1946 Cisitalia Porsche (Type 360)
The history of the Cisitalia, Porsche Type 360 it is intimately bound to the history of the origins of Porsche A.G. during the difficult times of the postwar period, its actors, some years after, had a deep influence in the modern European automobile industry.
At the end of the 1946, just a short time after Ferry Porsche came back to Austria from his imprisonment in France, two old friends of the family met him at his home in Zell and See, Austria. Among them, there was Rudolf Hruska an Austrian engineer who had worked with Porsche in 1937 and participated very actively in the project of the VW. The other man was Carlo Abarth a motorbike pilot who had been able to travel from his native Yugoslavia to Austria before the war thanks to the valuable help of Dr. Anton Pïech the brother-in-law of Ferry Porsche, with whose secretary Abarth had married.
When they arrived to Austria Dr Ferdinand Porsche and his son-in-law Anton Pïech, still were in prison in France. The lives of Hruska and Abarth had been crossed in the past, and in this occasion they were joining once more again. They met in the city of Merano, in the north of Italy, of where the family of Abarth was original, and where they had returned, fixing their residence shortly after the end of the war.
In the beginning of 1945, Hruska, went to Brescia to negotiate the manufacture of pieces with the manufacturer of automobiles OM, but he could not come back to Stuttgart due to the occupation of the city by the Allied forces. Therefore, he set his residence in Merano, in where he made friendship with Abarth.
When the American authorities let them to travel to Austria to visit Porsche, they had already decided that they would like to represent Porsche in Italy, even though did not have at that moment any products to sell.
Hruska and Abarth, had a commercial partner in Italy, Piero Dusio, this relationship would set a very important landmark in the future immediate of Porsche.Dusio was an sportsman, he had been an athletics champion, a soccer star, but its sporting career was truncated due to an injury, he had kneaded a considerable fortune before the war, firstly with a textile company, and also as a banker and running hotels and a sport equipment company manufacturing bicycles.
The IInd World war did not decrease its fortune, on the contrary he increased it by making boots for the Italian army. Its company of sport material was called Consorzio Industriale Sportivo Italy or, of brief form Cisitalia.
Dusio was also an enthusiastic racing car sponsor and also loved to drive himself racing cars. During the war along with the FIAT engineer, Dante Giacosa had projected a series of sport single-seaters with a Fiat engine of 1.1 liters and 70 CV, which were manufactured in limited numbers. The cars had great success, both in the races and the public. Dusio that felt passion for the sportcars, also embarked in the manufacture of the Coupe Cisitalia 202 designed by Pininfarina but nevertheless his top ambition was to create and to produce a Grand Prix racing car that could outperform its opponents.
Tazio Nuvolari a living legend of the racing arena and one of the few racing drivers that had driven Dr. Porsche's Auto Union racing cars in the pre war Grand Prix, was looking for a car to resume its racing career. A friend of him that worked in OM, put him in contact with Hruska in Merano and, naturally, they arrived to the the conclusion that Porsche was the man that could project and build the racing car that they wanted.
Through their friendship, Hruska and Abarth made Dusio, who had the economic capacity to finance the project, contact Nuvolari , and all the pieces then began to fit. Finally an agreement was made between Dusio, Hruska, Abarth and Porsche by which, the last one would project a Grand Prix racing car, and even a tractor for Dusio that would finance the project. An important part of the initial payement made by Dusio was used to pay the bail demanded for the liberation of both Dr Porsche and Anton Pïech jailed in Dijon, so began the postwar development of Porsche.
When in 1947 the French set the Professor free and he could return to his home in Gmünd the Cisitalia had already been completed. When he saw it, he was very impressed by the work of his son and his loyal collaborators Karl Rabe and Erwin Komenda and commented " I couldn’t have done it better, I would not change nor a single bolt nor a screw ".
Ferry Porsche recruited Professor Robert Eberan Von Eberhost to supervise the project in Turin, because after the war, Porsche did not have in Gmund the production facilities of the Italians. Von Eberhost was already known by Ferry because his father had worked with him in the Auto Union Company where both had worked to developed the Auto Union D type.
