Siata Topolino Sport MM 750
Etceterini.com is the place to be if you’re obsessed with small displacement Italian wizardry of the 1950s. If it’s swoopy, aluminum, high-revving, low torqueing and ends in an “i” this is a domicile you can call home. Let us not forget, however, that there are some non-i-ending cars here too. Siata, for instance, and not just the well-known models like the 300BC and the 208S. Etceterini.com-master Cliff Reuter covers the Siata gamut, including the pre-war Sport 500, the post-war Amicas, Dainas, Gran Sports, as well as various coachbuilt Otto Vus.
Then there’s the 1952 Siata Topolino Sport MM 750, a car that came to the attention of Reuter in 2006. Reuter first became aware of this diminutive torpedo from a stack of unlabeled photos he received as part of a deal involving his acquisition of a 1951 Bandini. There were many cars pictured in the photos he received, but Reuter found one car especially intriguing and pleasing to his eye. Reuter said, “I started doing research and learned this car was the 1952 Siata Topolino Sport MM 750, which raced at the 1952 Mille Miglia as Car # 2334. Driven by Carlo Falli and L. Jorio, the Crosley-powered Siluro finished 109th overall and an impressive 3rd in Class S750. This car was also raced at the 1952 Circuito de Chieti, but I have been unable to document the specific result. The next known competitive outing was in 1954 at a Cumberland (Maryland) event where J.G. Whitlock drove the car to 1st in the H-Modified Class. It was raced later that year at Atterbury Air Force Base where it came home 3rd behind Sandy MacArthur’s Bandini Siluro and Bud Seaverns’ Siata 300BC.”
Reuter’s burst of excitement about this racecar slowly dissipated as vigorous digging led to it seemingly vanishing in the early 1960s. After that it had gone missing and following many conversations with others in-the-know, all experts had concluded that this one was probably lost forever.
Reuter went on in other directions as his website contains hundreds of other Etceterini cars and receives thousands of hits per month. Gradually, the Sport MM 750 fell from his radar, as other small Italian shiny objects took its place.
Then, out of nowhere, Reuter was contacted in 2014 by a gentleman named Joe who had been studying Etceterini.com looking for information about his Bandini. Joe had parked his car on the property of a friend more than 30 years ago. Stored outside, in Florida, the car had suffered from the elements with brush nearly engulfing it. Joe remained enamored with his car, but now in his 80s he knew he was no longer capable of restoring it. So he reached out by email, hoping that Reuter would consider being the car’s next caretaker.
Reuter said, “Joe and I had a wonderful conversation and I asked him to email me photographs of his Bandini. I was disappointed that I never heard back from him. I later learned that he had had a major health setback and from there I lost contact with him. A few months passed and out of the blue I was contacted by a guy from Hemmings.com who told me someone named John wanted to talk to me about a Bandini he’d been storing on his property for a friend. My suspicions that this was Joe’s car were confirmed within the first 30 seconds of my conversation with John. It was interesting to learn that John had no idea that Joe had contacted me about the car a few months earlier; independently both men had found me from my website.”
The next twist in the story was a real shocker. Reuter said, “It took more than a month for John to email me photographs of the Bandini in the brush, but when I received them it was pure joy. There was nothing Bandini about this car and I instantly knew what I was looking at. This car was the long lost Mille Miglia-raced 1952 Siata Topolino Sport MM 750, the car that I had wondered about years before. What I’ve now come to understand is that at some point in its history the car had been race-entered as a Bandini and from that point forward subsequent owners considered it such. In addition to the original chassis and aluminum body, John had also been storing a period-correct 750-cc Crosley engine inside his shop.”
Reuter says he got very excited as he knew he was just the right person to bring this car back to life. After some negotiating Reuter, partnering with his cousin Ed McCoy, was able to make a deal to purchase the car and all of the associated components. And then he took his family out to his favorite Italian restaurant.
Once they had the car in their physical possession, Reuter and McCoy carefully began to examine the Siata. “The original all-aluminum body was strikingly intact,” McCoy said, “considering it sat outside for more than three decades. The Siata-modified Fiat Topolino A chassis was original to the car but did not fare nearly as well. The frame was all there, but in need of serious rust repair and will require replacement members in several areas that are too far gone. The construction of this car was quite wonderful considering the day in which it was built. Front suspension has the wheels independently sprung by a semi-elliptic leaf spring mounted transversely, connected directly to the top of the steering spindle and with triangular lower control arms connected to the spindle base. Telescopic shock absorbers were used to dampen movement. The rear suspension has quarter-elliptical leaf springs with coil overload springs on a solid rear axle. Movement is dampened with telescopic shock absorbers and a transversely mounted stabilizer bar to reduce sway. The Crosley four-cylinder engine was equipped with a Braje head and oil pan, all thankfully stored inside, and should be no problem to rebuild.”
Reuter and McCoy are busy restoring their beloved 1952 Siata Topolino Sport MM 750, and one day hope to show it at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. That will not only be a treat for the cousins, but for all in the hobby who appreciate wonderful and historic racing machines. Reuter is hardly alone in his love of all things tiny, zippy, and Italian. However, I can think of no one more deserving of owning this sublime Hidden Treasure than he.
