Cisitalia was an Italian sports and racing car brand named after "Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia", a business conglomerate founded in Turin in 1946 by industrialist and sportsman Piero Dusio.

A pool of talented drivers, including Tazio Nuvolari, drove the D46 to a few victories, beating more advanced but older racing cars.

With a mid engined layout and four wheel drive, the Type 360 turned out to be far too expensive for Dusio to build to the extent of almost bankrupting his company.

The Cisitalia was displayed with seven other cars, including the (1930 Mercedes-Benz SS tourer; the 1939 Bentley saloon designed by James Young; the 1939 Talbot-Lago by Figoni teardrop coupé; the 1951 Willys Jeep; the 1937 Cord 812 Custom Beverly Sedan; the 1948 MG TC; and the 1941 Lincoln Continental coupe).

Built following aerodynamic studies developed for racing cars, the Cisitalia is to these days one of the most accomplished examples of single shell coachwork.

This was an innovative approach as before the Cisitalia 202, the prevailing philosophy was to treat each part of the body as a separate elements, with one box to house the passengers, another one for the motor, and headlights as appendages.

Since the 202 never enjoyed large scale production (all the cars were handmade), the engineering group at Cisitalia, including Carlo Abarth, Dante Giacosa and Giovanni Savonuzzi, created several variants of the 202.