, tried the adventure. Unfortunately for them, the ND 750, unbeatable in short races and hillclimbs, was absolutely unsuitable for long distances, so that after Rome they are forced to retire.

The Nardi-modified Lancia of Bracco/Maglioli arrives at the finish of the 1951 Mille Miglia, in second place behind the big 4.1 liter Ferrari of Villoresi.

The most prestigious result for Nardi came in the 1951 Mille Miglia, albeit indirectly. The link between Enrico and Lancia had always remained very close, and on the upper floors of Borgo San Paolo they were well aware of the tuning ability of the small workshop. So when Nardi launched a number of components designed to enhance the power of the Lancia Aurelia B20, including a special intake manifold and a new-profile crankshaft, the company decided to entrust him with the preparation of the four official cars entered in the race. The result was astonishing, with the cars achieving respectively 2nd, 5th, 7th and 16th overall, with the Bracco / Maglioli Lancia arriving in Brescia only twenty minutes behind the winner, Villoresi who was driving a Ferrari 340 America of displacement and power more than double of the Aurelia-Nardi.

Nardi driver Valenzano starts at Brescia with the 750 cc BMW powered Nardi in the 1952 event.

Two Nardi cars were engaged in the 1952 Mille Miglia. The first was the ND BMW 750 owned by Valenzano, the top driver of the marque, who was paired with Da Milano, and started from the platform of Viale Venezia with the number 2240. The model again proved unsuitable for long distances, abandoning the race before arriving in Rome. The second ND present was the ‘Marco’ 1500 8 cylinder. After Count Rudi Crespi transformed it into a splendid cabriolet with Bertone bodywork, as a wedding gift for the bride, the car came into the hands of Ilfo Minzoni, a Tuscan gentleman driver of remarkable stature.

Minzoni sent the car back to Nardi to get it ready for the race, and for the occasion the body was replaced by Motto with another, taken from the car of Gurgo Salice in 1949, readapted with the wraparound mudguards in accordance with the new rules of sports code. But the Minzoni / Baggiani crew, starting with number 540, was no more fortunate than the other ND cars and was forced to retire shortly before reaching control at Florence.

At the ‘53 Thousand Miles a ND BMW 750 with Lombardi / Prati, number 2230, was entered, but the car did not show up. Instead, Minzoni with the ND 1500, tried again with his partner Sarti. This time his attempt was successful: they placed 47th O/A and 6th in class. In 1954 we find another ND 750 BMW with Tommasinelli / Fabbri, who started with the number 2300. But they didn’t reach Brescia, because an engine failure obliged the two friends to leave the race near Viterbo.

The Dubois Nardi, with a Frua body, Nardi frame and Peugeot engine is seen in the Italian countryside during the 1955 event.

The ‘55 Mille saw a Nardi Dubois car at the start. It is a model built at the end of 1953 by Nardi in four units with a coupe body by Frua commissioned by the Parisian dealer of Peugeot, Marcel Dubois, from which it takes its name. The car had a tubular chassis and the Peugeot 203 engine developed by Nardi with specific components and a displacement of 1500 cc. The crew David / Terray, who started with the number 553, completed the race 52nd overall and 5th class.

ND Alfa 948/5 as today owned by Dick Deluna. The author is in the passenger seat.

In 1957 Nardi, riding the wave of success of the Fiat 600 model, presented its own coupe version with an engine enlarged to 750 cc and Vignale bodywork designed by Michelotti. The car, known as the Fiat Nardi 750 Vignale, was produced in small series and a sample, driven by Timossi / Da Milano, participated with the number 27 in what will be the last real Mille Miglia: it ended the race with an insignificant 223rd O/A and 43rd in class.

Enrico Nardi died of leukemia at the age of 59 on August 1966. And here our story ends, but I am sure that a question arises: what happened to his cars? Those who were among the most charismatic and iconic cars of their period have survived in about forty specimens, scattered throughout the world between the USA, Europe and Japan and jealously kept by today’s owners. And this exclusivity shines through the very few appearances to the Mille Miglia retrospective, so much so that since 1982 there have been fewer than a dozen occasions in which a car with the ND shield on the bonnet was seen again in Viale Venezia.

