www.QV500.com - Stanguellini Formula Junior Part 1: Introduction
 

CS 04087, the prototype		 One of the first manufacturers to get behind Italy’s fledgling Formula Junior series, Vittorio Stanguellini supplied the best early evidence of what FJ regulations could achieve. Born on March 24th 1910, he began preparing cars in 1933 and gained notoriety with his uprated Fiat Balilla and Topolino's. However, the Second World War forced him to curtail his racing activities from 1940 until civility was restored in 1946. Within twelve months of hostilities ending, Stanguellini was supplying hot Fiat-based 1100 twin cam engines and by 1950, began producing his famous dual overhead camshaft 750 motor. It bore little trace of its mainstream ancestry and became extensively used in both sports and single seater racing cars wearing the distinctive Stanguellini badge.
   

Vittorio Stanguellini had many business interests, he ran Modena’s largest Fiat dealership, constructed hydraulic dynamometers and fabricated truck bodies alongside his broad range of Abarth-rivalling speed equipment. But he was most famous for motor racing and such was the success of his little firm, Stanguellini soon earned the sobriquet, Mago di Modena. Ably assisted by his right-hand man, Sporting Director Adolfo Bedoni, the two were instrumental in the creation of what became the worlds best Formula 1 feeder series.

A racing driver and journalist, it was Count Giovanni Lurani that noticed the growing shortage of top quality Italian pilots, a problem he figured was due to the national championship system and spiralling cost of competing in single seaters. Lurani began formulating an idea for a relatively inexpensive series that could act as a steppingstone to Grand Prix or Formula 2 racing. Another prime mover behind Formula Junior was five-time Grand Prix World Champion, Juan Manuel Fangio. Fangio and his manager, Marcello Giambertone, worked hard with Stanguellini to have Lurani’s concept approved by the Italian Automobile Club and once that was taken care of, Fangio’s association with Stanguellini led to the Argentinean testing the little FJ prototype (chassis 04087) at Modena’s Autodrome in late 1957. Giambertone went about convincing manufacturers like Volpini, Moretti and Taraschi to produce cars for the burgeoning series and began organising some races.

A handful of events were lined up for 1958 and during the winter of '57/'58, various Italian constructors started developing machinery thanks to the low cost and readily available components. By the summer of 1958, Stanguellini had already produced a handful of their quick Junior racers and for 1959, the series was granted full international status. Run throughout 1958 with rules that originally intended to restrict entrants to machines of Italian origin, these were revised for ’59 so that engines and drivelines could be sourced from any production car classified in the FIA’s Appendix J GT category.