The brainchild of Count Giovanni 'Johnny' Lurani, Formula Junior was intended as a relatively low cost 'feeder' class for open-wheel, single-seater racing, the pinnacle of which was, and still is, Formula 1.

Formula Junior was first introduced in 1958 in Italy, and rapidly spread across Europe.

It catered for two classes of car: minimum weight 400kg (1,100cc engines) and minimum weight 360kg (1,000cc).

Engines had to be taken from standard touring cars, and opportunities for tuning were limited.

Italian manufacturers dominated the class during its early years, fielding mainly conventional front-engined cars, before British mid-engined designs took over.

The Italian-built De Sanctis was unusual in being mid-engined.

Gino De Sanctis and his son Lucio ran a FIAT dealership in Rome and, naturally enough, their car used a FIAT engine.

The De Sanctis FJ featured a tubular spaceframe chassis with coil-sprung control-arm front suspension and transverse leaf-sprung swing axles at the rea...