Nardi Danese Racer (1947)

[nicanary]

I worked out the answer yesterday afternoon whilst putting my shoes on to go to work, and I posted very quickly. The name of the car should contain a hyphen (Nardi-Danese) as the 2 men were working in partnership at this time.

I was looking for inspiration through a list of entries for the 1953 Mille Miglia, and saw "Nardi" and it was the "eureka" moment. Nearly all the other small makers in Italy used Fiat engines, but Nardi tried other options, which was one of your clues. This car is mentioned on a few websites, mainly photo images, but on one site from Eastern Europe it states that it has an Alfa Romeo engine. This may be true, but the site often contains incorrect information.

The nose cowl of the car is, I believe, a later addition. The jet-engine intake style did not appear until about 1952, with the Ferrari 500, and I think someone has changed the body to make it look more modern.