Nardi Bisiluro Damolnar History

The Bisiluro Damolnar ('bisiluro' means double torpedo) was conceived as a partnership between racing driver Dr Mario Damonte, architect-engineer Carlo Mollino, and Enrico Nardi with the explicit goal of conquering the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the under-750 cc class through aerodynamic supremacy rather than raw power. Mollino's asymmetric twin-boom body split the car into two streamlined nacelles: the right contained the engine, gearbox, and differential; the left housed the driver and fuel tank.

Power came from a twin-cam 737 cc Giannini four-cylinder engine producing approximately 62 bhp — extraordinary specific output for the era. The complete car weighed just 400 kg (882 lb), making it one of the lightest entries at Le Mans in 1955. It qualified and started the race but retired after roughly two hours when, overtaken by a Jaguar D-Type on the Mulsanne Straight at around 180 mph, the driver over-corrected in the Jaguar's wake and went off into a water-filled ditch.

The 1955 Le Mans race itself became infamous for the worst accident in motorsport history (the Pierre Levegh crash), which overshadowed the Bisiluro's own story. The car survived its off and is preserved today in Milan's Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci — a unique artifact of postwar Italian aerodynamic experimentation.