Cisistalia Technical data
Engine 12 Cylinders opposed, water-cooled. Displacement 1,492.6 cc. Crankcase, light alloy cylinder heads and camshafts, ad engine block .
Compression ratio 9,2/1
Output 385 CV to 10,600 r.p.m.: torque 27 kpm at 8,500 r.p.m.
Admission: Two horizontal Weber carburettors with mechanical compressor. Four whell drive with front blocking. Clutch multidisc with oil bath. Four drum brakes, hydraulic - with ventilation
5 speed gearbox with control to traction, synchronous and reverse gear. Body and Chassis Light metal body, with two lateral gas tanks with a total capacity of 184 liters, tubular Chassis,
Suspension front: Double, longitudinal cross-sectional bars Back: Double oscillating arms with torsion bars, supports of longitudinal wheels Dimensions Length: 4 m.s Witdh: 1.6, Height: 1,1 ms Weight 878 Kilos (with pilot and gasoline)
The car for Grand Prix of Formula 1, satisfied all the expectations of Dusio. It was constructed with traction to the four wheels with synchronous five speed transmission, supercharged engine mounted in the center. All the pieces were of own manufacture with the exception of the Weber carburetors. The Cisitalia was in all aspects and engineering masterpiece, especially if one considers the state of the art of its time, but the project collapsed due to skyrocketing costs and when the Cisitalia company went bankrupt, its fall was precipitated by FIAT, one of its suppliers. When it cancelled the credit to the company, cutting the supply of the pieces that were used for the manufacture of the Cisitalia 202 but probably the true reason was that FIAT disliked the alliance of Dusio with Porsche.
At the beginning of the 1949, Dusio went to Argentina invited by its President Juan Perón, to begin from zero, but its star already had been extinguished and it could not either come out ahead. In 1953 without preparation some presented/displayed to the Cisitalia in the Great Prize of Argentina but it could not classify in the training runs. The only data known of the top speed of the Cisitalia were timed when Clemar Bucci established the Sudamerican km speed record, in 233 Km/h. Dusio finally sold the project to an Argentinian company that also went bankrupt. Ferry Porsche recovered the car by the end of the 50 in a trip to Argentina where it was deteriorating. From the ashes of the crucible of the Cisitalia, the Porsche company arose with force.
The former head of mechanics, Carlo Abarth, created in 1949 his own company in Turin, latelly he would build for Porsche the Porsche 356 B Carrera GT Abarth. Rudolf Hruska worked as chief design engineer for Alfa Romeo developing the Alfasud, Von Eberhost worked for the English, developing the Jorwet Jupiter and the mythical Aston Martin DB3, afterwards he returned to Germany as development director of Auto Union. All those that participated in the Cisitalia project contributed with its experience and knowledge to the development of the modern European industry of the automobile. Of the initial amount of money paid by Dusio, one million of French francs were used to pay he bail out of Professor Porsche and the rest for the initial expenses of the Cisitalia. Just a short time later, the Professor was judged in absence, and declared innocent, but the French never gave back the bail. The disappointments undergone by the Dr Porsche and his imprisonment in Dijon in a humid cell without heating, decreased their health and extinguished their creative genius.
Jean Pierre Peugeot
During the War Jean Pierre Peugeot had been jailed several times by the Germans, after the war he accused Porsche of using enslaved manual labor for the Nazis during de war. In this way he took revenge against the hated Germans, and besides the opportunity to eliminate a future competitor.
Dr. Porsche in an occasion had saved the neck of Peugeot when after being arrested by the frightful Gestapo, as a result of a sabotage of the Peugeot factory by the Resistance, he took part in his favor, obtaining his release. A political interpretation of these facts is that to the Professor was used as a Turk head to distract the French public opinion of the political responsibilities of Renault, that was then being accused of collaboration with the German occupation forces.
Text from http://usuarios.lycos.es/cporschecat...s/cisiteng.htm.
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