Farmer's son who created beautiful and successful cars
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| Ilario Bandini, the car maker, pictured in 1988 |
Ilario Bandini, a businessman and racing driver who went on to construct some of Italy’s most beautiful racing cars, was born on this day in 1911
in Villa Rovere in Emilia-Romagna.
His cars won races in Europe and America and his designs
earned the respect of the great Italian performance car maker Enzo Ferrari.
Bandini was from a farming family but was fascinated with
cars and motorcycles and began to work part-time as a mechanic while he was
still at school, eventually becoming an apprentice in a workshop in nearby
Forlì.
At the age of 25 he took the bold decision to move to
Eritrea, then an Italian colony, in northern Africa, where he repaired trucks
and in time set up a transport business, which was very successful.
The venture made him enough money to open a garage in Forlì. when he returned to Italy in 1939, running a repair workshop alongside a car
rental and chauffeured limousine business.
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| Bandini at the wheel of his first car, the Bandini 1100 |
At around the same time, he began to compete in motorcycle races,
soon graduating from two wheels to four. In 1940, he took part in the Mille
Miglia, the 1,000-mile road race from Brescia, near Lake Garda, to Rome and
back, driving a Fiat Balilla.
Bandini built his first car almost by accident. In his possession during the Second World War
was a Fiat 1100, which he cut apart and hid to avoid it being requisitioned by
the German army. He began to reassemble
it after the war but made adaptations as he did so and equipped the chassis
with an entirely different body, made in aluminium by the Turin coach builder
Rocco Motto.
He felt entitled to call the car the Bandini 1100, which thus
became the first car – “La Prima” – to carry the Bandini name. The small,
two-seat car was notable for its elegant, curved lines. Driving it himself, he finished second in the
Predappio to Rocca delle Camminate, a road race held just outside Forlì.
The Bandini badge Ilario placed on the car featured a bantam
rooster crowing, the symbol of the town of Forlì.
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| The 1100 Siluro, which brought Bandini his first race victory |
More cars followed. His 1100 Siluro, so-called because of its
torpedo-like bodywork, gave him his first win in the Giro dell’Umbria,
encouraging him to produce purpose-built racing cars to compete in races such
as the Mille Miglia in Italy and the SCCA series in America. They were soon a force
to be reckoned in Europe and the United States.
The model that established his reputation was the Bandini
750 Sport Siluro, a tiny sports car that he produced between 1950 and 1956. The
car used a modified inline four cylinder Crosley engine, produced by Powel
Crosley Jnr, an industrialist from Cincinnati, Ohio, who owned the
Cincinnati Reds baseball team.
The 750 Siluro was versatile enough to contest all kinds of events,
from hill climbs to road races, airbase circuits and endurance events.
In America, the Siluro won the SCCA class championships in
1955 and 1957 and claimed many other victories in different categories on both
sides of the Atlantic.
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| The Bandini badge, featuring the crowing bantam, symbol of Forlì |
Known to his friends as Lili and sometimes referred to as
the “great Drake of Forlì”, Bandini never moved into mass production cars. There were 17 different models but all of his
vehicles were one-offs, in effect, which is why only 73 Bandinis were ever
built. His final car, the Berlinetta
1000 Turbo 16V, was finished shortly before his death in 1992 at the age of 80.
Extraordinarily, Ilario was still getting behind the wheel
to compete himself even into his 70s. He drove his 1300 16Vi in the Predappio
hill climb in 1985, at the age of 73.
Members of Bandini’s extended family have preserved the
memory of his achievements in a museum established in his last workshop in Forlì., which has many documents relating to his career and 10 Bandini cars,
considered to be representative of the development of the marque. There are thought to be 46 surviving Bandinis, owned mainly by Japanese and American enthusiasts.
Travel tip:
Villa Rovere was a hamlet at the time of Ilario Bandini’s
birth. Situated some 13km (8 miles) west of Forlì, it is now part of the city’s
metropolitan area, almost a satellite community. Forlì itself is a wealthy city with thriving clothing
and footwear industries and a number of notable buildings, including the
Basilica of San Mercuriale in the central Piazza Saffi, the Pinacoteca Comunale
art gallery and the Rocca di Rivaldino, once the fortress stronghold of the redoubtable
Caterina Sforza. Local restaurants are
notable for Romagnolo cuisine.
Hotels in Forlì from Hotels.com
Hotels in Forlì from Hotels.com
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| The Bandini Collection is housed in a museum in Rovere |
Travel tip:
Ilario Bandini’s achievements were recognised in 2002 – 10
years after his death – when in a special ceremony in Forlì, a square just in
front of the city’s railway station was renamed Piazzale Ilario Bandini in his
honour. The museum – the Collezione dell’Automobile
Brandini – can be found in Via del Braldo in Rovere, although note that viewings are by appointment.
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