1950 Giaur 750 Sport
Chassis no.
BT-004
Engine no.
500B*436123*
Coachbuilder
Meccaniche Taraschi
Beacon
ON/OFF
ON/OFF
Giaur: a Taraschi structure for a Giannini engine in a small but effective combination. It ran four Mille Miglia and one Coppa della Toscana, among other races.
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no. 48 manufactured
Italy is a land of motors, but when you think about it, you usually think to the area of Modena or Torino, no one thinks to Teramo, with no “car-minded” tradition, far from everywhere, a 5 hours driving from Roma with a good car after the war, in late 40s. But this didn’t scared Berardo Taraschi, a racer that decided to build his own race car, right in Teramo. Stubborn as the cliché wants the people of Abruzzo, he struggles to find anything, often using the wide availability of war surplus. In 1947 Berardo begins building sports and competition cars under the name Urania, using the BMW motorcycle engine. Following some racing success, Taraschi had struck a deal with Domenico and Attilio Giannini whereby they would provide him with their own powerful Giannini engines. The contraction of GIAnnini and URania led to a new Italian marque known as Giaur and the resulting cars were truly wonderful. In the same period Giaur was also a name of a famous race-winner horse. The car was built with a tubular chassis by Meccanica Taraschi and was fitted with the G1 engine by Giannini. It was a single overhead cam, derived from the Fiat Topolino unit, whereas the later G2 engine had twin overhead cams. The result of this merge was a terribly effective car and brought Taraschi himself and lots of racers to continue victories. Over a 15 year period from 1947 to 1961, Berardo Taraschi built in its workshop, 118 small capacity racing cars, including at least 63 Formula Junior.
Giaur chassis BT-004 was completed in 1950 and sold new to Italo Arlini-Di Brigida from Pineto, Italy. He soon raced it in the 1950 Mille Miglia where it finished 71st overall and 6th in class. The Giaur was sold to Gustavo Laureati of Grottammare who teamed with driver Elio Celani and DNFed with the car at the ’51 MM. Laureati and the Giaur tried again at the ’53 MM. Now teamed with co-driver Amedeo Francescangeli, the car placed 161st overall and 11th in Class. Following this, brothers Francesco and Vincenzo De Angelis raced the Giaur at the 1954 MM where they placed 156th overall and 12th in Class. The car then was raced at a variety of events including Circuito di Salerno, Circuito di Terni, Vermicino-Rocca di Papa Hillclimb and several other local events. In late 1955 Francesco De Angelis traded BT-004 to seasoned racer Alfredo Tinazzo for an Alfa Romeo 1900.
