"In 1954 Nardi had his first shot at Le Mans, with a car powered by the American Crosley 750cc OHC 4 cyl.unit, to contest the Index de Performance, previously the preserve of the small French builders. Proving considerably faster than the home team in practice, the Dr. Damonte entered machine sadly expired after one hour of the race, with water pump failure.
For the following year a much more radical device was dreamed up by the Damonte/Nardi team, our subject. The trend for motorised catamarans came (and went!) for a very short period in the first half of the fifties decade. Piero Taruffi had constructed his Tarf record cars in this mode, mounting the driver and fuel tank in one ‘torpedo’ (siluro in Italian) and the engine and transmission in the other (hence ‘bisiluro’ or ‘twin torpedo’). The Spanish Pegaso company had followed suit, and one or two other manufacturers had flirted briefly with the idea. What worked reasonably well for straight line or banked circuit work proved less than ideal on roads or circuits. The steering column contorted itself around several uncomfortable angles, as ditto the transmission, hardly a recipe for optimal handling.
At the birth of the project, prominent Turin architect Carlo Mollino, whose other credits included such diverse subjects as aeroplanes, ladies footwear, ski resorts and the Teatro (Theatre) Regio in Turin, was brought in to design the body. The afore-mentioned novel chassis by Enrico Nardi, an engine by Giannini (of 735cc), and bodywork by Carrozzeria Motto completed the picture.
Le Mans scrutinizers were always notoriously ‘picky’ and one can but imagine the reaction when this bizarre device turned up for them to pass judgement on. In our research photographs we have some wonderful images of pipe smoking, stick waving, incredulous old Frenchmen with shrugs the size of double decker buses. That is was allowed to run at all is a near miracle, as the passenger accommodation, complete with air intake trumpets, fuel tanks, fuel lines and battery would not appear to comply completely with the regulations, but run it did. At first sight its radical novelty might have worried some of the Gallic contenders for the Index de Performance, but after a slow practice and running at the end of the field for the first two hours, during which it contrived to spin twice in one lap, it was literally ‘blown into the weeds’ by the vortex of a passing D Type Jaguar, fortunately without injury to the good doctor, who quickly packed his bags, never to return."
Taken from here.
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