8/1/1913 - 28/10/2006
Record updated 20-Dec-22
A very quick Italian driver who either never got a chance or wasn't interested in moving up in class. Best know for racing a Stanguellini Fiat 1100 he was very successful in 1100cc racing from 1938 to 1947.
Franco Bertani was Italian racing driver from Reggio Emilia. He was a very quick driver who either never got a chance or wasn't interested in moving up in class.
He finished fifth in the Targa Florio in 1937 driving a Maserati but was best know for racing a 1938 FIAT 1100 Special, prepared by Stanguellini with a body by Torricelli. Very successful in the very competetive 1100 class in Italy between 1938 and 1947. His best result was a victory in the Belgian GP for sports cars on June 16th 1946 beating the Simca-Gordini driven by the maestro Amedee Gordini himself.
He won the Circuito dell'Impero in 1939 in his Stanguellini SN1100.
In 1946 he also won the 13 round of the Circuito di Campione D'Italia in June at Modena, beating Tazio Nuvolari into third place. He finished second in the Circuito di Lunio and took three more wins: the Lido di Venezia, the Circuito della Superba and the Circuito di Asti.
At the end of the war he was behind the short lived project of Ala d'Oro, a racing bodyshop in Reggio Emilia. He employed the workers in the former airplane factory OMI, to build alluminum bodies for sports cars. Ala d'Oro made its own car too, a sports car based on a Topolino chassis with a Fiat 1100 engine. Bertani raced one at the Turin international sports car GP in 1947.
In 1950 he purchased a Cooper-JAP 1100. He took the engine out and put it in the front of a 1947 Topolino chassis. The result was not good.
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