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In late 1945 two local farmers based in Siena, Tuscany: Dante Rizzo & Lamberto Vitali founded Vizzuri to create motor vehicles for the Italian public and beyond.
As Dante was an amateur racing driver, he was eager to travel across countries to new circuits. One day he made a connection to sell their new brand in Letara with a garage chain company. He was eager to race in the thirteenth annual Portunis Cannonball Run, and so begun forming a Vizzuri racing car that was road-legal too.
Though before this, the duo had completed their first production car: The Vizzuri Special, which would also be sold in Letara alongside the upcoming sports car.
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The Special is a premium family car, being a 4-door fastback saloon with extra boot space and rear passenger room. They spared no expense by making it truly special to own: It has a quality interior with premium AM radio and air conditioning unit, bumper-mounted daytime running lights, side and centre rear view mirror as well as a performance oriented 4-gear manual transmission.
On the exterior the whitewalls and mass lavishing of chrome really sent an image of wealth and presence in comparison to the smaller less luxurious cars commonly found on the roads. Powered by a 4 litre Inline 6 producing 125hp it was no slouch: Able to get to 60mph in 13s, and reach a top speed of 90mph+ making it one of the fastest 5 seater road cars one could buy.
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In 1948 the brand came out with a subsidiary named “Vizzuri National” or “VN” for short. VN was more of a utilitarian branch as since VIzzuri was turning more towards premium & sports car production it didn’t want the brand prestige muddled up with 4x4 and trucks in their lineup.
The first VN production car was the AT01-G (All-Terrain 1 - Government Spec). It was aimed to be used as a utilitarian people carrier or parts van for the military. VN also produced the AT01-C (Civilian Spec) model, with up to 8-seats in the back. These models were made with interchangeable parts, offered in base spec RWD or 4x4 top spec with manual differential locking.
The sole engine offered was a 2.5L Inline 4 producing 72hp tuned for smoothness by utilising balance shafts. It was able to reach almost 67mph given enough time, from its slow 36s to 60 time.
The “G-Spec” vehicle was equipped with specialties such as armour plating and bulletproof windows. Specialised for Letara, it comes with interior rear door lock and side-door internal handle removal, as well as this the G-Spec is painted only in the civilian spec Vizzuri Azure, making it seem identical to the C-Spec vans. With the van being extremely basic, it wasn’t winning any comfort awards, though it made up for it in spaciousness, low running costs, load & towing capacities and offroad capability.
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Shortly after the Vizzuri Special came the 4700, a specialised race car for the road. The test car was driven before mass production at racing events to help boost the brand recognition, with Dante working on and racing it at events worldwide, even managing 24 hour endurance events with the mighty 4.7L V8 him and the Vizzuri engineers created.
The 4700 uses a ladder chassis to make working on the car at race events as easy as lifting the aluminium body and panels away for any work needed. Even with a less ideal chassis for racing, it uses double wishbone suspension all around to make up for that. Mass weight reduction was done by using wooden components in the interior, and lack of safety in design, though Dante shrugged it off to fellow engineers as “Just don’t crash it, idiots.”
The potent powerplant of a 4.7L V8 that produces just over 200hp paired to the light 1071kg weight was able to send the car well over 120mph on various highways in Italy under testing. It could also achieve a somewhat speedy sub 12s to 60mph, though with the high diameter wire wheels and big brakes, skinny tyres didn’t do it favours in performance, but for looks and somewhat stable braking? Yes.
Dante planned to enter the Vizzuri 4700 in the annual Portunis Cannonball Run every year from '46 onward. His team name would be Scuderia Vizzuri (#8), with himself and fellow mechanic: Zeno Pesaro as the navigator.
Two other teams that had bought a Vizzuri 4700 each would be entering also; Hilma Metz & Ricki De Felice’s “V8 Magnifique” team (#9), as well as Bob MacCallum & Alex Frost’s “Highway Outlaws” team (#11).
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