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Dino Brunori is the author of Nardi, A Fast Life.

Here is a review of his book:

Enrico Nardi, A Fast Life

The Bonetto Alfa Romeo as rebodied by Vignale in 1951. It disappeared in 1955. Photo from ‘Alfa Romeo Milano.

This article is from the VeloceToday archives, November 21, 2103

By Pete Vack and Dino Brunori

Perhaps the mystery of the missing Alfa Romeo 412 began back in 1975 with the publication of the photo book, Alfa Romeo Milano. British journalist Michael Frostick captioned a picture of Felice Bonetto’s special-bodied Alfa Romeo thusly:

Something of a mystery. The Alfa Romeo files say “16 cylinder 4500 Mille Miglia 1954 (Bonetto).” One can only assume a car was made up with a bored-out version of the Type 162, 3 liter, 16-cylinder car, or more likely, someone has made a mistake somewhere!

Indeed there was a mystery and a mistake, as Alfa 2.9 sleuth Simon Moore realized. The Bonetto car was fairly well documented in a variety of contemporary magazines as one of the four 1939 V12 (not a V16) Tipo 412 Alfas, rebodied post war by Bonetto via Vignale. The serial number was 412151, and after it was retired from competition in 1952, it was offered to Henry Wessells III for $3200 by Franco Cortese in 1954. Henry missed the deal and the car reportedly went to Spain. But by 1955 there was no trace of the car. It had seemingly disappeared, as old race cars are wont to do.

Tracing the engine

Although the Bonetto car was not specifically an Alfa 2.9, it nonetheless was part of the family and of great interest to Alfa historian Moore. By the time Moore wrote the second edition of his landmark book The Immortal 2.9 in 2008, he was on the trail of the remains of the car and the engine, but couldn’t quite pull it all together. The rare Alfa V12 engine provided the clue. It was known that the 412 engine was in the possession of Roberta Nardi, daughter of car builder Enrico Nardi. Enter Simon Kidston, working for Brooks Auctions. In mid-March of 1996, Kidston recalled for Moore, “I was contacted by Gino Macaluso, the owner of the Girard-Perregaux watch company. Roberta Nardi, whose father Enrico had left her an old Alfa Romeo engine which was languishing in the basement of her home near Turin.” Kidston recalls that Roberta didn’t know which car it had come from, but she wanted to sell it. Kidston put it up for auction in 1998, and it went to Lawrence Auriana from New York. Moore put the information in his 2008 revised edition, but the whereabouts of the body and chassis remained a mystery.

VeloceToday Editor Pete Vack, while on an interview with David Letterman in 2000, met Letterman’s car handler, Francois Sicard, at his shop in Connecticut in 2000. There, he almost tripped over a large, strange looking engine. Sicard was completely silent on the subject, but it Vack soon determined that it was an Alfa Romeo 412 engine but had no idea what car the engine came from or who it belonged to. The connection to Auriana and the Nardi sale and, eventually the Bonetto car and a special Nardi came much later.

Investigating the Nardi connection

While Simon Moore continued to track the Alfa side of the story, back in Turin, Dino Brunori was deeply involved in writing his landmark book Enrico Nardi, A fast life. For years Brunori gathered missing Nardi documents and with the help of the late Andrea Curami and John de Boer, published his book in 2009.

One of the documents found by Brunori was a letter dated January 1962 to Road & Track in reference to photographs for an article about a new project. Nardi could not provide photos of the car he was building “as we are required not to divulge anything by our customers.” The car in question was a special Nardi to be powered by a Plymouth Golden Commando 300hp V8, commissioned by William Simpson of Miami, Fla. (Simpson also owned the Nardi “Raggio Azzuro.”) With the help of Otto Vu author Tony Andriaensens, Brunori obtained photos of the Simpson car under construction at the Michelotti workshop in 1962, and was able to determine that Simpson took delivery of what was a beautiful and fast GT car.

