ITALIAN TORPEDO; 1947 BANDINI FIAT 1100 SILURO.(NEWS)

Byline: ERIC TEGLER

REBUILDING AFTER World War II was harder if you lived in one of the countries on the losing side, such as Italy. But Ilario Bandini had been somebody before the war, a mechanic and a Lancia dealer in his hometown of Forli. With the hostilities over, he was determined to be somebody again, building race cars that would carry his name from Europe to the United States.

This is his second car, a 1947 Fiat 1100-powered Siluro racer. It set the stage for a succession of Bandinis that raced in the States through the "50s. As was typical in postwar Italy, the car was built with whatever was available; the body was made from hand-hammered aluminum and the chassis from aviation-grade tubular steel. The body reflects shapes that Bandini considered efficient. Siluro is Ital-ian for "torpedo, and, like the drop-tank Bonneville lakesters of the early 1950s, this car has a low drag number.

Bandini united body and frame with Fiat's 1,089-cc four-cylinder but fitted a cylinder head from an Alfa Romeo straight-six, custom cut and milled. With twin Webers feeding the fuel, the hybrid engine produced about 65 hp. Paired with a four-speed nonsynchro gearbox, the Fiat block sat low in the chassis, which rode on an independent suspension (front wishbones) with a rear bridge and leaf-spring arrangement. With cycle fenders and Borrani knock-offs, the ...