Piero Dusio, The Revolutionary

The incredible lifeof an extraordinary man,a skilled racing driverand a courageous entrepreneur,who lost his “revolution”but turned his dream,Cisitalia, into a legend.

Words: Mario Simoni

Photos Mario Simoni Archive

Eighty years ago, two men were about to change the history of the automobile. The first, destined to become one of the most famous figures in the world, was in those immediate post-war months building in Maranello the first car to bear his own name: Ferrari. The other, Piero Dusio—equally talented, courageous and visionary, himself an accomplished driver, a successful entrepreneur, a manufacturer, team owner and president of Juventus in the 1940s—has instead been largely forgotten by history.

Today he is known only to classic-car enthusiasts, and in particular to admirers of one marque, Cisitalia, and one model, the 202, conceived by two great designers just months after the end of the Second World War. Yet although his story has faded from public memory, Piero Dusio genuinely changed the automotive world. Without his desire to dream and to build, Abarth would never have existed, and the histories of Porsche, Pininfarina, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and celebrated coachbuilders such as Ghia and Vignale would have been very different. In the space of just three years, thanks to his ideas and boundless enthusiasm, Piero Dusio succeeded in bringing together at Cisitalia figures who were—or would become—the greatest designers in the world: Dante Giacosa, father of the Topolino and the Cinquecento; Giovanni Savonuzzi, creator of the most aerodynamically advanced cars of his time; Ferdinand Porsche and the entire technical team that gave birth to Porsche; Rudolf Hruska, father of the Alfasud and of many Alfa Romeo models; Carlo Abarth, founder of the House of the Scorpion; and, among many others, Piero Taruffi, Pinin Farina and Aldo Brovarone.

With such talent at his disposal, it would seem that any goal was within reach—and yet…

It is worth reliving the almost novel-like story of this man who started from nothing. In the 1920s he played for the Juventus first team (alongside Boniperti he remains the only individual to have been both a player and president of the club), then in the 1930s became Italy’s leading seller and producer of oilcloth, to the point of being described as the richest man in Turin after the Agnellis, of course. So much so that, passing through Piazza San Carlo—the city’s “drawing room”—people would say, with a mix of envy and admiration: “You see, this half belongs to Agnelli, and that half to Dusio.”

A fine footballer, he might have enjoyed a great sporting future had a knee injury not ended his career at just 24. He was also an outstanding racing driver, crowned Italian amateur speed champion in 1934, going on to compete in Grands Prix and finishing third overall in the 1938 Mille Miglia.

During the war years, Piero Dusio was therefore one of the most influential and respected men in Turin. Despite the countless hardships brought about by the conflict, he certainly did not stand idle. He “never bowed his head” and on several occasions helped the partisans, while at the same time maintaining relations—linked to military supplies—with the Italian authorities and the Germans. Thanks precisely to these contacts, moving heaven and earth, it is said that he accomplished one of the most difficult feats of his life: freeing his son Carlo from the clutches of the Gestapo, after he had already been loaded onto a “one-way” train bound for Germany.

This episode alone is enough to reveal his character: his tenacity, his refusal ever to give up, and his courage in confronting any obstacle. These very qualities, far from common, were what lifted Cisitalia to such heights—and with equal speed sent it plunging down again.

In 1945, at the end of the war, Piero Dusio was one of the few prominent figures in Turin with the credentials, the resources and the courage to become president of Juventus, a club whose leadership he had already joined during the conflict, when the team had taken to the field under the name Juventus–Cisitalia.

That very name and marque would, less than two years later, become famous throughout Italy—not in football, but in the automotive arena—thanks to the success of the cars built in the Turin factory that had sprung from nothing in those same months. While most Italians in the grim years of war were simply trying to survive, in the autumn of 1944 Piero Dusio decided to hire the finest Italian engineer of the period, Dante Giacosa, to design a small single-seater racing car, followed immediately by a new sports car.

As bombs destroyed Fiat’s factories, Giacosa, in the rooms of Dusio’s Turin villa, was designing a revolutionary single-seater, the D46: the first car in the world to feature a tubular chassis, a technical concept borrowed from aircraft construction that would dominate motor racing for the next twenty years. This car later became famous for one of the most iconic photographs in racing history: Nuvolari captured throwing the steering wheel to the mechanics and continuing the race regardless.

The occasion was the D46’s debut, the Coppa Brezzi on the Valentino circuit, won by Piero Dusio himself in “his” single-seater, ahead of drivers of the calibre of Taruffi, Cortese and Chiron.

The true jewel of Dusio’s career as a constructor, however, was the 202: a two-seater, also featuring a tubular chassis, which made the Cisitalia name famous worldwide. It was the unforgettable protagonist, once again with Nuvolari, of the 1947 Mille Miglia, where it came tantalisingly close to victory despite the clearly inferior power—just over 60 bhp—from its 1.1-litre four-cylinder engine compared with the far more powerful Maseratis, Alfa Romeos and Ferraris.

Yet those months of 1947 were a whirlwind of extraordinary events, all centred on Piero Dusio. While his automotive industry was being created from nothing, employing hundreds of workers, engineer Savonuzzi was designing the beautiful 202 coupé, styled and built by Pinin Farina. Chosen for MoMA’s landmark 1951 ‘Eight Automobiles’ exhibition and celebrated as the supreme expression of automotive design, it soon became the preferred choice of figures such as Roberto Rossellini, Carlo Ponti, Henry Ford II and Prince Rainier of Monaco.

