A story of "courage and passion" from Cisitalia

The Cisitalia 202 Cabriolet is a rare car manufactured at the end of 1948 by Turin-based company Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia (the acronym of Cisitalia) and it is one of the few surviving examples of a limited number of models whose bodywork was carried out by Stabilimenti Farina.

The 202 Cabriolet was registered under Luigi Della Chiesa: Della Chiesa was a count, a racer and a racing stable manager, and he owned this car until 1950. Della Chiesa purchased the car for his wife Paola, one of the few women-pilots of the early 40s. Countess Della Chiesa achieved significant feats at the wheel of the pure white Cistalia: in May 1949 she took part in the Como-Lieto Colle and came 16th in the sports category. Only two months later, she came 8th in the Tuscany Cup. There is a picture of her in the cabriolet, while driving round a bend with only an elegant scarf to protect her head.

The car was fully refurbished at the end of the 70s and since then is has been kept in perfect condition. For 40 years, it belonged to the collection of renowned historian and Cisitalia expert Nino Balestra, who had the car refurbished entirely by hand.

The vehicle made is debut at the elegance competition in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 1979 and was exhibited in the mid-80s at the Car Museum in Turin, before being moved to the Bonfanti-VIMAR museum near Vicenza. Throughout the years, this white Cisitalia has paraded with F1 pilots in Monza at the Grand Prix and in 2002 it was the star of the exhibition "Rome 1948-1959 Arte, News and Culture from Neo-Realism to La Dolce Vita" at the Exhibition Palace.

In the book "Cisitalia: a story of courage and passion" Balestra spends many pages talking about refurbishing this model and describing the journeys he went on with this car. In other words, this is the car of a lifetime.