Giotto Bizzarrini is an engineering maestro who mastered the code of building record-breaking sports cars, and years later, his design and engineering philosophy of ‘achieve perfect balance through engine placement and proper chassis placement’ is still followed by major sports car makers. And this is his journey through the world of automobiles.
The legendary Engineer Giotto Bizzarrini was born in Quercianella, Livorno Province, Italy, in 1926 to a wealthy family. From an early age, Bizzarrini’s father placed a great emphasis on his education and encouraged Bizzarrini to pursue academics.
In 1953, Bizzarrini graduated from the University of Pisa with a degree in mechanical engineering. During his college years, Bizzarrini was known for his engineering exploits; one notable example was his complete redesign of the Fiat Topolino for his final thesis project in his senior year. He took a standard Fiat Topolino and re-engineered, its engine and chassis for performance – by no means the Fiat Topolino was an enthusisatsic car, it was your run of the mill post war commuter car, and bizzarrini tuned it into a fullblown race car – he relocated the engine for better weight balance and squezzed every bit of horsepower he could find from the tiny 500cc engine.
Time at Alfa Romeo
Bizzarrini’s exploits did not end there. In 1954 after graduating, Bizzarini dedicated his time to teaching, perhaps due to the lack of opportunity he found, but his genius couldn’t be ignored for long, not long after he was offered a chance to work for one of Italy’s renowned car makers – Alfa Romeo. in his initial days at Alfa Romeo he was instrumental in the development of the legendary Giulletta’s chassis. Later on, Giotto Bizzarrini gets transferred to Alfa Romeo’s experimental division, where, alongside his engineering duties, he also became one of their official test driver – and in Giotto Bizzarrini’s own words – “ I became a test driver who coincidentally was also an engineer, with mathematical principles. I always needed to know why something fails, so I can invent a solution.”
Time at Ferrari
In 1957, Giotto Bizzarrini left Alfa Romeo when Scuderia Ferrari came calling, but astoundingly, he didn’t join them as an engineer; Enzo Ferrari hired Bizzarrini as a test driver, but his background in engineering quickly established him as one of the star employees at Ferrari, and ultimately became the chief engineer at the italian marquee in short few years he spend at maranello.
During his tenure at Maranello, Giotto Bizzarrini was quite instrumental in the development of some of the iconic Ferrari models ever made: Ferrari 250 GT, Ferrari 250 2+2, and Ferrari 250 TR Testa Rossa, all of which belong to Ferrari’s successful 250 sports car series, which won numerous races and championships.
The iconic Ferrari 250 GTO
The 250 GTO was Bizzarrini’s magnum opus, through which he not only built one of the successful race cars or the most expensive car in the world (currently), but he also redefined the architecture of sports car racing and design. The 250 GTO was based on the already successful 250 SWB, but in 1959, the 250 SWB incurred a major blow to Ferrari when it lost out on victory at Le Mans to the more thoughtfully designed Aston Martin DBR1, and Enzo detested losing, so he gave Bizzarrini the order to build one of the greatest race cars to win back his pride for the following year.
In 1960, Giotto Bizzarrini began work on the Ferrari 250 GTO – arguably his greatest work. Ferrari engineers understood that, as good a racecar as the 250 GTO was, it had some design flaws that restricted its potential. One such restriction was the aerodynamic drag the SWB’s body produced at high speed, making it inefficient at high speed and in corners.
So, Bizzarrini applied his genius and came up with a solution to reduce the size of the frontal body work and extend the length of the bonnet, eliminating the drag and lift produced by the bigger surface area of the 250 SWB. Along with extensive modifications to the bodywork, he relocated the engine all the way back towards the centre of the chassis and lowered it as low as possible, resulting in improved weight distribution and sharp handling characteristics. When unveiled, the car was dubbed: The Bizzarrini Ugly Duck, for its long swooping bonnet and placement of front airducts, and internally it was known as the ‘Il Mostro’, The Monster.
Between 1962 to 1964, The monster went on to dominate sports car racing, winning accolades and championships wherever it went, during its tenure the The Ferrari 250 GTO won including the Tour de France (1963, 1964), Targa Florio (1962, 1963, 1964), 24 Hours of Le Mans (GT class, 1962, 1963), Tourist Trophy (1962, 1963), and the Nürburgring 1000 km (1963).
Ferrari’s Night of the Long Knives
Giotto Bizzarini’s time at Ferrari was short-lived. In 1961, after just five years with the Maranello squad, Bizzarrini was among the famous five top Ferrari engineers who walked out on Enzo Ferrari in protest, an event now famously recalled as Ferrari’s Night of the Long Knives. Bizzarini and four other engineers left Ferrari due to managerial differences and a toxic tussle between Enzo’s wife and the staff, and Enzo Ferrari taking a back seat in the office politics.
Post Ferrari
Following his departure from Ferrari, Giotto Bizzarini and other exiled ex-Ferrari engineers formed a new company – dubbed ‘Automobili Turismo e Sport’(ATS), with an agenda to beat Enzo Ferrari at his own game, both on and off track, By the tail end of 1963, ATS introduced the gorgeous ATS 2500 GT, a car now acknowledged as too advanced for the time. Nonetheless, all great personalities have egos, and it didn’t take long for those egos to clash, and soon ATS was disbanded.
After leaving ATS, Bizzarrini decided to focus solely on his own design and engineering technical consultancy firm, which he started in 1962, named Società Autostar, as an engineer for hire. Through his firm, Bizzarini got involved in major projects for numerous brands and played a major role in the development of some of the iconic cars from the era.
A few of his notable works as a technical consultant include the tacky Ferrari 250 GTO ‘Breadvan’, the egg-shaped Isetta mini car, and the legendary Lamborghini V12 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, yet another man antagonised by Enzo Ferrari, personally commissioned Autostar to build Lamborghini’s first ever V12 engine. Bizzarrini’s Autostar was also involved in the engineering of some of Iso Autoveicoli’s renowned models, and for a long time, was the only manufacturer Autostar was working with.
A disagreement between Iso Autoveicoli and Autostar led Bizzarrini to take the intellectual property of Iso Grifo and build different variants of it under the Bizzarrini name. Moderate success and brand recognition led Bizzarrini to rename Autostar to Bizzarrini S.p.A
Under the Bizzarrini banner, Giotto produced the iconic Bizzarrini GT Strada 5300, based on the Iso Grifo, and later added another model named ‘GT America’ – with this, Giotto Bizarrini became a full-fledged car manufacturer. But this didn’t stop him from pursuing his contractual work as a technical consultant with other manufacturers. During his time, he worked with Chevy race cars and plenty of other manufacturers. But by the end of his career, Bizzarrini went back to his first job, teaching at a university in Rome, where he was involved in numerous sports car projects and futuristic design experiments.
Sadly, this engineering marvel, who has played a huge part in the success of numerous Italian and other notable car manufacturers, passed away in May 2023 at the age of 96, leaving a legacy of Engineering marvels and designs that shaped motorsports and sports car engineering for decades to come.
Recommend0 recommendationsPublished in Cars
0
