1973 - Lot 4

1973 DINO CELLI R5 Type : Racer 3 points Length : 5,00 m Width : 2,20 m Weight : approx. 500 kg Number of seat(s) : 1 Engine : Alfa Romeo Montreal Type : 8 cylinders in V Displacement: 3.0 l Power : approx. 250 hp. Boats and trailers do not have any papers. The presence of the Celli family in Venice in the nautical construction sector is very old and its name can be found in the results of competitions since the 1920s. The first winner of the legendary Pavia-Venezia race founded in 1929, Ettore Negri, was piloting a Celli hull with an Elto outboard motor. The production of Celli three-point hull racers entered in the various national and international championships peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, equipped mainly with engines from 1,300 to 2,500 cm3 Alfa Romeo, BPM or Lancia. Great champions such as Antonio Petrobelli scored countless victories at the wheel of the racers of the Venetian shipyard located on the island of Sant'Elena. From the very beginning of the 1960s, however, it is necessary to distinguish the signature "Celli" from that of "Dino Celli" of the same family. In fact, the original shipyard is moving more and more towards the construction of fiberglass pleasure boats and tires under an agreement with the Pirelli Group. Dino Celli, on the other hand, will continue the handcrafted production of racers, winning, among others, the Pavia-Venezia race with one of his boats since 1962. The three-point racers are classified according to criteria of weight and displacement. This 1973 Dino Celli hull is in the R5 category for boats over 2.5 liters. A customer of Ivo Speroni, the "wizard" of Boretto, wanted a relatively light and agile boat with lots of power. He commissioned him to specially build an Alfa Romeo Montreal V8, increasing its displacement from 2.6 liters to 3 liters and installing a carburetor fuel system with a battery of four Dell'Orto dual-body units to replace the original fuel injection. The hull was ordered bare from Dino Celli, then equipped and prepared for racing by Speroni, while its fairing was custom made by Lucini & Frigerio in Como. The boat made its racing debut in 1974, driven by Gerardo Milo with the number 292. That year and the following one, Milo also participated in the Pavia-Venezia. From 1976 to 1988, the succession was taken by the driver Franco Bonazzi (n°130), engaged both in the R5 category and in Formula 1, specifically to compete in the Trofeo Tricolore Formula 1 run at Boretto on the Po in 1979. Bonazzi then lent his boat to Cesare Casarola in 1982 to participate in the Trofeo Contrà del Marciapiè in Lazise, still bearing the number 130. Subsequently, Cesare Casarola will keep the steering wheel of the racer until 1985. The boat was then stored until 1997, when it was bought by the French collector François Gabaroche to participate in historical gatherings. Two years later, Jean Van Praet succeeded him, still keeping this number 130, a souvenir of his last official federal competition in 1985. Since then, this V8 Alfa Romeo Dino Celli has shown great performances in demonstrations and meetings, always carefully revised and prepared by the same Speroni workshop in Boretto where it was assembled in 1973.