Etceterini; Small Italian race cars built from 1937 to 1965

Cliff Reuter gave me permission to enter the Jerry Melton photo collection here on TRS.
He has been pleased with how they have been presented and received and now has given me the OK to attempt to input some of his vast resources and knowledge on the Etceterini collection.
By definition etceterinis are hand made small displacement Italian racing cars which were produced from the late 1940's to the early 1960's. Most of these beautiful cars used Fiat running gear and had their own chassis, hand hammered aluminum bodies, and engines. They raced throughout Europe in races such as the legendary Mille Miglia and also competed heavily in American SCCA racing.
In general, Etceterinis were raced in only two places; in Italy and post war, in the U.S. In Italy to compete in the Italian Championship for sportscars, and in the U.S. to find success in the SCCA’s H modified classes, for many years limited to 750 cc. G modified classes accommodated 1100cc sports racers and there too, one would find a variety of Bandinis, Abarths, and Nardis.
Some etceterini examples.
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( Ken H )

The underpinnings of Formula Junior there?

When the desire to race is strong and the wallet is skinny, there has to be an answer and this was obviously one answer.

Keep 'em coming...

Cliff Reuter's site is great reading for the fans of "mobile chicanes".

There were at least 84 different constructors of small displacement racing cars to compete in the Italian National Championship races. . Etcetera, from which the word Etceterini is derived, means ‘and so on’ or ‘and the like’.
I can't cover each constructor but will enter some when time permits. (I am off to get my beauty sleep before the All Black V England game starting at 1 am our time !)
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(Ken H)

Ken H .. Etcetera Etceterini .. The All Blacks play 9;00 pm in Aotearoa - the broadcast is on free to air TV and starts at 7;00pm with a lot of preamble - hope I last long enough !! .

The Kiwitahi connection - sent you an Email - will send John Mitchinson [ Mitchison ] a copy of that School List..
The Small world thing - you have dealings with Eric that I met in California in 1982 and your brother was in the same class as John - my companion at Pukekohe and neighbour .. Cheers
Roger

Some Etceterini vehicles on the historic Mille Miglia course 2010-2011.
Beautifully shown in these Hugues Vanhoolandt photos.
Notice how large the occupants appear in these tiny Italian racers !
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(Ken H)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Roger Dowding

Ken H .. Etcetera Etceterini .. The All Blacks play 9;00 pm in Aotearoa - the broadcast is on free to air TV and starts at 7;00pm with a lot of preamble - hope I last long enough !! .

The Kiwitahi connection - sent you an Email - will send John Mitchinson [ Mitchison ] a copy of that School List..
The Small world thing - you have dealings with Eric that I met in California in 1982 and your brother was in the same class as John - my companion at Pukekohe and neighbour .. Cheers
Roger

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Pity about the result Ab's vs my Fathers Team = England .. hope you got to get back to sleep - I did manage to stay the distance here in NZ ..

Cliff Reuter writes; " This magnificent Bandini was produced by the legendary Ilario Bandini. Bandini lovingly created 75 cars by hand from 1946 until 1986. The Siluro (torpedo) had removable fenders and was therefore eligible for both the Italian formula 3 series (open wheel 750 cc) and sports car races such as the Mille Miglia. These little cars also raced in America where they won the SCCA class H Modified national championship in 1955 and 1957. Jack Reuter has owned this example for over 20 years. It features a Bandini 750cc DOHC engine. It is all original".
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Ilario Bandini driving his 750 Siluro in 1956.
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An early Bandini 750 engine.
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A beautiful wee car from any angle.
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(Ken H )

Ken,
" Bandini 750cc DOHC engine. " That is brilliant - and look at that engine - twincam with style .. Testa Rossa = Red Head.

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Makes a more Modern take look bland - Bandini has those Glorious Webers hanging off the side of it - compared to all complexities of EFI. 1989 on ..

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The valve angle is obviously 'old school' and extreme compared to modern engines...

But anyone who does that sort of thing is worthy of commendation.

The second Bandini Siluro built in 1947 now beautifully restored. "The Italian Torpedo".
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( 2008 Autoweek article.)

Only in America !
Not all Bandini Siluros had 750 cc engines as seen here in these 1961 scenes of a slightly modified 1954 Bandini.
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One would have to be brave with the lack of safety features etc. to drive this little beast !

(Ken H )

" Cut and Shut " Nah !! " Cut and stretched " - what a sad fate for a beautiful little car .. but then where else in the world would a single seater Ferrari GP car become a Corvette powered Morris Minor Special ?? Allcomer Saloon
-he was only travelling in a " sort of " straight line.
Where do you find this stuff Ken H ??- supposed to be working I thought .. he he ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_EuVzTiTTM

Give me a break Roger, I get off at 4 pm and did this at about 4.15 pm. CA time.
I'l be 71 in 3 weeks and you guys are all retired, playing lawn bowls, darts or down at the pub,while I struggle away over here trying to put food on the table,so back off. OK.:cool: (Just kidding Roger.)

