PIACENZA2

” 01C originally had a full spyder body (not cycle-fendered) when it made it's first appearance at Piacenza in 1947 at the hands of Franco Cortese. With this same coachwork, it also competed in 1948 at the Rome GP, the Cicuito di Vercelli (Coppa Faini), the Mille Miglia, the Circuito di Parma, the Circuito delle Cascine (Florence), and the Circuito di Montenero (Livorno). Ferdinando Righetti later crashed the car during practice in Modena and it was subsequently rebodied with the cycle-fendered coachwork and renumbered 010I. I believe that 02C was also slated to run at Piacenza (to be driven by Nino Farina, yet never started), but that it was a cycle-fendered car from the beginning. Again, this is just what I understand from what I've read and information provided by others. I have never personally researched these early cars any further. I would be curious to see what Gerald and others have to say.” #01C resp. the Rodster in fact was raced Piacenza, Roma, Vercelli, Mille Miglia, Parma, Firenze, and Livorno (with slightly changed bodywork). For Modena the new tipo 159 engine was fitted, but as you say, the car was crashed by Righetti during testing. Therefore Righetti at Modena drove #02C, which now also had a roadster body similar to #01C (already for Pecara #02C had this body). The picture posted by Gilles in fact shows #02C during the MM 1948, it is exactly the same car as driven at Modena 1947 by Righetti. By the way, does anybody know what Cortese/Righetti did not finish the 1948 MM? PS: I feel honoured that in your forum pictures from my archive are posted.....

The two other pictures are from Italy and show the start of the Piacenza race in 1947:




On outside of the front row we can see Nino Rovelli in a car, which appears simply as a BMW 328 in the entry list, but which has in our opinions quite some similarity to the NSKK Roadsters. Again - just like at the Loof car - only with a different windscreen and the air inlet at the front.

So perhaps that Rovelli car could be a helpful trace. Was it connected to the NSKK Roadster and if so, how? Could it be possible, that one or more of the cars were not delivered to Germany but remained in Italy instead? What is known about Rovelli´s car, its origin and its fate? It seems, that it did not appear after 1947 any more.

Nino Rovelli was able to find in the immediate post-war days a complete BMW 328 chassis and engine. He was a fellow graduate from the Milan Polytechnic of Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni, the Touring bodyshop owner. Through this connection he obtained from Toring pieces of the body conceived around 1940 for a works barchetta supposed to race in the 1941 Berlin-Rome road race.
Rovelli had his car completed by a local bodyshop and raced it in this form at Piacenza.
He was displeased by the road holding and put the engine in a Fiat 1100 chassis with a new (very crude) cycle wing body. He raced it with success in 1947. In 1948, after the race in Bari, the car was sold to an oscure driver from Udine, Aldo Clocchiatti, who put a new barchetta body on the top of the 1100 chassis and raced it in local hill-climbs until 1951 at least.
So Rovelli’s car is not one of the three Huhnlein cars and was raced in that form only in Piacenza.
Good history of the three 40/41 Huhnlein cars with pictures of two of them (spiders) can be found in the book:
T. Aichele: Huschke von Hanstein, the racing baron, pp.76/77.



We might understand why Rovelli was displeased by the following contemporary report:
“…Rovelli has bought an old BMW and he had it remodelled in the Saronno workshops where he has a small business. He has also managed to get some help from Bianchi Anderloni….
When the flag went up, Rovelli shot out in front, from Cortese and Angiolini well behind. He broke away, finished one very high-speed lap and he seemed likely to dominate the whole race. But that was momentary: when he got to the corner at the far end, he took it so badly that he ended up among the bales of hay”.

Just looked up Rovelli´s results on Martin Krejci´s sports car site . All entries seem to have been made simply for a "BMW 328":

13.10.46 Voghera - 2nd place
13.4.47 San Remo - 4th
11.5.47 Piacenza - dnf
1.6.47 Vercelli - dnf
29.6.47 Varese - dnf
16.7.47 Modena - 7th
28.9.47 Modena - ?
2.5.48 Mille Miglia - dna
30.5.48 Bari - dnf
13.6.48 Mantova - dna

What is interesting in that list is the fact, that it starts already in 1946. So did Rovelli race the BMW 328 in its original shape before it was converted into the Touring-Roadster shape? But if so less than one month (13.4. to 11.5.) certainly is a very short time to me to build up a car almost completely new under the circumstances of the time. And after that only just three weeks again to get the Fiat-BMW hybrid running. This guy must have been very busy...