The Banaszak Stanguellini Sport P1

By Howard Banaszak

One year ago, we presented the story of Candy Poole’s amazing PBX, which seemed to have no rivals in the east coast’s H Modified class. This month we tell the story of one of the few cars to give the PBX a run for its money, the Stanguellini 750 SN CS04080. Ironically, it found its greatest success after the installation of the all American Mercury outboard motor. It is a remarkable story in many ways.

After owning several Porsches, I decided to focus on the Italian sports racers and of course met Tim Ritter; Tim contacted me around 1985-86. He had found an interesting project car. It had a Devin body, but was mounted on an Italian chassis. Neither of us knew what it was, however, it sounded interesting. I purchased the car and it was shipped back to Florida. I removed the Devin body and gave it to Judge Parker for a project he was working on.

The Discovery

The chassis was in great shape. It rode on four 275 x 15 inch Borrani wheels, a transverse leaf spring front suspension, very cool Nardi steering wheel, an aluminum, riveted gas tank, a very different rear suspension with alloy trailing arms and the chassis was painted a pretty ugly aqua blue. That blue paint turned out to be key to identifying the car.

During this time I also owned a Stanguellini Formula Junior, chassis #CS0150. The chassis had some similarity to the new blue chassis. Hmmm. Sure enough, when I scraped off some paint from the rolling chassis, there it was; CS04080. I had a Stanguellini 750 Sport. I then found a small blue book on Formula Junior cars, written in 1960-61. It had a line drawing of a Stanguellini twin cam 750 Sport; it was my car!

Back in that time period, we consulted SCCA magazines from the early 1950s to 1962. The race results listed all the classes, cars and drivers. I would dive bomb the G and H Modified results. Through this research I identified three Stanguellini 750 Sports that came to the United States. All three cars had one driver in common; Sandy McArthur. Sandy was part of America’s “Greatest Generation” and lived life to its fullest. I contacted him by phone. It seems that he had all the time in the world to talk to me. I explained the purpose of my call and the matter of the blue Stanguellini chassis. He started laughing and said, “That is my old Stanguellini Mercury! I sold it to Steve Hauxhurst and we painted it blue when we removed the Stanguellini body and put a Devin in its place.”

About 2 weeks after speaking with Sandy, he called me and said, “Would you like your original Stanguellini body?” Do the bruins defecate in the shire? He boxed it up and shipped it to me and would not allow me to pay for anything. It was still painted green (he painted all his cars green) with number 89 still on the body.

With a serial number CS04080 discovered on the frame, the original body and verification from an owner, its history would now be a bit easier to ascertain. Contacting Sandy was a revelation. McArthur asked me if I knew that it was an ex-Briggs Cunningham team car when it first arrived in the U.S. I did not. This opened the door to more research on the subject of the Stanguellini racing in America.

When owned by Briggs Cunningham

Briggs Cunningham purchased one of three 750 Sport Stanguellinis that came into New York in 1954, and it was entered at Thompson on September 1954 driven by Gordon Bennet, who placed second in class in the H Modified race number 8.

At Watkins Glen two weeks later, Marshal Lewis drove it to 7th place overall and 1st in HM for the Queen Catherine Cup. On October 10th, Briggs himself drove the it to a second in the HM class at Thompson.

When owned by Kiekhaefer/Behm

Sandy then explained that after racing the car in 1954, Briggs sold the Stanguellini to Carl Kiekhaefer, owner of Mercury Outboard Motors, and an avid racer. Kiekhaefer accidentally destroyed the Stanguellini 750 twin cam motor during testing and then decided to install a 750 cc Mercury outboard into the Stanguellini. The story was first told by Jim Jenne in the February 11th 2004 issue of VeloceToday https://velocetoday.com/cars/cars_56.php:

“Sandy MacArthur, a young engineer and motorhead in the Chicago area, heard about the blown motor and attempted to purchase the remains of the Stanguellini. Kiekhaefer wasn’t interested in selling it at that time. MacArthur then asked Kiekhaefer if he would sell him a 40 cubic inch outboard to place in MacArthur’s Bandini. This got Kiekhaefer’s attention. During the winter of 1954, Mercury engineers rebuilt the Bandini with their 650cc outboard engine at no charge to MacArthur, who did very well with it the following year with full technical support from Mercury engineers.

“Because of MacArthur’s success, Kiekhaefer installed a Mercury outboard in the Stanguellini and won the land speed record for a 750cc car at Daytona Beach. The car was then sold or traded to Herm Behm, a local VW dealer.”

Herm Behm Mercury Outboard
Feb 1956 Daytona Beach 750 cc Land Speed Record
May 1956 Wisconsin 3rd class, 9th overall
June 1956 Elkhart Lake 2nd class 9th overall
Sept 1956 Elkhart Lake 1st class
October 1956 Smart Field 2nd class, 11th overall

Herm Behm finished 9th in the H modified SCCA National standings for 1956 with 1,250 points.

When owned by Sandy MacArthur

Behm passed away from cancer, and Sandy purchased the Stanguellini Mercury from his wife. Sandy was familiar with Mercury outboard powered cars, as Kiekhaefer had previously installed one in a Bandini he owned. Sandy raced the car on numerous occasions. I list only a few:
Sept 1957 Wisconsin 3rd class, 13th overall
Sept 1957 Elkhart Lake 6th class, 30th overall
October 1958 Virginia 3rd class, 9th overall
October 1958 Wilmot 1st class, 3rd overall
May 1959 Wilmot 3rd class, 3rd overall

When owned by Steve Hauxhurst

As McArthur recalled in letters to me, he sold 04080 to Steve Hauxhurst and who, with the Devin body, entered the “Stanguellini Mercury” at Road America for the June Sprints on June 17 1962 and was listed as 22nd. He placed 6th in class at Wilmot the next month on July 22 and again in August 19 at Wilmot he finished 10th in the H Modified class. At Road America for the June Sprints in 1963 June 23, he placed 21st, perhaps with a D.B. engine, and continued to campaign the car through 1965. It was then lost until eventually found by Tim Ritter and passed to me in the mid Eighties.

I now had the chassis, the history, and the original body. While I arranged for the chassis and body restoration, I pondered the question of the engine.