Unique sports cars are a bond for the Reuters
ST. LOUIS — Cliff and Jack Reuter have been playing with cars since Cliff was born, and some of the 37 cars that have passed through Jack’s hands have been the stuff of legends.
The list is staggering, but it includes such famous Ferraris as 1962 Ferrari GTO, a 1954 250 Monza “Loud Mouth,” a 1953 166 Mille Miglia that was the personal car of Enzo Ferrari’s son Dino and two Short Wheelbase Berlinettas. He also owned such luminaries as a Birdcage Maserati, Porsche 550 Spyder and a 1927 Bugatti Type 37.
Jack, now 77, owned many of those cars in the 1960s and 1970s when the prices were relatively modest, but had he kept them, their value would be staggering. Jack sold the 250 Monza in 1968, the year Cliff was born, but in 1999 it brought $2.9 million at auction in Monterey, Calif. Today, a GTO may be worth as much as $30 million.
While describing all of the fabulous cars he has owned, Jack said he has no regrets. Just knowing that he owned some of the most iconic vehicles ever built seems to be satisfaction enough.
More recently, Jack and Cliff have been involved with all manner of tiny Italian sports racers, most notably Bandinis. The Bandini was a tiny Italian sports racer not much bigger than a golf cart, and 750 cc American Crosley engines powered many. Some later models had Bandini engines.
Cliff is so enraptured by these tiny cars that he has developed a website, www.etceterini.com, to chronicle brands such as Moretti, Abarth, Volpini, Nardi, Ermini, Stanguellini and Siata. Cliff’s site is also a repository of hundreds of racing photos, result sheets and programs from the 1950s and 1960s.
The Reuters’ newest acquisition is a 1951 Bandini Siluro Motto Crosley 750cc Devin Monza. The original aluminum body was replaced by a Devin Monza fiberglass body in 1957. The car was raced at one time by Clair “Sonny” Reuter of Naperville, Ill., (no relation to Cliff or Jack). In 1953, this car was raced at the Chanute Air Force Base sports car races that were photographed by my father, Bob Strongman, for Road and Track magazine.
“I got into collecting because of my dad,” Cliff said. “He had some of the greatest cars on the planet but always liked little, obscure Italian cars.” And so they continue, gathering information and maintaining one of the most complete archives about these little racers in addition to restoring cars.
Will they restore this fiberglass-bodied Bandini or leave it as is? They’re not sure at this point, but they have acquired some of the original cycle-fendered body pieces in case they want to return it to its 1951 configuration.
