Since the early days of Grand Prix racing many attempts were made to enter the Formula One and pre-war Grand Prix era. The period 1885 – 2023 contains over 650 Unraced projects. Every now and then new projects appear on the surface. To share with you all the stories i decided to summarize the stories per year. Don’t you worry, all the stories will be researched and eventually published. This is the summarized overview between 1946 and 1949.
1949 – Mono JK2-Lancia
The Mono JK-Lancia projects was one of the first Grand Prix cars that had a rear-engine. It was fitted with a Roots supercharged 1,5l Lancia engine. Julius Kubinsky a local engineer from Brno constructed the car for Karel Vlašín. Karel was on the entrée list for the 1949 Czechoslovakian Grand Prix. During the practice, the car collided with a truck, which permanently damaged the cooling system of the car. Eventually Karel was forced to retire from the Grand Prix. It was the only Grand Prix for the car. Later on, the car did some hill climb races.
1948 – Dommartin
Before the war there was a French project going on named SEFAC. The project was created as a rival for the at that time dominant Auto-Unions and Mercedes Grand Prix cars. That car only appeared once in 1939 at a Grand Prix before it was put in a barn. In 1947, the car resurfaced when a, for me unknown, company called Dommartin wanted to enter the Grand Prix scene. The car was given a new bodywork, upgraded the engine and were planning to enter the Grand Prix world. However, the company ran out of money and the car would never see the starting grid.
1947 – Cisitalia – Porsche 360
The story behind the Cisitalia – Porsche 360 project is an interesting one which dates back to the Second World War. Ferdinand Porsche, his son Ferry and son in law Piëch were deported to France. Where they were forced to come with an answer for the Volkswagen that became popular when Hitler was in power. Karl Rabe and Louise Porsche in the meantime kept the Porsche Company running. In 1946 Italian company, Cisitalia approached them to cooperate.
Dusio from Cisitalia wanted to have a Grand Prix car as well. The Cisitalia would be fitted with the Porsche engine placed in the rear of the car. The car was built in 1947 and 1948. However, due to a drying cash flow and employees not being paid the project was stalled. When Dusio was offered to setup a new company in Argentine, under Juan Perón, he agreed to. Eventually the stalled project went to Argentine as well. Which eventually would race one race there as the Autoar. Full story will follow.
