IDIADA: Europe’s Best Automotive Lab Hides in Spain, and Even the Spaniards Don’t Talk About It When Chris Harris wants to test a road car at the limit, he heads to the Nürburgring or, if he’s lucky, gets handed the keys at Anglesey. When Top Gear needed a track for Power Laps, they used a … Read more
Vittorio Jano: the engineer who designed the engines that won for Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Ferrari, and whom almost nobody remembers Here’s a question. If you walked into Goodwood next summer, stopped any ten people in the paddock, and asked them to name the most influential engine designer in the history of Italian motorsport, what … Read more
The Engineer Ferrari Tried to Erase There’s a car that regularly sells for over fifty million dollars at auction. It is, by most measures, the most valuable automobile ever made. The man who engineered its engine never saw it win a race. He was fired before it crossed a finish line — handed a sealed … Read more
The three-point seatbelt: Volvo’s most expensive decision and the patent that saved a million lives You’re alive because of a Swede who designed ejection seats Look down. Right now. The strap across your chest, the buckle by your hip, that V-shape that pins you to the seat without breaking your ribs. That’s the work of … Read more
GIANPAOLO DALLARA: THE ENGINEER WHO CHOSE A GARAGE IN PARMA OVER A DESK IN MARANELLO The first note Enzo Ferrari left on his desk read “Più ordinato, per favore.” Tidier, please. Handwritten in the purple ink the Commendatore used for everything. It was December 1959. Gianpaolo Dallara had just left university and just walked into … Read more
Lotus and Colin Chapman: The Engineer Who Proved Light Beats Powerful “Simplify, then add lightness.” If you had to compress the entire philosophy of automotive engineering into five words, those would be it. They weren’t spoken by a professor or a CEO with an MBA. They came from Colin Chapman — a British engineer who … Read more
