Martes - Verona - Cisitalia

I have come across two old photos of a "hemi" twin-cam cylinder head marked "MARTES VERONA" on the cam covers. On the margin, in pencil, is written "CISITALIA". The head looks to be for a Fiat 1100 and mounts two twin-throat Weber side draft carbs. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Martes is covered in the book "La Sport E I Suoi Artigiani 1937-1965". There were only 3 cars.

Martes stands for Modifiche Auto Riparazioni TESini. Tesini was the person involved.

The first car was actually a transformation of the Fiat 1100 Milan Bertone, in 1952. It had new coachwork by Toricelli, that looked like a longer, flater Porsche 356, with an elongated oval grille, kind of like a Cisitalia. ...and kind of like the body on one of the very early Maserati A6s.

The second car had a Cisitalia 204 chassis, and looked somewhat like a Siata 208 spider, but with no doors and cutouts that went almost to the top of the chassis (kind of like the Razzo). This was 1955. No mention of the cachbuilder, but could be Motto. The motor had a Martes twin cam head. The bore and stroke were 68x75. Hp was rated ast 85@6600.

The 3rd car with a Mertes 1500 twin cam, 78x78, similar to OSCA, and looked very mid-1950s Ferrari. No Hp rating given. Date is 1956.

Later, Martes became the Lotus dealer for the Verona region of Italy

Here is a link to the page in the book on Martes. I think you may need to buy the book, as there are a lot of photos in it on other "etceterini" marques I had never seen before. Libreria 'dell Automobile still has it at 93 Euros plus post..


http://new.photos.ya...8804224488714/0

Thanks Stu. I guess I'll have to buy that book. I've been trying to use my money to get all the parts I need for both my Cisitalia cars - and boy is that getting expensive!

Originally posted by vintageautomobilia
Thanks Stu. I guess I'll have to buy that book. I've been trying to use my money to get all the parts I need for both my Cisitalia cars - and boy is that getting expensive!

Well, the book is about $150 including post (93 Euros plus post), from Libreria 'dell Automobile. I bought 10 copies at wholesale when it first came out about 4 years ago, but they are long gone. I think I sold them for $100 plus post. The price from Libreria 'dell Auto is still a lot cheaper than the price for Cisi parts.....

Here is a direct link to the book...

http://www.libreriad....asp?IDBook=850

Stu