Anyway here is another Bandini Special.
1953 Bandini Siluro MG 1250cc "Uihlein Special"

The David V. Uihlein Special
" David Uihlein was a sports car enthusiast living in Wisconsin. At the age of 16 he landed a summer job in the Milwaukee shop of racing legends Carl and Tudy Marchese. Following his formal education and an apprenticeship at the family brewing business (Schlitz),
The Uihlein XPAG twin cam engine
The interesting part about the Uihlein special is its engine. The bottom end is an MG TD 1250-cc XPAG unit, chosen for its reliability and also because it was significantly less expensive than an Offy engine. On top of this block sits a hemispherical head with dual overhead camshafts. The head and cam housings are cast in nickel-alloy steel. The stock cam was left in the block to drive the oil pump and distributor while the two overhead camshafts are gear driven. Dual S.U. carburetors feed the fuel mixture to the intake ports on the left side while four ports lead to four straight pipes on the right side of the engine. The hemispherical head allows valves that are approximately 40 percent larger than original. Published reports of the time claimed the Uihlein engine would produce 90-bhp, significantly more than the 54-bhp of a standard XPAG engine, although the compression ratio was not reported. Don Marsh, a Columbus, Ohio racer who drove MGs in the early 1950s remembers seeing the bright purple Uihlein special at a race at Cumberland in the mid-fifties. We were pretty worried about it, with its special engine. But it wasnt very fast and we had no trouble beating it.

David Uihleins intention was to offer a competition model built in Milwaukee to customers and to also provide the twin-cam head in kit form so that others could build their own twin-cam T-types. Neither plan came to fruition. "

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Some comparison photos of a 1960 "Birdcage" Maserati and a beautiful 1955 Bandini Siluro owned by the Reuter family.
(Cliff Reuter photos )
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(Note the tyre width difference )



(Ken H)

" Give me a break Roger, I get off at 4 pm and did this at about 4.15 pm. CA time.
I'l be 71 in 3 weeks and you guys are all retired, playing lawn bowls, darts or down at the pub,while I struggle away over here trying to put food on the table,so back off. OK. (Just kidding Roger.) "

All good Mate

Ken H - I clocked 72 last month and as of today 1st November - have been retired for 5 years - so if you are still doing it -
" what you enjoy "- at 71 Good on You - my last couple of years of work were hard - the people were mainly good but the Corporate Bulldust was not .. My occupation these days [ apart from the Motoring Archives - unpaid ] - is a bit of dog minding and lawnmowing for a lady who travels a bit - pocket money not wages.

Cheers from NZ
Roger D

as the post #15 is full of engines here is another one -not Italian though.

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The Bandini Siluro was an early race car for a young Mark Donohue about 1960. Note it is RHD and has a special roll bar.
I found this comment about this car.
"1. stephen griswold says
August 26, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Thanks for the photo of Mark in the Bandini Siluro (Torpedo) that I used to own. I bought it from Bob Satava in Ohio years ago and Burge Hulette was one of the listed owners. The car was originally ordered by Hank Rudkin ( Pepperidge Farm Bakery) in Norwalk Conn. The car is easily recognized because it is the only RHD Siluro that was built and for the horrible roll bar ( seen in the picture) that was still on it when I bought it. Hank ordered the car without an engine and put a Crosley mounted to an MG TC gearbox in it after it arrived. Shortly thereafter he installed a 2 Cyl Saab to make it more competitive. I brought it to Europe and it now resides nearby in Desenzano del Garda. Had I know of its Donohue history I would have asked for more $$$$."

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The RHD Bandini before the roll bar.

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A young Mark Donohue with his Bandini Siluro in the background.


(Ken H )

In the US the need for more engines in the 750 cc SCCA class racing was met when Ilario Bandini and US industrialist Powel Crosley, Jr combined to produce some fascinating engines. The Bandini used both a modified single overhead cam almost stock looking Crosley and the highly modified dual overhead cam version where Bandini built the block and head assembly. Some reports are that the true Bandini Single Overhead cam engines also had a removable head like the dual engines and were 4 port intake.
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Crosley also built what was known as the "Tin Engine"
Crosley CoBra Engine 1945-1949

The post-war Crosley models were powered by an innovative four-cylinder, overhead-camshaft engine, originally designed by Lloyd M. Taylor during WW2 to run generators. Instead of being cast as most other engine blocks were, it was built up from an assembly of steel tubing and stampings. These parts were assembled in a jig, then copper brazed together at high temperatures. The copper brazing process gave the engine name, CoBra.

With a 2.5" bore and 2.25" stroke, engine displacement was 724cc, or 44 cubic inches. A vertical shaft with bevel gears was used to drive the overhead camshaft instead of a more conventional chain drive so that the lubricating oil could be fed up through it to pressure feed the cam bearings. The CoBra engine had a compression ratio of 7.5:1 making 26 horsepower at 5200 RPM.

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Read more at this site.; http://crosleyautoclub.com/Mighty_Tin.html




(Ken H.. )

The Crosley engine continued.
Crosley CIBA Engine 1949-1952

In 1949, the Cobra engine was replaced by the new and more reliable CIBA (Cast Iron Block Assembly), a water-cooled inline-four cylinder engine utilizing five main bearings. Displacement was 44 cubic-inches, or 724cc.
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Throughout the early fifties, Crosley cars dominated 750cc sports car racing, winning 10 out of 12 SCCA west-coast races alone. A Crosley HotShot also won the 1950 Sebring endurance race, an event that used a formula to measure cars against each other based on engine displacement. After six hours of racing, a stripped-down HotShot finished ahead of others in its class with an average speed of 52 mph ! (Wow )
1949
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More Crosley CIBA engine information.
http://crosleyautoclub.com/EngineTre...ng_Tree-2.html

A Bandini Siluro with a Crosley also did well at Vero Beach, Florida, in 1955.
(Ernie McAfee was a popular driver here at the local Santa Barbara Airport races.)
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(Ken H)