The Remarkable Restoration of a Rare Stanguellini Part 1

By Howard Banaszak

I did not suspect that when the latest issue of Road & Track appeared on my doorstep in August of 1980 that it would be a turning point in my automotive life. There was an article about Kas Kastner and his Crosley-engined Siata 300 BC Spider, chassis ST 412 BC. The photos of the Siata showed a car that hit every note for me. The lines, the size, the proportions talked to me.

At the time I owned several 356 Porches, but by 1984 had sold all but one. I was going to focus on what John De Boer called “Etceterinis.”

Two great things happened next. I contacted Jarl de Boer, as he and his son John were mentioned in the R&T article. Jarl generously mailed me a copy of the “Registry of Italian Oddities” authored by John. It was unbelievable, full of cars I had never heard of, race histories and even better, chassis numbers. I still recall spending several hours reading John’s masterpiece.

Be sure to read the sidebar below: Tim Ritter and his Backyard Bandinis

I then met Tim Ritter; his knowledge of cars through his business was amazing. Our taste in cars were identical. My entire collection is based on his recommendations, which leads me into my “As Found” story, one of the best restoration tales I know.

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.

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! Cutaway below by Theo Page Copyright Autosport. This was probably found in the book “Formula Jr.” by Harry Morrow, printed in 1961. Perhaps readers can confirm this!

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 stared 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.”

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Tim Ritter’s Backyard Bandinis and others

Next: The Body