Before Ferrari, before Maserati, before Italy’s Motor Valley…there was Stanguellini. The heritage of this historic family business is preserved in a marvelous museum in Modena.
Francesco Stanguellini began in the bicycle business in 1900. He followed a logical progression, from bikes to motorcycles to automobiles. Stanguellini and Modena are inseparable. Signore Stanguellini even licensed the very first car in Modena. This 1908 Fiat Tipo1 wore the first license plate, 1 MO, and Stanguellini became the first Fiat dealer in Modena.
When Signore Stanguellini died at age 53 in 1932, his son Vittorio took the helm of the family business. He was just 22, with a focus on improving the performance of Italian production cars. His dynamometer tested and tuned engines for all the motor manufacturers in and around Modena, customizing common family cars into lightweight racing machines.
The big change came in 1937 when Signore Stanguellini launched the company’s first racing team, entering modified Fiats and Maseratis into some of Italy’s most prestigious events. Stanguellini cars won the 1937 Targa Florio and the ‘38 Mille Miglia.
In 1947, Stanguellini produced the Alla d’Oro, literally a “golden wing.” With an aluminum body by Bertani and a Fiat 508C powerplant upgraded by Stanguellini, the Alla d’Oro’s 1100 cc engine produced 77 hp. This beautiful car could cruise along at 100 mph.
Race cars were the core of the family business, but in ‘47 Stanguellini produced this road car, a Bertone-bodied Berlinetta, based on a Fiat 1000 chassis. 100 of these cars were produced, some with the 1100 cc engine, others with a 1500 cc powerplant.
In 1948, Vittorio Stanguellini had this 1/3 scale race car made for his son Francesco. It’s a child-sized version of a Maserati racer. Francesca Stanguellini, daughter of Francesco, granddaughter of Vittorio, and great-granddaughter of Francesco…opened the hood to reveal a small surprise: The 98 cc Vespa engine that powered her father’s mini racer.
Vittorio Stanguellini was both a friend and a foe of Enzo Ferrari. The two Modenese competed in countless car races but remained close off the track.
Equally important as his friendship with Ferrari was Stanguellini’s association with legendary F1 driver Juan Manuel Fangio. Fangio encouraged Stanguellini to build cars to race in the Formula Junior series, cars that first competed in 1958. The Stanguellini Formula Junior cars looked like scaled-down versions of the Maserati 250F, powered by Fiat 1100 engines that had been modified and upgraded. Before the series faded away, more than 200 Stanguellini Formula Junior cars had been built and raced, and Signore Stanguellini became known as “the father of the Junior cars.”
In the early 1960s Stanguellini developed a car they called the Delfino (“Dolphin”), a mid-engine racer with a distinctive sharknose front. At about the same time, Ferrari was building their own shark-nosed car. No one knows for sure which Modena car builder was first with the sharknose, and which one inspired the other…Signore Stanguellini or Signore Ferrari.
Under the hood of this all-aero Colibri (“Hummingbird”) is a 250cc Moto Guzzi motorcycle engine and a Stanguellini tubular chassis. Signore Stanguellini built this car in 1963, and it set six world speed records on the banked Monza track.
This Stanguellini is the SEFA 740, built in Paris in 1958 with the cooperation of the Société d’Etudes Françaises Automobiles. Three of these 741 cc race cars raced at LeMans in ‘58. Only one finished.
For ten years, from 1948-58, Stanguellini produced the Barchetta 750 Bialbero. With a top speed of 130 mph, a tubular steel frame, and an aluminum body, this car weighed only 400 kilograms (880 pounds). Suspended from the ceiling above is the wireframe mold used to form the aluminum body of the Barchetta 750 Bialbero.
Under the bonnet of this 1957 Lotus Eleven chassis is a four-cylinder, 1100 cc Sanguellini engine. Colin Chapman replaced the usual Coventry Climax powerplant with a twin-cam Stanguellini motor.
A final bit of trivia: Museo Stanguellini worked with director Michael Mann to provide work benches, drawing tables, welders, pliers, screwdrivers and other tools to give the new Ferrari film a realistic look and feel. This photo is from the actual set of the movie. Note the small “Hot Set” sign on the silver car.
Museo Stanguellini is open to visitors, but bookings must be made in advance. There’s more information here.
