Scuderia Lupini

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Scuderia Lupini partron Luigi 'Gigi 'Lupini was born in Bergamo, Northern Italy in 1898 before he took up the family trade of terrazzo and artistic building on his return from the World War 1 front.

He raced motorcycles in and around Italy when he counted Nuvolari among his two-wheeled rivals and Gigi decided to go race cars in 1926. He raced in the Mille Miglia in 1929, where he ended third in the big over 5-litre class in a Buick with his friend Peretti.

Gigi Lupini

1929 Mille Miglia Class Success

The Buick was race prepared by Dallara, grandfather of IndyCar chassis builder Giampiero. It featured axles placed over their leaf springs to lower the centre of gravity among many modifications to the chassis and engine. Leading his class the crew missed a bridge and crashed into a bog. It took many hours to extricate the yellow Buick but they made it in the end and finished third, 28 hours later.

With the impending recession, like many Italian masters of their craft, Gigi sought pastures greener and set off for Beira in 1930. In '33 he left the typhoid, yellow fever and malaria-riddled Mozambique for Krugersdorp west of Johannesburg in South Africa, where he was commissioned to build the Catholic church.

20 years later, Lupini stepped back into motorsport bought a speedway bike for Doug Serrurier, which soon whet his appetite to once again race cars.

Ian Fraser Jones took the first ever Porsche-powered single seater race win in Scuderia Lupini's Cooper Mk VI

Cooper Mk VI Porsche

In 1955 Gigi acquired a Cooper Mk VI Formula Junior. To which he and racing friends Horse Boyden and Ian Fraser-Jones fitted a Volkswagen Beetle engine. It proved less competitive than expected, so Gigi shipped a Porsche Type 506 1.5-litre boxer four in and fitted it to the nimble Cooper, which Fraser-Jones was running third when he retired. The real significance of that race was it is understood to be the first time a Porsche engine ever powered a single-seater racing car. Boyden then raced to 13th in the 1956 False Bay 100 in Cape Town, before Fraser-Jones won the Roy Hesketh Settlers Day National. Again, most significant considering that was the first-ever Porsche powered single seater victory.

Cooper T20 Bristol

For 1957 Gigi Lupini acquired an ex-works Cooper T20 Bristol chassis number CB-9-53 to run alongside his Cooper Porsche. With Boyden at the wheel, the new car starred on debut as Horse battled South African champion Bill Jennings for the lead to come home a game second. Fraser-Jones hit trouble in the Cooper Porsche, but was back ito win the Geoff Duke Trophy a month later before taking third in the Coronation 100 National at Roy Hesketh.

The Bristol proved fragile, prompting Gigi to sell the car and invest in his faithful Cooper Porsche for the 1958 Season. Fitted with a new 60 HP 1300cc Porsche Type 589 S engine, the much evolved car won first time out as Fraser-Jones won the national championship Coronation 100 before taking fourth in the Settlers Trophy at Grand Central in April 1958.

Leading the championship, Fraser-Jones switched to a Porsche 550A Spyder for the rest of that season. His points accumulated in the Cooper contributed to more than half his championship winning score that year. In effect, that was a rare, and Porsche's first single-seater racing championship victory.

Ferrari 225 S & Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce Alleggerita

Scuderia Lupini Ferrari 9 Hour 1958

Gigi Lupini then bought South Africa's first Ferraris, a road-going 250 Pininfarina. Scuderia Lupini also acquired and highly modified the ex-Vittorio Marzotto Monaco GP-winning Ferrari 225 S chassis 0154ED for the first Johannesburg 9-hour race at Grand Central in November 1958. The first Ferrari to ever win at Monaco, the 225 S was the star attraction at the 9 Hour, alongside the team's quartet of new to South Africa Alfa Romeo Giuliettas for a top line-up of drivers.

Among the Alfa Romeos, the team entered its lightweight homologation special Giulietta Sprint Veloce Alleggerita for Horse Boyden and Mario Lupini. A familiar car in early South African endurance races, the SV won several major events including the Pietermaritzburg 6 Hour.

The second generation

Three of Gigi's five sons, Mario, Gino and Italo all raced that first 9 Hour. Gino carved a name for himself in the Cape. while teenage youngest son Italo caused a sensation when he twice won the Krugersdorp Hill Climb in the Cooper Porsche.

The team once again upgraded its Cooper to a 70HP 1500cc Porsche Type 528/2 S boxer four for Horse Boyden to take a second and a sixth in the two national championship rounds at Grand Central through 1959. The South African Grand Prix then returned to East London on New Year's Day 1960. The team entered the Cooper Porsche for Horse Boyden and the Ferrari for Fanie Viljoen.

John Love won the van Riebeek Trophy in the Lupini Cooper Maserati

The Cooper Maserati

Scuderia Lupini took a new direction into the 1960s. After whetting his appetite at the '59 Grand Prix, Gigi travelled to Europe in search for a serious Formula 1 machine. He visited Cooper and ordered a latest T53 F1 chassis before jetting to Italy to tie up a Maserati engine and a Collotti gearbox. The Scuderia Lupini Cooper Maserati was born.