But this was still not enough for the volcanic patron of Cisitalia. In those very months he was offered the chance to acquire Alfa Romeo, then in serious difficulty after the damage inflicted by the war. He turned down this tempting proposal, also because his “big coup” was already taking shape: the purchase of a series of highly advanced projects from Porsche, at that time little more than a design studio, whose head, Ferdinand Porsche—the “father” of the Beetle—was still imprisoned in France on charges of collaboration with the Nazi regime.

For a sum equivalent to several million euros today, in 1947 Dusio acquired the project for the most sophisticated and revolutionary Grand Prix car ever conceived: the Type 360, with four-wheel drive and a supercharged 400 bhp flat-12 engine. The same package also included the designs for the Type 370 coupé, with rear-mounted six- or eight-cylinder engines, which anticipated the concept of future Porsche sports cars, as well as a tractor—later produced by the Stuttgart firm—and the famous synchromesh gearbox.

What seemed a brilliant deal for Piero Dusio in reality marked his downfall and, at the same time, the birth of Porsche, which thanks to those resources was able to take its first steps as an automotive manufacturer. To develop these projects, and in particular the 360 Grand Prix, two technicians who would leave an indelible mark on automotive history arrived in Turin: Carlo Abarth, who, after inheriting much Cisitalia material—including exhaust manifolds and the famous silencers—founded his own car company; and engineer Hruska, who would later become one of Alfa Romeo’s leading designers and above all the “father” of the Alfasud.

While in 1947 and 1948 Cisitalias were defeating Ferraris on the track and the 202 was conquering the Italian sports-car market and preparing to enter the United States, work began in Turin on the 360 Grand Prix, which day by day absorbed ever greater portions of Cisitalia’s finite resources.

The project, conceived before the outbreak of the Second World War for Auto Union, would have been difficult to realise even for a major automotive manufacturer with dozens of experienced engineers, and was in reality almost impossible to complete in Turin at that time. Thus the debut of the 360 Grand Prix, planned for 1948 and then announced the following year with an exceptional driver such as Tazio Nuvolari, never actually took place.

If in 1947 Piero Dusio appeared to be the undisputed star of the Italian automotive industry, with a brilliance that seemed set to eclipse Ferrari’s, less than two years later Cisitalia was on the brink of bankruptcy. The reasons lay in the production problems and costs of the 202, the endless resources swallowed by the Grand Prix programme, the suspension of the Type 370 coupé project, and something “mysterious” that occurred in those months in Turin. It is said that Dusio attempted a “raid” on Fiat, immediately blocked by chief executive Vittorio Valletta, who cut off supplies and financially isolated Cisitalia.

Dusio’s final gamble was an agreement with Argentine president Perón to transfer Cisitalia production to South America. Thus, in 1950, Argentina’s first automotive industry was born: Autoar. The 360 Grand Prix was shipped to Buenos Aires, where, years later, it managed to cover only a few dozen kilometres.

In Argentina ended both his career as an entrepreneur and, in 1975, the life of Piero Dusio—a man who feared nothing, as demonstrated by the famous remark he once made to his technical director Giovanni Savonuzzi: “Engineer, I may ruin myself, but I will build the Grand Prix!” And indeed…

This was the swashbuckling life of Piero Dusio as an entrepreneur. As a man, he was no less remarkable: father of seven children, with two families—one in Turin and, in his later years, one in Argentina. “Always on the move and ready to face new challenges, an incredibly dynamic and charismatic personality,” recalls his daughter Carolina. “My father was a practical idealist; he knew how to turn dreams into reality. He was a kind of alchemist, able to transform raw materials into gold. Giving up was never in his nature. He was an entrepreneur fascinated by every challenge, but also a man of exceptional charisma, with a great sense of humour and an extraordinary musical talent.”

In the life of Piero Dusio and in the history of Cisitalia, nothing was ever banal, ordinary or predictable—and even his decline, or one might say his shipwreck, was dramatic. His “dream” truly deserved to be told.

---

Born in Imola in 1954, Mario Simoni has been immersed in the world of cars and racing since childhood. Growing up close to racing circuits, Simoni nurtured a deep passion for engines, which led him to a brief career as a driver in the Renault 5 Alpine Cup. However, he soon decided to leave the racetrack to pursue "real" professions, without ever straying far from his love for automobiles. Determined to combine his passion with journalism, Simoni began by publishing articles for a minor magazine. The turning point in his career came when he had the opportunity to collaborate with Autosprint, Italy's most prestigious motorsport weekly. In 1985, Simoni became part of the editorial team that launched the magazine Auto, a monthly reference for enthusiasts, where he became head of the service. In parallel, he continued writing for Autosprint, AM magazine, and contributed to the TV show Tg2 Motori on RAI. In 2001, Simoni encountered the legendary Cisitalia, a meeting that marked a turning point in his career. Fascinated by the numerous aspects of this historic car manufacturer, he dedicated himself to uncovering the brand’s still-hidden secrets, culminating in the publication of his book "Un sogno chiamato Cisitalia", an important work that sheds new light on the history of one of Italy’s most iconic car manufacturers.