The firm was founded in 1969 by Pietro "Dydo" Monguzzi, from
Milan, with his brother-in-law Walter Nebuloni, to build cars for lower formulae in Italian domestic racing; the Dywa name is a combination of Dydo and Walter. Nebuloni soon left the project, and the first cars produced by Dywa included a
Formula 2 car, but it was not suitable for racing. The first Dywa to appear on international entry lists was a
Formula 5000 car in 1975, powered by a
Chevrolet engine. Driven by
Luigi Cevasco, it failed to qualify for a couple of
European Formula 5000 Championship races, and was entered for a number of races in 1976, never turning up.
Formula 1 In 1979, Monguzzi produced a
Cosworth DFV-powered Formula 1 car, dubbed the 008, at a motor show in
Salerno. Its only appearance at a race was at the 1980
Monza Lotteria, then a round of the
1980 British Formula One Championship.
European Formula 3 champion
Piercarlo Ghinzani was persuaded to drive it, but the car - dubbed "a collection of square tubing randomly thrown around an aluminium monocoque-type structure which seems to lack any kind of unitary strength" and an "abysmal creation [which] looked like a relic from an O-level metalwork class" in
Autosport - was 37 seconds off the pace, and never appeared again. Monguzzi updated the car into another prototype, called the 010, in 1983, which was tested at Monza by Italian Formula 3 racer
Giampiero Consonni, but it never appeared at a race meeting.
Formula 3000 In 1986, Monguzzi teamed with
Monaco-based racer
Fulvio Ballabio, to turn the Dywa into a car for the second-tier
Formula 3000 championship. Now dubbed the
Monte Carlo MC001, and entered by Ballabio's
Monte Carlo Automobile, it appeared at one race - the Trofeo
Elio de Angelis at
Imola - with Ballabio at the wheel. The time required to be one of the 26 qualifiers was 1 minute 41.7 seconds; Ballabio's best lap was over three minutes. Ballabio himself remarked that the car "made a
Merzario look like a
McLaren" and he gave up on the project. == References ==