This photo is courtesy of Tony Andriaensens and shows the Silver Ray being constructed at Michelotti’s shop.

Brunori also knew that there was a connection to the Bonetto car. On a register of technical drawings pertaining to the Simpson GT (named Raggio de’Argento, or Silver Ray), Brunori noted that it read, “AR modified frame-Raggio d’Argento”. That was one clue, as the Simpson car had a frame that was seemingly constructed from a variety of sources. A second clue came from journalist Jean Bernardet who was close to Enrico Nardi. In an article written in the 1970s about the Raggio d’Argento, Bernardet wrote that Enrico Nardi was a friend of Felice Bonetto, and that the Simpson Nardi was built with “mechanical parts derived from Alfa.” Finally, it was known that the Alfa 412 V12, s/n 412151, was still in the hands of the Nardi family. Alas, the whereabouts of the Simpson car itself was not well known at the time.

Enrico Nardi, left, and Michelotti pose with the Raggio d’Argento, The finished car was shipped to William Simpson in September of 1961. Courtesy Dino Brunori

Brunori published all these clues in his book, and then laid out the pros and cons of the assumption that the chassis of the Bonetto 412 had been incorporated into the Simpson “Raggio d’Argento.” The use of the V8 would have required the modification of the entire front part of the chassis; the Plymouth also used the automatic transmission, instead of the Alfa transaxle, which would require more changes. Brunori asked why Nardi had embarked on such a complicated job simply to recycle an old Alfa racing chassis; it didn’t make sense. But he noted that the front suspension of the Silver Ray was Alfa and the rear featured semi elliptic springs, so perhaps it was the Alfa chassis after all.

Back to you, Simon

In the 1970s, Alfa doyen Luigi Fusi had told Moore that the chassis had been used by Nardi to build a special car for a U.S. customer, but at the time, Moore had looked Stateside. “Mistakenly, I thought I should be looking for a Nardi-Danese 6c2500.” In 1980 he found a chassis which he thought to be the ex-Bonetto car. But it turned out to be an 8C2900A chassis which Moore then restored for himself. The search for the Bonetto chassis resumed.

Another view of the Plymouth-powered Silver Ray shortly after completion. Courtesy Dino Brunori.

After the publication of Nardi, A fast life, Simon Moore put two and two together, and agreed that the Silver Ray probably did make use of parts from the missing 412 chassis. It was discovered that the Silver Ray was sold in 1967 to David Hersh, who died in 1985. The car then was shown at a Sacramento concours by J.B. Moak in 1986, and then sold to a Monroe Strawn. It was finally re-discovered, returned to running condition and is now in the hands of Julian Majzub in the U.K. as reported in the Automobile magazine of September 13 and Classic and Sportscar magazine, August 2013.

Marc-Wallach next to the Bonetto Alfa at the Nardi garage in 1959. Courtesy Dino Brunori.

Meanwhile, in Turin…

In Italy, Dino Brunori was also doing more detective work. He found a photo from American Marc Wallach at the factory in 1959. Marc was photographed standing by the Bonetto Alfa—though hardly noticeable, enough of the coachwork was in view to recognize the Vignale body. That put the Bonetto Alfa on the premise shortly before the Silver Ray was constructed. Then, in 2010, Brunori found more eye witness evidence. We’ll let Brunori take it from here: “Three years ago I was introduced to Miss Felicita Vigna, a charming lady who lives in the suburbs of Torino and was the last personal secretary of Enrico Nardi. She worked in the company from 1962 to 1971 and she has a few memories about the commercial side of Silver Ray. She recalled how the car was commissioned, about a visit of Mr. Simpson with the car while under construction, and the relations with Michelotti.”

Felicita Vigna with a Nardi in 1961. Courtesy Dino Brunori.

