1954 Ermini 1100 Sport Competizione 'Buoncristiani'

1954 Ermini 1100 Sport Competizione ‘Buoncristiani’
Chassis no. 006
Engine no. 006
* Rare 1,100cc-class sports-racer
* Commissioned and raced by Giovanni Buoncristiani
* Considerable in-period competition history
* Twin-cam cylinder head
* Restored in the early 2000s
* Present enthusiast ownership since 2004
* Mille Miglia Storica eligible

Footnotes
Born in 1905, Pasquale Ermini enjoyed a multi-faceted career in the years leading up to WW2, working as a mechanic, racing driver, and engineer before emerging as a car constructor in 1949. He specialised in small racing sports cars, mainly for the popular 1,100cc class. Ermini favoured the FIAT 1100 engine, which was fitted with his own twin-cam cylinder head and sold to other competitors. His first such engine was built in 1947. For his own cars Ermini used a self-designed tubular chassis, with bodies supplied by various small independent coachbuilders such as Tofani, Motto, and Morelli. Light and nimble, the little Erminis were highly successful and on occasions even proved capable of beating larger opposition from the likes of Maserati and Ferrari.

Notable class wins were obtained at the Targa Florio (1950/1953), Mugello (1955), the Giro di Sicilia (1952), the Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti (1949) and the Italian road racing championship (1950), while in 1949 an Ermini won the Coppa della Toscana outright. Ermini’s products regularly participated in major international races such as the Mille Miglia, where in 1950 there were no fewer than 13 entered. It is estimated that Ermini had built around 40 complete cars by the time he switched to making bodies only around 1955.

The well known classic car magazine La Manovella, the official publication of the ASI, has researched this Ermini extensively and published an article in its April 2000 issue, even making it the star of the title page. According to the article, Giovanni Buoncristiani, a wealthy livestock merchant from Pontedera in Tuscany and an enthusiastic racer, was very particular when it came to choosing his race cars: he did not buy them but had them constructed for him. He had already commissioned a barchetta based on the popular FIAT 1100, which he had fitted with a Marino cylinder head. The body was inspired by the Touring-bodied Ferraris, but apparently the car was better looking than it was competitive in racing, so after having campaigned it from 1951 to 1953 he embarked on a new project that he hoped would lead to better results.

At that time ‘Pasquino’ Ermini was a rising star as a constructor, using, as many others did, the FIAT 1100 engine to start with. He went further than most, though, and developed a special twin-cam cylinder head, which was first used in 1947 at the Circuito di Piacenza. (It is worthwhile noting what an achievement this was, as at that time in Italy Ferrari was the only constructor that designed and built an engine intended solely for racing with a double-overhead-camshaft cylinder head.) The car thus equipped was bodied by Bertone for Scuderia Milan, and, driven by Piero Scotti, won the Italian Championship in the Sport category’s up-to-1,100cc class, beating the Stanguellini and Maserati competition.

The evolution of the Ermini engine saw a new aluminium engine block adopted (replacing the cast-iron FIAT block) together with a new cylinder head: double-overhead-cam as before but this time with side-draft carburettors. So when Giovanni Buoncristiani approached Ermini to buy one of his engines, he could have the latest development with the special cylinder head, twin carburettors and the special alloy block. Having started with the heart of the car, the engine, Buoncristiani then commissioned an engineer from the nearby Piaggio factory in Pontedera to built a tubular chassis for the car, working in his spare time on Saturdays and Sundays. The body was entrusted to a local coachbuilder, although another publication, Ermini – L’Arte dei Motori a Firenze, attributes the coachwork to Frua. It is worth mentioning that the nose of the car has had some modifications made to it over the years, presumably to experiment with aerodynamics and improve cooling of the engine and brakes.

According to the aforementioned Ermini: L’Arte dei Motori a Firenze, this car’s notable race results include the following:

Coppa Balestrero, Lucca, 20th June 1954 – 4th
Coppa della Consuma, Florence, 18th July 1954 – 12th overall, 2nd in class
Aosta – Gran San Bernardo, 25th July 1954 – 4th in class
Corsa del Redentore, Nuoro (Sardinia), 5th September 1954, 4th overall, 4th in class
Bologna – Passo della Raticosa, 19th September 1954 3rd in class
Saline di Volterra – Volterra, 10th October 1954 – 2nd overall, 2nd in class
Treponti – Castelnuovo, 17th October 1954 – 2nd in class
Firenze – Siena, 24th October 1954 – 12th overall, 3rd in class
Circuito di Catselfusano, Rome, 31st October 1954, 22nd overall, 4th in class
Salita del Castellaccio, Livorno, 14th November 1954, 3rd in class
Catania – Etna, Sicily, 18th September 1955 – result not recorded
G.P. Autodromo di Modena, 13th May 1956 – retired
Vermicino – Rocca di Papa, 2nd June 1956, 5th in class
Bolzano – Mendola, 1st July 1956, 9th in class
6 Ore di Castelfusano, Roma, 21st October 1956 – result not recorded
Bologna – San Luca, 28th April 1957, 3rd in class
Coppa della Consuma, 1st May 1957, 3rd in class
Aosta – Gran San Bernardo, 1st September 1957, 5th in class
Aosta – Pila, 19th October 1958, result not recorded
Coppa della Consuma, 7th June 1959, 5th in class
Bolzano – Mendola, 5th July 1959, result not recorded

In more recent years the car has been enjoyed by various Northern Italian collectors of note. In 1999 the then owner and collector, Danilo Dalmonte, entrusted respected restorer Aldo Carrozzo of Autofficina Aldo in Romano d’Ezzelino in the province of Vicenza with the Ermini’s restoration. The body was stripped back to bare metal and the engine expertly restored. Dalmonte kept the Ermini until 2004 when he sold it to our vendor, a gentleman driver from Rome who has kept the car in his exclusive private collection and used it on various historic motoring events and rallies. The latter have included participation in the 2018 and 2019 editions of the Circuito di Avezzano – a four-day rally in the Abruzzo region of Italy that culminates in a nighttime run on the city circuit of Avezzano.

Accompanying documentation includes ASI Targa Oro certification; Italian registration documents (stating the year as 1955); an ASI certificate of technical characteristics; copy of the aforementioned magazine article from La Manovella; and sundry restoration photographs.

The car is offered for public sale for the first time following long-term enthusiast’s care. Beautifully presented and clearly well cared-for while in the custody of our vendor, this stunning Ermini is eligible for a wide variety of historic motoring events including, of course, the Mille Miglia Storica. With stunning looks and a highly advanced engine for its time, this rare Ermini sports-racer is certainly a most attractive propositio