My Mystery Car: Formula Junior

A little while ago, I came across a stunning Formula Junior, a type I didn’t have much experience with. Still, I followed my instincts and bought it somewhere in Belgium. Because, to me, a car is never just a car, I began looking into the story behind this unique vehicle. During my search, I found a section called "Mystery Cars" featuring my Formula Junior on the website of the Formula Junior Historic Racing Association. Yet I wanted to uncover more about the past of this beautiful car.

The Story of My Formula Junior

So I posted the photo on Facebook, hoping to fill in the missing pieces. Before long, an Italian friend – Cosmo De Candia – sent me a photo of the same car at the Modena circuit in 2018. But who is the mysterious driver and the woman with the camera?

The mysterious lady turned out to be the circuit’s official photographer. When she saw the photo, she recognised herself instantly and contacted my friend. Of course, she remembered that car without a bulge! She found the driver on the participants list: Elis Garuti. His son Christian confirmed that the car had belonged to his father and that it had been sold in Belgium after his father's passing earlier this year. His father worked as a skilled coachbuilder at a renowned workshop that produced bodywork for various designers. And so, part of the mystery was revealed!

Later, I met a well-known Italian historian, Patrizio Cantu. You’d hardly believe it, but he also knew the story of the car. He even had photos of it and knew the talented workshop manager and technician… ELIS GARUTI!

He had bought the car with a Peugeot engine, later converted to a Fiat 1100 engine as originally intended, but the base is a NARDI FORMULA JUNIOR.

Why a NARDI?

The story begins in the 1960s. Enrico Nardi was a designer who collaborated with the young coachbuilding firm MOTTO. In November 1959, he was visited in his workshop by one of the biggest VW-Porsche dealers in the US, Hubert Brundage. He spotted a drawing of a tubular chassis for a "hypothetical" Formula Junior.

Brundage ordered two of these cars with a VW engine and sent them to Italy as VW-BEETLE 4s. But due to a lack of power, only the typical VW front suspension and gearbox were kept. The heavy engine cover that originally concealed the engine was removed. The car won several races in Florida and Nassau, but VW management forbade the dealer from racing “specials” built with VW parts.

Brundage sold the car for a symbolic dollar to Bill Duckworth and George Smith of Orlando, who intended to build new Formula cars with VW engines in fibreglass: thus, the Formula VEE was born! Once approved, the car successfully raced for several years in the US and Europe.

It All Ends Well

The conclusion? The foundation of all these FORMULA-V cars is the single-seater tubular structure created in 1959 in the design studio of Enrico Nardi, likely in collaboration with Carrozzeria Motto. Our Formula Junior is a prototype later modified by Garuti with a Fiat 1100 engine and VW gearbox.

And our story is complete!

With special thanks to:

• Cosmo de Candia
• Christian Garuti
• Patrizio Cantu
• The photographer of the Modena Circuit

Footnote: In Brundage’s notes, I find only one Nardi Formula V in the US. This was later sold and is now being sought. Did only one Formula make it to the US? Is ours the second, used for testing and later remained here? It remains a mystery. But that’s what makes the story so wonderful.