“In 1966 she married Pierluigi Chiara, who had joined Nardi in 1963 coming from Abarth. He became Enrico’s right hand man. Mr. Chiara joined the company too late to know the story of the Silver Ray, but he had a friend, still alive, by the name of Mr. Italo Garessio who was in the company from 1959 to 1970. Mr. Chiara arranged for me a meeting in his office in Torino with all of us. In the picture from Italo’s Nardi days, he is on the left and Pierluigi on the right. Italo is a witness of the 412 story and more important, he worked on the car! He personally cut the tubular chassis with a blowtorch, re-welded part of it, mainly the front and part of the rear, the frame supporting the fireproof bulkhead, and matched all the pieces with a boxed-steel frame to strengthen what was then used as the chassis for the Silver Ray. The V12 engine, gears, and transmission were set aside for future needs [and finally sold in 1998]. The aluminum Vignale body was parked for a while in the courtyard under a canopy, and then later handed to Rocco Motto as aluminum to recycle for other bodies.”

Garessio is on the left, Chiara on the right during their time at Nardi. Courtesy Dino Brunori.

So ends the search for the Bonetto Alfa V12. Or does it? At this time, there are no chassis numbers yet available to verify the obvious conclusion. Moore states that it is now in Majzub’s fabulous collection. Says Moore, “Whether he will use his large collection of Alfa Romeo parts to restore the Bonetto 412, or keep it as a magnificent example of American-Italian cooperation with its unique Michelotti body, is not yet known.”

The Nardi Silver Ray today. Photo copyright and courtesy of Simon Moore.

By Dino Brunori

A couple of years ago VeloceToday did the book review of my book Enrico Nardi, A fast life and wrote, “Once the book is more widely distributed, more information will no doubt surface.” I’m sure that regular aficionados of VeloceToday are curious to know if something happened in the meantime. The answer is yes, and here are three different stories of recent Nardi barn finds.

In spring 2010, eBay listed an ad showing a BMW 750 twin motorcycle engine with a ND (Nardi Danese) stamping on it with a serial number of 110. A quick across-the-ocean call to John de Boer to cross-check our databases, and we ended up with the same conclusion: this particular engine was originally installed in Nardi chassis number 952/2. This car was purchased by Ferdinando Gatta, the brother-in-law of Gianni Lancia, and had a long racing career in seasons ’52 and ’53 in Italy before being sold in the USA by Tony Pompeo, continuing its career in SCCA races up to the early sixties. 952/2 was still in the States, in the hands of a collector who lives in Florida, and at the time had a Ford engine installed.

Once the owner of 952/2 knew of the BMW engine, it took him only 10 minutes to decide to purchase it to bring back the car to its original condition. This alone was a breakthrough, but the best of the story had still to come.

Barn Find Nardi Danese 750

Recently we had reason to get in touch with the seller of the Nardi Danese BMW engine as listed on eBay. During the conversation, he mentioned that he knew of a person with who had kept a Nardi BMW parked in the garage for the last 50 years with a blown engine. This led us on another chase but several attempts to contact the Nardi owner had no result at all; he did not reply to messages on the phone, to emails, nor would he even open his door when de Boer went to visit him. A dead end, it seemed.

The Gougelmann Nardi Danese 750 as found. (Also in lead photo.)

In late spring of this year, I received an email from a man who lived outside of Chicago named Nick. He had just purchased a Nardi Danese 750, stored for a long time along with engine # 103 but blown, and was looking for advice about the restoration. It registered quickly; it was clear that Nick had managed to wrestle the Nardi away from its reclusive owner.

Gougleman, far left, at MacDill AFB in 1953 with the Nardi. Courtesy Cliff Reuter and etceterini.com.

And what a find, for it was a Nardi 750 with an enviable race record, the ex – Gougelmann ND 750, the notable winner of so many races in the ’50s.

