The concept of building a lightweight competition special using some off-the-shelf parts and a lot of talent and ingenuity has been around nearly as long as automobile racing. Many were awkward, a few were exceptional—this car is one of the latter.

In Italy, road racing events were prominent and builders found that a competitive car could be built using primarily Fiat 1100 components. The brakes, suspension and motor could be fitted to a lightweight tubular chassis. The engine was highly tunable and manufacturers like Cisitalia produced parts to get the most out of these engines. The resulting cars were quick and highly maneuverable.

These little specials proved quite competitive against more sophisticated and costly machines. The heavily tuned Fiat motor can rocket the lightweight car down the road and hydraulic brakes and a stout tubular frame kept things under control. These little specials proved quite competitive and many similar cars raced in the Mille M