Offered from the estate of the late David Biggins
1912 Nazzaro Tipo 3

• Displayed for many years in an Italian motor museum
• Extensively campaigned
• Rare survivor of a short lived Italian marque

Italian racing driver Felice Nazzaro had already secured his place in the annals of motor sport - in 1907 he had won the Kaiserpreis, the French Grand Prix and the Targa Florio – before setting himself up as a motor manufacturer in 1911, although actual production was delayed until the following year. His company, Nazzaro & C. Fabbrica Automobili was founded in Turin by Felice, his brother-in-law Pilade Masoero, Maurizio Fabry and Arnold Zoller. The Tipo 1 of 1912 was powered by a 4.4-litre four-cylinder monobloc engine driving via a four-speed gearbox, and could be ordered in either tourer or saloon form. The Tipo 2 roadster used the same engine but was more sporting, while the Tipo 3 boasted a more powerful engine. Around 230 cars and 50 commercial vehicles had been made by the time the original company was liquidated in 1916. Felice returned to his former employer, FIAT.

Before then his company had enjoyed considerable success in competitions, Nazzaro himself winning the 1913 Targa Florio driving a Tipo 2 and the 1914 Coppa Florio at the wheel of a Tipo 3, while in 1920 a Nazzaro driven by Guido Meregalli won that year's Targa Florio. In 1919 the company was revived under new ownership as Nazzaro Automobili and continued until 1923.

According to our vendor, this Tipo 3 is one of only two or three left in existence. The car is pictured in David Burgess Wise's book, Classics of the Road, published in 1978. At the time it was in an Italian museum and carried open four seat coachwork, although it is suggested in the book it would have had more sober raiment when new.

The car was discovered and rescued from an Italian motor museum by the late David Biggins in 2004 and imported into the UK. The chassis was shortened and coachwork preserved and modified to the two-seat configuration it wears today, after the restoration between 2005 and 2011, the Nazzaro has featured in the period re-creation of the Targa Florio Giro, Pistons, Passions and Sicilian Pleasures. In 2006 this historic car participated in and won the pre-war class in both the centenary of the first Targa Florio race in 1906 and then the centenary of the first Targa Florio Giro in 2012. It also won the pre-1918 class in the Klausenrennen hill climb in 2006.

The car comes with DVD copies of the film Pistons, Passions and Sicilian Pleasures; a framed painting of Felice Nazzaro; a painting of the car on the Targa Florio route; and copies of the book The Belle Epoque of the Targa Florio Races 1895-1914 by D Biggins & A Lombardi. The history file contains the original purchase invoice; Historic Automobile Club of Italy certification; import paperwork; Society of Automobile Historians dating certificate; MoT file; archive photographs; and a V5C document. Two spare wheels, a tool box, and a container for two lamps are included in the sale.