The Goldmanini

Any information on an Italian special that was known circa 1956 as the "Goldmanini" would be greatly appreciated.

The car reputedly was designed by Savonuzzi, and may actually be an SVA or Cisitalia. The car came to the US without a motor, but a Cisitalia motor was obtained thru Savonuzzi himself.

Thye car appeared at a show in the Detroit area in 1956, and from the photo I have seen, appears to have been cream or white.

Later, the car had a Mercedes 190 motor stuffed in. The car resided in Michigan for many years, but has been in southern California for at least 25 years.

The body is a pretty spider, by Rocco Motto. The chassis is tubular, and might be by Gilco, but they can find no drawings of a chassis that looks like this one..

Stu - I cannot help - but I just thought your thread looked so lonely without a single response....

DCN

Although I should have been doing other things, I DID take time to look around in my files for something, but came up empty-handed...

Unlike Doug, I was not considerate enough to at say that I had at least tried....

Doug and Don:

Thanks anyway for trying. I appreciate it...
Stu

Regarding the Goldmanini. Whilst working for Karl Ludvigsen, I'm pretty certain I came across this rather handsome white, barchetta style bodied car in his photo archive. I simply cannot remember what it was based on, but Karl certainly knew about it. Hopefully he will read this thread and put us out of our misery.

Yes, Karl Ludvigsen did photograph the Motto-Cisitalia spider corsa (Goldmanini) in about 1956, at John Camden's garage in Pontiac, Michigan. It had been discovered in Italy by Paul Farago and Virgil Exner in 1954. They shipped it to Detroit and it was bought by Max Goldman, who named it a "Goldmanini" and showed it at the Henry Ford Museum 3-month long show SPORTS CARS IN REVIEW in 1955.

After it came out of the show, Goldman sold it (minus its Cisitalia engine & gearbox) to Dan Hosler, a Pontiac engineer. Dan had John Camden install Dan's MGTD engine but that didn't work well so it was taken out. It was during this period that Karl Ludvigsen photographed the car at John Camden's.

The Motto-Cisitalia sat engineless for a number of years until Dan installed a rebuilt Mercedes 190SL engine & gearbox. He had sold the beautiful finned aluminum brakes to Martin Tanner for one of his Tanner Specials, and lost a bunch of other parts.

When I found the car in 1973, it still had the Mercedes 190SL engine which had never been hooked up.
In fact, the Motto-Cisitalia has been driven less than 75 miles -TOTAL - since it was found in Italy in 1954! It's taken me a lot of years to find the right parts, and I'm still missing the Jaeger tachometer. There's a picture of the exact tach I need on page 96 (lower photo) in ABARTH - THE MAN, THE MACHINES by Luciano Greggio. This type of Jaeger tachometer/rev counter was also used in the supercharged Type 57 Bugatti. If anyone has one they don't need, I'll buy it or trade (I have a great Jaeger speedometer for a Talbot Lago, and a tach for a early Ferrari).

I've owned the Motto-Cisitalia spider corsa for 31 years, and I've never heard it run, but I'm hoping to finish it this year, before I get too old to enjoy it. It will be done as a nice "driver" and not a trailer queen!

"I've owned the Motto-Cisitalia spider corsa for 31 years, and I've never heard it run, but I'm hoping to finish it this year, before I get too old to enjoy it. It will be done as a nice "driver" and not a trailer queen!"

Good on you, Peter! I'd love to see that car moving under it's own power. Let me know the day and I'll be there with a bottle of good wine to celebrate.
Anton

Me too!

I recently was able to purchase the correct Jaeger rev counter out of Italy (thank you tony for letting me know it was on eBay) and just got a top cover and shift lever for my gearbox, so my Motto-Cisitalia 1100 spider corsa is coming along.

Now if I could only find out its Italian history from 1948/49 until 1954.