VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

The envelope, please. And the winner is…

By

Readers were captiviated by this Bandini Saponetta owned by Marc Richelsoph.

1957 Bandini DOHC “Saponetta”

“Saponetta” means little soap bar, for being small and slippery. The unique patented oval tubing, lightweight engine, and aluminum body form one of the lightest race cars built in its day.

Built in 1957, this particular car was raced in Italy by Ilario Bandini before being imported into the U.S. in 1959. It was then raced extensively at locations such as Watkins Glen during the 60’s. It is one of nine known to exist and one of the few with its original hand hammered aluminum body and original twin cam engine. The engine consists of a heavily modified Crosley block with an aluminum twin cam cylinder head designed by Ilario Bandini. By using twin Weber 32DCOA3 carburetors, the engine can achieve 68 H.P with a maximum RPM of 8500. Today it is owned by Marc Richelsoph.
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Congratulations Marc and we hope you will enjoy Dino Brunori’s book “Nardi, a fast life”. Our thanks to Dino for contributing this book for our contest.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. You bet, I want to keep my subscription Alive!
    this is my only way to keep informed & revive my memories of the past
    Greqt JOB keep doing it, you are doing an extremely great JOB
    merci beaucoup mes amis
    thanks my friends

    Serge from NIce, France

  2. Is this the US Crosley, as advertised in the back pages of Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Mechanix Illustrated . . . ? Or the Irish, with I think a double ‘ss’ and no proprietary engine?

  3. candy poole used to race the PBX with twincam head on a crosley block but the head was candy’s own design. engine produced 78 hp on the dyno. he used to terrorize the 1100 boys with it. with my 750 osca i couldn’t catch him on the straights but mine handled better tyan the PB in the twisty bits.
    > jack

  4. The Irish Crossle is a company formed by John Crossle (Kross-lee) that produces primarliy small displacement formula cars Formula Ford, FF2000 and sports racers. Crosley (Kroz-lee) produced complete cars in Cincinnati Ohio and many engines that were inserted in many small displacement sports racers, formula cars and racing boats. A Crosley Hotshot (750cc) won the first race at Sebring, towed to Florida from Cincinnati on a boat trailer donated by Powell Crosley, the car’s designer and manufacturer. The early Crosley engines were fabricated and welded together, however these developed coolant leaks so the Crosley brothers developed a cast block that was the base for the later engines.

  5. Love the shape of the winner. Smooth Elegant and a hint of my all time favourite
    the Maserati 300s

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