Cooper however sent an older T51 chassis, number F2-16-60, which John Love debuted in eighth in the Cape Grand Prix at Killarney before retiring from an impressive run in the VII South African Grand Prix at the end of 1960. Love won his first Formula 1 race in the Cooper Maserati at the 1961 Killarney Van Riebeeck Trophy before he left for Europe while the team did its utmost to re-fettle the T51 to match more or less what Gigi had ordered.

Doug Serrurier in the Cooper Maserati

Love, Serrurier & Blokdyk raced the Mule

Love returned for the first-ever Kyalami meeting at the end of season Spring Trophy, where he finished second to grab an impressive third in the South African F1 championship despite missing half the season. Doug Serrurier then raced the Cooper Maserati, known as the Mule for its dire handling habits in the '62 Springbok Series, ending a troubled 12th in the Rand, sixth and second South African in the Natal, and seventh, and second local at the East London South African Grand Prix.

The team skipped the rest of the '62 and much of the 1963 season but was back with Trevor Blokdyk at the wheel late in the 1963 season and into the Springbok Series and South African Grand Prix. He ended sixth in the opening heat of the Rand Grand Prix and 12th in the South African Grand Prix. Scuderia Lupini ran the Cooper Maserati a few more races from there, culminating with fourth in the Royal Show Trophy at Roy Hesketh in June to help Blokdyk to third in the championship.

The third coming

While his brothers stopped earlier and Scuderia Lupini shied away from the top level from 1965, Mario Lupini raced on until '67. A veteran of seven 9-hours, Mario drove for Volvo and Alfa Romeo on track and Alfa, Opel and Hillman in rallying in a successful career. He did race a little later on, competing in motorcycle enduros alongside brother Italo and his sons Michele and Paolo, Cousin Giuseppe and nephews Luigi and Ricardo.

That excitement proved another stepping stone as a gang of young third generation Lupinis soon started racing cars. Mario's sons Michele and Paolo and Gino's son Enrico proved competitive in Group N racing and the trio regularly shared cars in the annual Group N 6, 7 and 9-hours at Killarney. Michele went on to win championships on both track and in rallies, where he proved a specialist on tarmac stages.

A race winning fourth generation

Michele's son, fourth generation Lupini racer Giordano raced karts, winning at national level, before stepping up to his first big track appearance at just 14 years old. Gio developed into a competitive championship winner as he continued the Lupini racing tradition into its 95th year in a multiple race winning campaign in the illustrious South African Volkswagen Polo Cup.

Scuderia Lupini: Major Race Results

1955	Scuderia Lupini	Cooper Mk VI	Porsche 506 1.5 F4		PCM
				Ian Fraser-Jones	Ret
1956	Scuderia Lupini	Cooper Mk VI	Porsche 506 1.5 F4		FBY	RHS
				Ian Fraser-Jones		1
				Horse Boyden	13
1957	Scuderia Lupini	Cooper Mk VI	Porsche 506 1.5 F4		FBY	HEH	COR	GCU
				Ian Fraser-Jones	Ret	3	Ret	Ret
				Horse Boyden	3	1
		Cooper T20 CB-9-53	Bristol 2.0 I6	Horse Boyden	1
1958	Scuderia Lupini	Cooper Mk VI	Porsche 589S 1.5 F4		HEH	COR	GCS	GCU	6HR	9HR
				Ian Fraser-Jones	2	1	4
				Vic Procter				3
		Ferrari 225 S 0154ED	Ferrari 250 V12	Bill Jennings Don Philp						13
		Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce Alegritta	Alfa Romeo 1.3 I4	Horse Boyden Mario Lupini					3	Ret
1959	Scuderia Lupini	Cooper Mk VI	Porsche 528/2 S 1.5 F4		GCU	GCW	6HR
				Horse Boyden	2	6
		Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce Alegritta	Alfa Romeo 1.3 I4	Mario Lupini Gino Lupini			3
1960	Scuderia Lupini	Cooper Mk VI	Porsche 528/2 S 1.5 F4		RSA	FBY	CAP	RSA
				Horse Boyden	Ret	Ret
		Ferrari 225 S 0154ED	Ferrari 250 V12	Fanie Viljoen	Ret	Ret
		Cooper T51 F2-16-60	Maserati 1,5 I4	John Love			8	Ret
1961	Scuderia Lupini	Cooper T51 F2-16-60	Maserati 1,5 I4		VRT	RST	NAT	RAN	SAF
				John Love	1	2
				Doug Serrurier			12	6	7
1962	Scuderia Lupini	Cooper T51 F2-16-60	Maserati 1,5 I4		NAT
				Clive Trundell	6
1963	Scuderia Lupini	Cooper T51 F2-16-60	Maserati 1,5 I4		RST	RAN	SAF
				Trevor Blokdyk	Ret	6	12
1963	Scuderia Lupini	Cooper T51 F2-16-60	Maserati 1,5 I4		COR	REP	RST
				Trevor Blokdyk	Ret	Ret	4

References

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