Hi Gang…

Seeing the Vale in Hemmings reminded me (again) of just how beautiful these cars were.  We tend to think of fiberglass clones of the GT 40 and other like-minded cars starting in the 1960’s.  But…the designers and builders of the 1950’s beat them to the finish line again.

Bill Burke pulled a mold from a 1948 Cisitalis 202 Coupe that he sort of borrowed from “Pete” Petersen when it was being prepped by George Barris for the 1952 Petersen Motorama.  This became the basis for Burke, Mickey Thompson, and Roy Kinch to form the Atlas (later renamed Allied) Fiberglass company to produce cars and bodies based on this car for sale.

Vale Wright created the best representation he could of a 1948 Cisitalia 202 Nuvolari Spyder – a similar car but open in design with different styling treatment as well.

Thanks to Dennis Kunicki for passing pictures of the Nuvolari Spyder for our review.  I’ve attached the pictures Dennis forwarded along with some pictures of the 1948 Cisitalia coupe for all to enjoy.

For those of you who would like to see an Allied / Atlas car in person….

An Allied / Multiplex car owned by Darren Crispin will be featured in the March 2010 Amelia Island Concours d’ Elegance next year, and an Allied coupe owned by Stan Crawford will be featured in the Petersen Automotive Museum exhibit next year which starts February 2010.  I’ll send pix of these cars in a future story.

Thanks again to Dennis K for the pix and have a great weekend gang..

Geoff Hacker