Barn Find Nardi Barchetta

During my research for the Nardi book, I had access to the archives of Pietro Frua. Thankfully, the family still takes care of a wealth of documents. Among them I found a folder with the title “Bodies made for Mr. Nardi” containing a few pictures of the pretty barchetta and coupes built in 1951–53 with a note specifying the number of bodies. There was actually a number written with pencil indicating the number of cars built. The number looked like a 6, but it was not very clear.

The Frua-bodied Nardi 750 Crosley when new.

I had found evidence of 4 cars: a barchetta built in 1951 with a Panhard engine for the French pilot Berthomier, a Nardyna coupe with a Panhard engine shown at the Paris Salon de l’Automobile in 1952, and two barchettas with Crosley engines built for Wacky Arnolt in 1953. We concluded that of the 4 cars, the first two disappeared, and the Crosley barchettas were still around and in the hands of American collectors. But what about the number 6 listed by the Frua files?

Frua 951-2 as found. The body is in remarkably good condition but the BMW engine is missing.

Last February I received an email from a French enthusiast who was looking for help and information because he was starting a restoration project of a Nardi originally fitted with a BMW 750 twin. The pictures attached to the email left me breathless. It was a Frua-bodied barchetta with a chassis number not in my listing. I cross-checked with de Boer and he did not know of this car either. The remainder of the story explains what ‘barn find’ means for a car collector.

Photo of the rear of the Nardi barchetta.

The car was found in the late ‘70s by the father-in-law of the current owner in a garage located in a small village south of Paris. It was sitting in a corner, covered with dust and with a blown engine. Nobody was interested in it, but our French enthusiast fell in love with the design of the car. He purchased it and parked it, hidden by a cover in his garden, and forgot it for more than 30 years, waiting for a more opportune time to start the restoration. That moment came a few months ago, when he sent me his email. Today the tubular frame looks a little bit corroded by rust, but the aluminium shape of the Frua body still shines. Conclusion: I’m almost sure that the number in pencil was a 6, not a 4 or a 5, and the challenge today is to find the one more missing Frua!

Barn Find Nardyna Coupe

A couple of weeks ago I received an email requesting information and it came from another Frenchman, and he too mentioned a Nardi car. I was a little bit curious and suspicious in the meantime. Why suspicious? Because I’ve seen even recently traders selling cars badged as Nardi that have nothing to do with a real Nardi car. Sometimes it is just an upgrading of standard cars using one or more original bits, sometimes a ‘mix and match’ of papers, but generally my archives tell me the truth very quickly.

Nardyna coupe as shown at Paris, 1952.

So I questioned the Frenchman, asking for more details about his car, the story as he knew of it, where the car was, and so on. When the answer arrived, it had pictures attached. Another surprise! They showed the Nardyna Coupe presented in Paris in 1952 that we all thought was lost. I eventually doubted of the existence of the car when I wrote my book, having received from a German friend two pictures that showed what looked like the rear of the Nardyna. But there was no evidence of where and when the photos were taken, so I stored them in my ‘maybe still existing?’ file.

Nardyna coupe as it appears today. The body is in very good condition.

The car seems in fair condition but in need of a total restoration. It has lost its original Panhard Dyna Type 120 engine, but the Frua body is still there, complete with all the peculiar Frua details like the ‘shark nose’ front grill and thinned tail lights. The story goes that this car was hidden in a barn for a long time, and that the current owner knew of it, but it took him more than 20 years to convince the previous owner to sell it.

Nardyna's Panhard engine is gone but finding another should be no problem.

To sum up, we believe that the number 6 on the Frua files was correct:

One Barchetta with a BMW 750 in France recently found per above.
Two Crosley engine Barchettas still in the U.S. with collectors.
One Nardi-Panhard built for French pilot Berthomier (presumed lost).
One Nardyna Coupe, in restoration in France per above, long thought to be lost.

This leaves one more Frua to be found. It could be a barchetta or coupe with any one of three engines; BMW, Panhard, or Crosley.