1953 Cisitalia 505 DF by Ghia

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | London, U.K. | September 7, 2015

Photo – RM Sotheby’s

Piero Dusio’s Cisitalia is most well-known for their sports cars and race cars in the immediate post-war period. The Cisitalia 202 is a highly sought after Italian sporting classic. But as time went on, open-top sports cars needed to give way to slightly more sensible cars if the company were to survive.

Unfortunately that strategy didn’t work either. The 505 DF is one of the rarest Cisitalia models. Introduced in 1953 at the Geneva show, it was based on the Fiat 1900 and uses the Fiat’s 1.9-liter straight-four making 79 horsepower. The very pretty body is by Ghia. It’s so smooth, with very few lines. Look how slick that rear panel looks. You can’t even see the door gaps.

Sold new to a Swiss owner, this car spent a lot of its early life in Switzerland before going to Germany. The restoration was completed in 2011. At most, 10 of these were built and only two survive. The other one is not roadworthy, making this the best one in the world. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $224,224.