Nardi-Personal SpA
Nardi-Personal SpA, formerly Nardi & Danese and Officine Nardi & C. is an Italian manufacturer of car accessories in Turin, who also built sports and racing cars until 1957.
History
Nardi was employed by Lancia from 1929 to 1937 and then by Ferrari, before he became self-employed in 1946. In 1932 he built together with Augusto Monaco the Nardi Monaco Chichibio, a single-seater with a 1000 cc motorcycle engine from JAP, Founders of the company were the former racing driver and engineer Enrico Nardi and Renato Danese.
Augusto Monaco was also involved in the construction of the small sports cars with BMW, Lancia and Fiat engines, the Nardi brought out in the late 1940s. To these sports cars came 1951 a Formula 2 monoposto and a record car added. An unusual vehicle was a sports car prototype, which was developed in 1954 at Automobili Nardi in 1955 for the 24 Hours of Le Mans developed Bisiluro (two torpedoes) with a 735 cm³ engine Giannini aggregate was installed transversely and horizontally A 735 cm³ Giannini aggregate was installed transversely and horizontally, the development of racing prototypes under 1-liter displacement. Leading the way were French manufacturers such as Panhard, Deutsch & Bonnet and Monopole, which had their special designs, especially at the 24-hour race at Le Mans success. In Italy, it was the car company Nardi that took this trend into account. For the Le Mans race of 1954 they developed a small racing car with a 748-cc engine. In the absence of a matching Italian engine, it opted for a US Crosley engine.
The car was driven by Mario Damonte and Alexandre Gacon. In the second hour of the race, however, the early finish after a defect in the water pump. The 750LM was used only once and replaced a year later by the futuristic Nardi Bisiluro . On the racetrack the car was extremely unstable. Even with a slight crosswind, the vehicle could tip over. In the race, the car crashed after five laps. Damonte came into the roundabout traffic of top vehicles. The wake, which was triggered by the much faster 3-liter cars, lifted the Bisiluro and overturned. However, the pace of the race car was so low that the Nardi was only slightly damaged and the driver remained unhurt. Nardi did not pursue the concept and the Bisiluro was no longer used.
In 1957, Nardi stopped building automobiles and concentrated on the manufacture of accessories, especially steering wheels. The best-known product is the Nardi steering wheel with wooden rim, aluminium spokes and the lettering E. Nardi. On 1 March 2005 Lorenzo Cerofolini took over the company, which in the meantime under the name Nardi-Personal SpA firmierte and is continued under this name.
