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formula junior cars

Fiat 1100 Part 6

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Meico Koudstaal owned this OSCA Formula Junior car several years and participated it in many races on European circuits. Photos courtesy Coys Classic Auto Auctions

Story by Gijsbert-Paul Berk

The Formula Junior was the brain child of Giovanni “Johnny’ Lurani, an Italian nobleman, engineer, racing driver, speed record holder, author, publisher and the Italian representative in the CSI (International Sporting Commission) of the FIA, the governing body for automobile sports. Like Piero Dusio before him, he saw the need for a new formula for affordable single-seater racing cars, allowing a new generation of drivers to gain experience. True or not, at the time some thought and even wrote that Lurani promoted his Formula Junior idea to compensate for the lack of success of Italian cars and drivers in the British dominated 500 cc. Formula 3. However, in October 1958 the FIA officially recognized the International Formula Junior.

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Ex-Cunningham Stanguellini

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Story by Sean Smith

By his own estimations Bill Gelles has owned and raced in a Stanguellini longer than anyone else in the world (with hats off to Howard Banaszak!) Gelles has steeped himself in the history and lore of all things Stanguellini. When Gelles sat down and spoke to Vittorio’s son Francesco, Francesco told Bill “You know more of the history of these cars than we do.” Well, almost. Bill had learned a lot.

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A Touch of Dante’s Genius: The Junior Racers

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Meico Koudstaal owned this OSCA Formula Junior car several years and participated it in many races on European circuits. Photos courtesy Coys Classic Auto Auctions

Story by Gijsbert-Paul Berk

The Formula Junior was the brain child of Giovanni “Johnny’ Lurani, an Italian nobleman, engineer, racing driver, speed record holder, author, publisher and the Italian representative in the CSI (International Sporting Commission) of the FIA, the governing body for automobile sports. Like Piero Dusio before him, he saw the need for a new formula for affordable single-seater racing cars, allowing a new generation of drivers to gain experience. True or not, at the time some thought and even wrote that Lurani promoted his Formula Junior idea to compensate for the lack of success of Italian cars and drivers in the British dominated 500 cc. Formula 3. However, in October 1958 the FIA officially recognized the International Formula Junior.

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Autosud vs. the Stanguellini

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Ed McDonough taking the Autosud for a quick lap.

by Ed McDonough
Photos by Peter Collins

This article, first published in 2003, was noticed by the Italian creator of the Autosud Napoli, and eventually resulted in the fascinating story related by Mr. Rosa Rosa about how he constructed, lost and found again the three Autosud Formula Juniors in 2007. Below, Ed McDonough drives one of the Rosa Rosa Autosuds and compares it to the finest front-engined Junior of the era, the Stanguellini. [Read more…] about Autosud vs. the Stanguellini

Lancia Dagrada Restoration

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Lancia Dagrada Chassis 001

Review by Pete Vack
Photos courtesy Leo Schildkamp

In October of 2004, Leo Schildkamp became the owner of a Lancia Dagrada Formula Junior, chassis #001. It had been in an incident at Goodwood in 2003 and had been significantly damaged.

The Dagrada after the Goodwood shunt. It was purchased in the above condition.

Schildkamp would spend the next several years restoring the car, one of perhaps ten Formula Juniors built by Angelo Dagrada from 1958 to about 1960. When the restoration was complete, Schildkamp gathered the notes and photos of the car’s history and restoration and instead of putting them in a loose-leaf binder, used a vanity press called ‘blurb’ to produce a hardbound booklet. There is very little text, but a great deal of photos and information about Dagradas, most in color.

[Read more…] about Lancia Dagrada Restoration

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