Before WWII, sports cars looked wildly different than today. Usually, the body was cigar-shaped, with the wheels, fenders, and headlights tacked onto it. But once the Cisitalia 202 Gran Sport stepped on the scene, everything changed. Styled by design legend Battista Pinin Farina, the Cisitalia 202 Gran Sport featured a streamlined body with integrated headlights. The wheels were masterfully integrated into the design, with the car’s fenders accentuating them, giving the 202 a powerful yet graceful appearance. Since its introduction, sports cars have never looked the same.
The 202 was called a “sculpture in motion” when it was showcased at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) in 1951. And the car is so historically and aesthetically significant that, since 1972, it’s been perpetually present at the museum.
However, there is also substance to the Cisitalia 202. The now-defunct Italian sports car brand also used a tubular space-frame chassis and Itallumag (a special aluminum alloy) to build the 202, keeping the weight down to 1,819 pounds. The Cisitalia 202 was also equipped with a 1.1-liter four-cylinder engine, sourced from Fiat, producing 55 hp. Slow, by today’s standards, sure, but plenty for a sports car introduced after the most devastating war in history.
