By Roberto Motta
Photos courtesty of Roberto Motta, Dino Brunori and Alessandro Nassiri © Archivio Museo Scienza
As we have seen, (Read Nardi at Le Mans Part I) despite the early retirement of his car in 1954, Damonte was still eager to compete with a Nardi at Le Mans. At some point in 1954, the engineer-architect, pilot and aircraft enthusiast Carlo Mollino was taken by the lines of Damonte Le Mans OSCA. Mollino had been hired by Damonte to redesign his personal apartment and the two shared an interest in cars. Using a photo of the OSCA as it appeared in a magazine, Mollino began to sketch out an idea for an aerodynamic body that would not cover a racing car chassis, but instead, a chassis would be constructed to conform to the streamlined body. Mollino became part of a new project to create a new car for the 1955 Le Mans. It would become known as the DaMolNar (Damonte/Mollino/Nardi Bisiluro.)
Mollino first designed a car with an aerodynamic nose, no radiator, modeling it like a thin airfoil and then began to add essential elements. The final design was a totally asymmetric car, consisting of two separate nacelles.* The left side contained the engine and transmission; the right side was dedicated and designed for a driver of small stature (less than 5 foot 7 inches).
Drawings by Carlo Mollino were surprisingly close to the finished Bisiluro.
