Simanaitis Says
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GOODING AUCTION
THERE ARE 156 cars coming up at the Gooding & Company auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, January 18 and 19, 2013. For full details of the auction, see www.goodingco.com. More than a few of these cars jump off the catalog page for me, for quite different reasons. Here are a couple of them.
One of less than 30 examples, this 1947 Cisitalia 202 SMM is particularly aerodynamic for its era. All images from the Gooding & Company Scottsdale 2013 catalog; Cisitalia photos by Mathieu Heurtault.
1947 Cisitalia 202 SMM Spider Nuvolari. Italian industrialist Piero Dusio had businesses as varied as sporting goods, textiles, hospitality and banking; he called them all Consorzio Industriale Sportivo Italia or Cisitalia. After World War II, he hired talented Fiat engineers to add automobiles to this consortium.
The Cisitalia 202 SMM doesn’t have an unflattering view.
The first were Monoposto race cars, and then Cisitalia turned to two-seater sports versions similarly based on Fiat running gear. The 1946 202 GT, bodied by Pinin Farina, is so beautiful there’s one in the permanent collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. And the 202 SMM was so successful in the 1947 Mille Miglia that this one earned the name Spider Nuvolari.
Famed driver Tazio Nuvolari, aging and ill, finished 2nd in torrential rain that year in the 1000-mile race. His Cisitalia was bested only by Clemente Biondetti’s Alfa Romeo of more than two and a half times its displacement.
A modified Fiat ohv inline-four displacing 1089 cc powers the 202 SMM.
Previous owners of this particular Cisitalia Spider Nuvolari include car pal Oscar Koveleski, Can Am privateer, founder of Auto World and KidRacers (see www.kidracers.com) and guiding light of the Polish Racing Drivers of America. I was elected Member #54 of the PRDA; I realized only later that everyone is Member #54 in honor of Oscar’s Can Am car number.
1939 Talbot-Lago T150 C Coupe. Another famed Italian industrialist, Tony Lago, rescued the French Talbot operation of Anglo-French Sunbeam Talbot Darracq in 1935. A result of this is the elegant Talbot-Lago T150 C Coupe.
The Talbot-Lago flashes more chrome than would a British car of the era, but less than its custom-coachwork French counterparts. Talbot-Lago photos by Mike Maez.
Built on a 116.1-in. wheelbase, the car is a true four-seater. Yet it’s beautifully proportioned. There are splashes of chrome, but these are subtly employed in fender trim and greenhouse detailing.
The T150 C Coupe’s styling displays what some have called “controlled exuberance.”
The Talbot-Lago’s engine is a 3996-cc ohv inline-six. Tony Lago had worked with the Wilson Self-Changing Gear Company, and the T150 C’s transmission is a 4-speed Wilson Preselect gearbox, identified by its selector quadrant on the right of the steering column. As the name suggests, this gizmo prearranges the next gear; full depression of the clutch brings about the actual shifting.
The interior of the T150 C is a rich, inviting place. The gizmo on the right of the steering column is the Wilson gearbox’s preselector.
Initially owned by a French doctor, this particular Talbot-Lago spent WWII in hiding. It came to southern California in the 1950s and was acquired by R&T neighbor Richard Straman in the mid-1970s. Richard and his Straman Coachworks brought the car to First in Class honors at the 1986 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
A year later, the car was a subject of an R&T Salon article. The Talbot-Lago T150 C Coupe was a beguiling object d’art then; it continues so today. ds
Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2013
Simanaitis Says 
Great to see the Talbot again. I recall helping Richard Straman (in my own small way) with the restoration along with a gang of great friends one summer (we nicknamed the car ‘Tony’). It was amazing to see Richard craft those razor sharp, curvaceous fender scallops from a flat piece of metal. He is truly an amazing craftsman. The car has a Wilson pre-select gearbox as well, and I was privileged to be able to drive it once…it is quite a fun, sporty ride. Jeff Zwart also photographed the salon on the car for Road & Track.
Regarding Cisitalia, my old friend Don Murphy’s 1947 202SC is perhaps the most extraordinary example of the marque. His is the actual car – SN 42 – shown at the N.Y. Museum of Modern Art in 1951. The Cisitalia that’s there now was given to MOMA later by no less than Pinin Farina himself.
The story of Don’s acquisition is serendipity. He crossed paths with this car in his early years, working part time for a previous owner, Randy Persall, who sold it soon after. Having lost track of it for ten years, he happened to spot it while on a drive (in spite of being fairly hidden from view), subsequently bought it, and restored it. As they say, it must have been in the cards. His next show is The Keenland Concours d’Elegance, in Lexington, Ky.
In 1988 I was in Grade 12 and we had a class called “Theory of Knowledge” which covered a number of philosophical topics. One unit was on the question of “What is Art?” as part of this we had to do presentations where we brought an object or pictures of something and argued that we thought the thing was art, or was craft or kitch or just some functional thing. I remember bringing the R&T article on this car and another R&T Salon article on a 50’s Testarossa and I argued this this Talbot was so perfectly elegant it actually crossed over into art, whereas the Testarossa was merely functional. I don’t think there was anything else in particular to the argument, but looking at it now, I still think I was right. What a beautiful car.
I recently completed a restoration on a 1938 Talbot Lago T23 . My car is the spitting image of this one interior and all. I would love to see some additional photos, or speak with the owner to compare notes . The only other I’ve seen like it was in “Talbot” by Spitz.. Listed as a “Lago” special. Those involved, feel free to contact me.