By Pete Vack
Photos Copyright Alessandro Gerelli
Alessandro Gerelli has accumulated hundreds of photos from the many Mille Miglia events over the past few years. We thought we might use a few to help illustrate OSCA’s meeting with Porsche in the 1954 race. In addition to Alessandro’s photos, we are fortunate to have obtained permission from LMG Auto and the widow of Carlo Demand, to publish the image of the Hans Hermann Porsche Spyder as the occupants ducked under a rail crossing. The drawing was first published in “The Big Race”, in 1956. More of Carlo’s work can be seen, and ordered, from www.lmgauto.com.
Carlo Demand's work depicts some of the greatest moments in racing history, such as Hans Hermann's remarkable 1954 Mille Miglia.
In the fifties, sports car racing was more national than international. Cooper and Lotus raced primarily in the British Isles (and the US). VP Renaults and Deutsch Bonnets tended to stay in France, and Porsche and Borgwards rarely left the Fatherland. OSCAs and Stanguellinis, then fierce competitors, fought long and hard battles in the many road races and hill climbs in Italy. But four, maybe five, times a year at the major FIA events such as Le Mans, the Mille Miglia, and Nurburgring, the cars of all nations gathered together to compete for overall and class victories.
We apologize for the lack of serial number information on the OSCAs pictured herein. In 1954, Giulio Cabianca piloted an OSCA similar to this one. But despite a new 1500cc engine, he failed to beat Hermann's Porsche.
In 1954 after successes in both the 1100 and 1500 cc classes in Italy and the US, OSCA had virtually no peers. But in May of 1954 the factory Porsche team entered the Italian dominated Mille Miglia, ready to do battle with the remarkable four-cam Porsche 550 Spyder. OSCA was about to meet Porsche.
OSCA came to the event with the latest MT4 1500 for the experienced and fast Cabianca. On paper, the two cars looked equal, each with about 110 hp, and each weighing in at 1300 lbs dry. But on the road, the speed and handling of the Porsche was astonishing, and the Spyder, driven by a young and hungry Hans Hermann, proved too much for even Cabianca.
Fittingly, the Porsche 550 Spyders were also on hand at the Mille Miglia. But today, the results are irrelevant.
In order to beat the Italians at their own game, Hermann drove the race of his life. Approaching a blind railway crossing at 160 kph, he was amazed to find the crossing bars down! Realizing that late braking was out of the question, Hermann and his co-driver both ducked, and the low slung Spyder just made it under the downed crossing bars. Later Hermann recalled that “something flashed over our head — and we were through, only a couple of millimeters in front of the train!”
The MT4 1100 of Barthelemy and Barthelemy.
Cabianca finished an honorable second, but still ten minutes behind the twenty five year old German. The defeat stung. Ernesto Maserati went to work on a new desmodromic valve design, and introduced the TN (Tipo Nuovo) MT4 as an interim solution. At Le Mans a month later, OSCA brought two 1500s, but Porsche entered four 550s, and despite running on only three cylinders at the end, a Porsche won the class.
This MT4 1100 was built in 1953 and driven at the MM retro by Pickering and Earl.
The Macklin-Leygonie OSCA, leading the disabled Porsche, was disqualified for having obtained assistance after an off-course excursion. But it would have been a hollow victory. On four cylinders, the Porsches were clocked at over 137 mph on the Mulsanne straight, versus the OSCAs 125.46 mph. The days of the MT4 were numbered. The desmo OSCA never quite worked out, while Porsche went from strength to strength. And back in England, the fire pump Coventry Climax SOHC was being installed in Colin Chapman’s very advanced Lotus Mk 11.
Things would never be the same.
A very rare 2000S, one of three built in 1954. Entered in the Mille Miglia 2004 by Reiss and Sgorbati.
One of the rare OSCA coupes, this is s/n 1136 with a Vignale body.
Original configuration for OSCA in the late 1940s was the siluro, with removable fenders.
No single individual was ever credited with the classic OSCA design. At first the bodies were built in the OSCA factory, then later jobbed out to Fratelli Morelli.
This one is easy to identify, despite having no race numbers. It is serial number 1169,the famous Whale Tail. Or is it 1163, as driven by Sgorbati in the 1955 Mille Miglia? How about that, race fans!
Just two lovely OSCAs on the way to the races...
This article is from the VeloceToday archives and first appeared in 2004.
You shall remember that osca was new, only 2 years old in 1954, but they was also beaten in 1955, The German year at Mille Miglia.
Mercedes beat Ferrari
Porsche 550 beat Osca
Porsche 365 beat Giulietta Sprint
But in 1956. Osca was redy to compete. The Giulietta had turned into a Velose. And Mercedes had gone.
‘
with regards
bjarke Aunsbjørn
Dear editor – the first OSCA you show above is chassis no. 1129, engine no. 1505, one of only 6 bodied by Frua. It is shown before scrutineering for the Mille Miglia in 2008 and is driven by my daughter Meredith and my business partner’s son, Gavin Pickering. Gavin has competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours 7 times, with 3 class podiums. The car has a 1500cc 8 plug engine from the Descollanges/Nicol car, race no. 542, 2nd in class in the 1955 Mille Miglia. It was originally owned by Briggs Cunningham who raced it extensively in the USA, also later by Walt Hansgen, Otto Linton & Bill Stephenson, and was subsequently owned by Stanley Nowak (author of, inter alia, “The Most Successful Maserati – the OSCA MT4”), Peter Giddings and Michael Lynch. I owned it from 1997 to 2010. During my ownership, it did 11 Mille Miglias, 2 Goodwood Revivals, 4 Le Mans Legends races (one of them driven by Sir Stirling Moss), 3 RAC Woodcote Trophy races at the Spa 6 Hour meetings (one of them driven by Sir Stirling Moss), 3 Silverstone Classics (one of them driven by Sir Stirling Moss), and 2 Tour de France Autos. It also won outright the Hurlingham Salon Privé Classic Concourse in 2007. It is the only OSCA to have an FIA Heritage Certificate. The car is shown again in the last photo above, the car behind being an 1100cc Morelli MT4 owned by Alex and Henry Fyshe. Alex is President of the UK’s Maserati Club and the car ran in the 1953 Le Mans (Peron/Giardini) but retired after 23 hours. The 4th car shown above (no. 222) is again the same car after scrutineering, not an MT4 1100. Incidentally, the car next to it (no. 219) is also ours, a 1953 FIAT OttoVu Lightweight Carrozzeria Speciale , chassis no. 12, engine no. 48, one of only 15 Rapi “works” lightweight bodied cars built (another 15 came in “touring” form) and one of the only two left competing in Historics, the other owned by the late Jean Sage. The OttoVu has done 5 Mille Miglias, 2 Le Mans Legends, 3 Goodwood Revivals, 2 Tour de France Autos, and an RAC Woodcote Trophy race at the Spa 6 Hours meeting in 2008. Hope all that is of interest and of value to your archives. Regards, Roger Earl, London.
My friend, Hal Conrad, won a SoCal drawing worth $100,000 back in 1956, (a fortune in those days) and bought an OSCA MT4, which he raced for a couple seasons. I lost track of Hal and the beautiful little red car in the sands of time, but I’ll never forget how it sounded, as he went through the gears, chasing James Dean in his 550 Spyder. — Yer pal, Ferrari Bubba
depending on the size of the lottery I hope to win, my only desire is to obtain an OSCA ….Could care less if the Porsche is a bit faster …..Unfortunately my pretty little Siata would instantly be relegated to the back of the garage to make way for the MT4.
Such nice photos of the Oscas!
Such a competently written history!