The Stanguellini family had deep roots in both engineering and motorsport. Vittorio's grandfather founded an engineering company in Modena in 1879. His father was notable enough in local automotive history to receive the first car registration plate issued in Modena in 1910, bearing the mark MO 1. When Vittorio took over the family business in 1929, it included a Fiat dealership.
A passionate driver and tuner, Stanguellini began modifying Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and Maserati cars for racing competition. He developed a friendly rivalry with Enzo Ferrari in the late 1920s, with Ferrari reportedly welcoming Stanguellini's presence as a reinforcement for the racing scene in Modena. Stanguellini then established Squadra Corse Stanguellini as a formal racing team, and the squad found early success with modified Masarati 6CM cars, winning the 1938 Targa Florio.
Stanguellini's cars were notable for their refusal to use foreign components. Unlike many of the small Italian constructors of the era — sometimes grouped under the affectionate collective term "Etceterinis" — Stanguellini insisted on building around Fiat parts wherever possible. The company focused on the 750 cc and 1100 cc displacement classes, where its cars won numerous national races in Italy and France.
The racing machinery was conspicuously well engineered, featuring light-alloy cylinder blocks, twin overhead camshafts (bialbero), and dual side-draught Weber carburettors. The 741 cc sports engine produced a claimed 60 bhp at 7,500 rpm, giving a top speed of around 180 km/h. The larger-displacement car produced around 90 bhp at 7,000 rpm and could reach approximately 190 km/h.
From 1947 onwards, Stanguellini made special aluminium twin-cam cylinder heads for the Fiat 1100 block. In 1950, he completed his most ambitious engineering project: a complete 750 cc racing engine designed by Oberdan Golfieri, an engineer from Romagna who would later collaborate with the Minardi Formula One team. The engine used a specially cast aluminium block and heads and was designed to rev to 9,000 rpm. It proved sufficiently successful that Stanguellini racing cars went on to win multiple national championships in Italy and France. American racer Briggs Cunningham purchased a 750 cc twin-cam car and raced it in the United States.
Stanguellini accumulated significant results in Italian and international competition. The team won the Mille Miglia 750 cc class in 1938 and 1940, the 1100 cc class in 1940, and the Targa Florio 750 cc class in 1938 and 1952. Internationally, the team achieved a class win at the 1957 12 Hours of Sebring with Herman Nehm, Carl Haas, and Sandy MacArthur. The team also competed in the 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans, where Stanguellini's best finish at that event was a fourth in class in 1959 — the limit of what his resources could achieve at the event he most wished to win.
In 1960, a Stanguellini won the Vanderbilt Cup at Roosevelt Raceway, New York, which was run as a Formula Junior race that year.
Stanguellini became a significant force in Formula Junior, the category for small single-seaters that existed between 1958 and 1963 as a feeder to Formula One. The Stanguellini Formula Junior cars were described as scaled-down lookalikes of the Maserati 250F, powered by Fiat 1100 engines. Stanguellini won the first season of the Italian Formula Junior championship, and notable drivers including Lorenzo Bandini and Wolfgang von Trips won early races in Stanguellinis.
Walt Hansgen won the Formula Junior race at the inaugural United States Grand Prix meeting at Sebring on December 12, 1959, driving a Stanguellini. More than 100 Formula Junior cars were built in total. The cars were competitive through 1960, but the arrival of British mid-engined designs from Cooper and Lotus ended the era of front-engined Fiat-based Formula Junior machinery.
Stanguellini developed a mid-engined response, the Delfino, for 1962. The car debuted at Daytona that year in the hands of Walt Hansgen and the Cunningham team, starting from pole position, but retired with technical problems and never became fully competitive.
In 1963, Stanguellini built a single-seat streamliner called the Colibrì, powered by a 250 cc Moto Guzzi motorcycle racing engine. The car set six international speed records at Autodromo Nazionale Monza. After 1966, the Stanguellini family concentrated on tuning equipment, subcontract design work, and their Modena Fiat dealership. Vittorio Stanguellini died in 1981, and the company has since been run by his son Francesco, focusing on restoration and historic racing support.