Sport Barchettas after WWII

Auriga Club is starting a great event to celebrate the two-seater racing cars known as Barchetta, the beloved racing cars that have a special place in the hearts of many sportsmen and fans.

Auriga Club wants to celebrate the fundamental role of this kind of racing car in the motor competitions from the post-war period to the end of the Sixties: twenty years of glory for small and clever car artisans, for challenges among famous and unknown brands, for pilots who put their sport passion before any economic reward, for the gentlemen who only drove their Barchettas on Saturdays and Sundays.

Many races, more or less emblazoned, many of them on roads or temporary racetracks, where safety as we understand it today was a fantasy, and where everybody got together with old friends. Let’s call to mind Carrera Panamericana, Tour of Sicily, Thousand Miles, Targa Florio, Tour of Umbria and Monza Thousand Kilometres.

An ancestor

In the field of sports cars, Barchettas are of great interest, both because of they are made of many components from other automobiles, especially from mass production, and because their motor is installed in many Italian and foreign cars, in production models, small productions, competition and even handmade assembled cars. Think of Maserati 450 motors that found themselves formally attired in famous models like the mythical four-door.

Many of the producers, artisans and passionate technicians are no more on the market; others, like Ferrari and Maserati, have become the most visible testimony of “Made in Italy” and light up the Italian spirit of our communities abroad.

Club Auriga intends to celebrate these great adventures of men and means, including our foreign-built Barchettas with Italian motors. We assign the same importance to famous brand productions as to handicraft productions; the latter sometimes didn’t achieve fame but represent lives dedicated to motor racing as well.

A bit of nostalgia

A short video about Maserati and OSCA in Bassano del Grappa

A bend in Targa Florio (Gallery)

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