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2061
Completed: June 17, 1954 Chassis: GILCO
Coachwork: Fantuzzi Spyder Engine: 2061
Color: red
Chassis #2061 was officially sold to a Mrs. Rina Rebecchi from Milan on May 28, 1955. How she was associated to Renzo Cigarini is unknown, but he was in control of the car. He was an amateur race driver from Reggio Emilia who also used his Fiat OttoVu in many Italian events in the 1950s. The car had a front grille with a circled Trident emblem attached with a thin metal frame of two horizontal bars.
Cigarini gave the car to his friend Antonio Fiorani who drove it on June 5 at the Castell’Arquato-Vernasca Hillclimb, finishing third in class, and at the Parma- Poggio di Berceto Hillclimb on June 12 where he came in twenty-fifth with race number 192. At the same event, Cigarini finished fourteenth with his Fiat OttoVu. On July 3, Fiorani was ninth overall at the Bolzano-Mendola Hillclimb. Another hillclimb was the Treponti-Castelnuovo event on October 2. Fiorani participated but his result is unknown. For the 1956 season, the car was fitted with a headrest for the driver and had a small grille on the driver’s side with three horizontal bars. Antonio Fiorani drove in the Coppa della Consuma on April 22, 1956, with start number 340 and finished eleventh overall.
The Mille Miglia was the peak of the Italian race season and always showed Modena’s and Maranello’s best. Fiorani was on the ramp for the start in Brescia on a wet April 28. He did not reach Brescia, retiring after hitting something that damaged the left rear fender. On the left side of the car was now the rare Fantuzzi lettering.
Fiorani was back in #2061 for in three successive hillclimbs, first, on June 10 in the Castell’Arquato-Vernasca event with race number 216, although his result is unknown. On July 1, he finished seventh in class at the Bolzano-Mendola Hillclimb and on July 22 he was eleventh at the Aosta-Gran San Bernardo venue. On August 26 the car was seen at the Fasano-Selva di Fasano Hillclimb with Gianni Balzarini, an enthusiastic amateur driver who drove many different cars including a Fiat OttoVu, Moretti 750, OSCA MT4 and later a Ferrari 250TDF. He probably rented #2061 and successfully finished third overall. It was his sole drive in a Maserati. Antonio Fiorani was back in #2061 on October 7 at the Treponti-Castelnuovo Hillclimb and finished ninth in class. For the last registered
OPPOSITE: Owner Antonio Fiorani, is intensely focused at the start of the 1956 Mille Miglia. (Walter Bäumer Collection)
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race of the 1956 season, on October 28, Renzo Cigarini himself was on the Aerautodromo circuit in Modena for the Campionato Emilia-Romagna race and crossed the finish line in fourth place.
For the 1957 season the A6GCS #2061 was modified to a biposto style and updated with a large windshield to comply with the FIA rules. #2061 remained unused until March 31 when Antonio Fiorani was at the start of the Salita delle Torricelle Hillclimb with race number 496, finishing seventh in class. Renzo Cigarini drove it for the Bologna-San Luca Hillclimb on April 28 with start number 400. It seems that he overestimated his driving skills and coming out of a tight right corner too fast, he hit a wall of hay bales on the right side of the road. The impact threw him out of the car, and it came to a halt upside down. The driver was not badly injured but the coachwork of #2061 was no longer as pretty.
The car was repaired in the factory and then returned to Brescia for the tragic 1957 Mille Miglia. Cigarini’s intention was to be the co-driver in his car with Fiorani behind the wheel but on short notice Cigarini was replaced by Antonio de Berardinis. All went well until just before the approach to L’Aquila the car skidded off the road and was out of the race.
Chassis #2061 remained out of action for almost one year. It received some significant modifications by Fiandri as Fantuzzi was too busy with the 300S, 200S, 450S and 250F cars that were used by the factory in international Sports Car and Formula 1 events. Fiandri modified the front section in the Tipo 200S-style with a longer nose, headlight covers and added two nostrils, one on each side of the radiator opening, to improve brake cooling. The rear end of the car was also lowered.
The car in its new livery appeared with Cigarini on April 13, 1958, in the Coppa Shell Monza where he finished seventeenth in Race 1 but was not able to finish Race 2. Next #2061 was with Cigarini at the 1958 Bologna-San Luca Hillclimb on May 4 with start number 398 and was timed as fifth in his class. For his last recorded race in #2061, Fiorani was in the Castell’Arquato-Vernasca
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