Compagnie Industriale Sportivo Italia—better known as Cisitalia—was founded by Italian industrialist and sportsman Piero Dusio in 1946. His new firm was one of many small engineering and manufacturing ventures that helped resuscitate the country’s passion for motorsport after World War II. Cisitalia’s contribution to that effort was the D46, a successful single-seat race car.

While producing the D46, Giovanni Savonuzzi, Cisitalia’s technical director from 1945 to 1948, was developing the 202 model, which used the D46’s underpinnings and drivetrain but featured a truly groundbreaking body conceived by Savonuzzi, with final styling refinements and subsequent manufacture by Pinin Farina.

First shown in 1947 at the Villa d’Este Gold Cup, and later at the Paris Motor Show, the Cisitalia 202 was unlike anything seen before, featuring a curvaceous shape whose hoodline was lower than the fenders. More significantly, Savonuzzi conceived the entire body—including doors and hood—as an integral, continuously flowing form. This, in stark contrast to a time when most designers developed each body part as a separate element of a traditional three-box design.

Cisitalia well exceeded its goal of creating an aerodynamic form, needed in part because of the 202’s modest power output. The design was recognized as such an aesthetic success that, in 1951, New York’s Museum of Modern Art featured a 202 GT in “Eight Automobiles,” its first-ever car exhibit. The museum added a different example of the 202 GT to its collection in 1972.

Many variants of the body exist, the most flamboyant is the 202 MM, designed for the 1947 racing season and distinguished by two tail fins worthy of the fanciest guppy. While the 202 in general was an artistic and aerodynamic triumph, it was a commercial failure, largely due to the high cost of manufacturing a complex, hand-formed aluminum body on a lightweight tubular chassis. Production numbers are sketchy, but it’s estimated that Cisitalia produced only about 153 coupes and 17 convertibles comprising the 202 model from 1947 to 1952,  with bodies constructed by three Italian carrozzerie: Pinin Farina, Vignale, and Stabilimenti Farina.

The 202 SC Berlinetta shown here is a 1949 model with a body by Vignale, and is powered by a 1,089-cc inline-four derived from a Fiat engine that could be coerced to produce about 70 hp in competition form. It was upgraded with a lightweight OHV aluminum head, dual Weber carburetors and a dry-sump oil system. The engine is mated to a four-speed transmission. The combination of the car weighing less than 1,750 pounds, its slippery shape, and its high-strung engine, allows the 202 to nudge 105 mph, making it competitive with larger, more powerful rivals of the day.

To see a Cisitalia 202 in the metal is to appreciate how diminutive and jewellike the car really is. Most examples will have received a comprehensive restoration by this time, a serious undertaking that can well exceed the cost of a convertible in concourse condition, which is worth about $500,000. A good-condition convertible is valued at about half, while coupes command higher prices, about $625,000 and $380,000, respectively. As for the finned 202 MM, one of those might command $1 million or more in concours condition.

Click here to see more photos of this 1949 Cisitalia 202 SC Berlinetta.