The Auto Avio Costruzioni 815 was the first car to be fully designed and built by
Enzo Ferrari
Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari (; 20 February 1898 – 14 August 1988) was an Italians, Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari ...
. Legal issues with former associates
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." ...
prevented Ferrari from creating the
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
marque. The 815 raced at the
1940 Brescia Grand Prix, where both entries failed to finish due to engine problems. One of the cars was later scrapped, while the other is currently in a car collection in Italy.
Background
In 1938, Ferrari left Alfa Romeo after running ''
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari Società per Azioni, S.p.A. () is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "The Prancing Horse", in refere ...
'' as their racing division. The agreement ending their association forbade Ferrari from restarting ''Scuderia Ferrari'' within the next four years. Ferrari then founded ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'' (AAC) in Modena to manufacture aircraft parts and
machine tools
A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All m ...
for the Italian government.
AAC specialized in the production of hydraulic
grinding machines used to produce
ball bearings
A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races.
The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this ...
. The company established business partnerships with other Italian firms, including
Compagnia Nazionale Aeronautica __NOTOC__
Compagnia Nazionale Aeronautica was a manufacturer of aircraft and aircraft engines established in Italy in 1920 by Count Giovanni Bonmartini. Together with a group of World War I veteran pilots, he operated a flying school in Rome from a ...
and
Piaggio
Piaggio & C. SpA (Piaggio ) is an Italian motor vehicle manufacturer, which produces a range of two-wheeled motor vehicles and compact commercial vehicles under seven brands: Piaggio, Vespa, Gilera, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Derbi, and Scarabeo. Its ...
.
In December 1939, AAC was commissioned by
Lotario Rangoni Macchiavelli, Marquis di Modena, to build and prepare two racing cars for him and
Alberto Ascari
Alberto Ascari (; 13 July 1918 – 26 May 1955) was an Italian racing driver and a two time Formula One World Champion. He was a multitalented racer who competed in motorcycle racing before switching to cars. Ascari won consecutive world titles ...
to drive in the 1940
Mille Miglia
The Mille Miglia (, ''Thousand Miles'') was an open-road, motorsport endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi, which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before World ...
. The race, which was officially named the Grand Prix of Brescia, was to be run in April 1940.
The resulting car was named the AAC Tipo 815.
Details
The 815 was designed and developed by ex-Alfa Romeo engineers
Alberto Massimino
Alberto Massimino (5 January 1895 – 27 November 1975) was an Italian automotive engineer.
Biography
Born in Turin, he studied mechanical engineering in Switzerland and worked for FIAT (1924–28), where he followed Vittorio Jano who had left fo ...
and
Vittorio Bellentani, advised by test driver
Enrico Nardi
Enrico Nardi (1907 in Bologna – 23 August 1966) was an Italian racing car driver and designer.
He worked at Lancia between 1929 and 1937 as a truck engineer, racing car driver, and later, advisor to Vincenzo Lancia. He was moderately successful ...
.
The designation "815" was based on the car's eight-cylinder, 1.5 L engine.
This engine was largely based on the four-cylinder, 1.1 L engine of the Fiat
508 C Balilla 1100.
In concept, it was two 508C engines placed end to end, but it used a specially designed aluminium block built by Fonderia Calzoni in Bologna for integrity and light weight and a five-bearing crankshaft and a camshaft designed and built by AAC to get the traditional
straight-8
The straight-eight engine (also referred to as an inline-eight engine; abbreviated I8 or L8) is a piston engine with eight cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. The number of cylinders and perfect primary and secondary engi ...
timing and balance. The compression ration was increased to 7:1 from 6:1 in the original Fiat engine.
The engine used Fiat valve gear, cylinder heads (two 508C heads per engine), and connecting rods.
Instead of the two original Fiat
distributors
A distributor is an enclosed rotating switch used in spark-ignition internal combustion engines that have mechanically timed ignition. The distributor's main function is to route high voltage current from the ignition coil to the spark plugs ...
, AAC manufactured a single distributor to avoid synchronization issues.
The engine was high-tech for the time, with a single
camshaft in block, two valves per cylinder, and a semi-
dry sump
A dry-sump system is a method to manage the lubricating motor oil in four-stroke and large two-stroke piston driven internal combustion engines. The dry-sump system uses two or more oil pumps and a separate oil reservoir, as opposed to a conve ...
lubrication system.
Four
Weber 30DR2
carburettor
A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meterin ...
s were specified
for a total output of at 5500 rpm.
The 815 used a Fiat four-speed transmission with the Fiat gears replaced by gears made in-house by AAC.
The transmission was integral to the engine block.
The car had independent
Dubonnet suspension
Dubonnet suspension was a system of leading arm independent front suspension and steering popular mainly in the 1930s and 1940s. Not very durable unless exactingly maintained, it was soon replaced by other designs. It consisted of a rigidly mounted ...
with integral
shock absorber
A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical or hydraulic device designed to absorb and damp shock impulses. It does this by converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typically heat) which is then dissipated. Most sh ...
at front, with a
live axle
A beam axle, rigid axle or solid axle is a dependent suspension design in which a set of wheels is connected laterally by a single beam or shaft. Beam axles were once commonly used at the rear wheels of a vehicle, but historically they have als ...
on semi-elliptic
leaf spring
A leaf spring is a simple form of spring commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles. Originally called a ''laminated'' or ''carriage spring'', and sometimes referred to as a semi-elliptical spring, elliptical spring, or cart spring, it ...
s and hydraulic
shock absorber
A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical or hydraulic device designed to absorb and damp shock impulses. It does this by converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typically heat) which is then dissipated. Most sh ...
s at the rear.
As Mille Miglia regulations required that racing car chassis be based on production models, the AAC 815's chassis was also derived from the Fiat 508 C Balilla.
The bodywork was done by
Carrozzeria Touring
Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera is an Italian automobile coachbuilder. Originally established in Milan in 1925, Carrozzeria Touring became well known for both the beauty of its designs and patented superleggera construction methods. The bus ...
using Itallumag 35, an aluminium/magnesium alloy,
and was done in long, flowing forms with integrated wings.
The bodywork weighed .
The complete car weighed and attained a maximum speed close to .
Chassis 020, built for Rangoni, was fully trimmed in leather and had luxuriously detailed exterior trim, including extra chrome and a recessed fuel filler cap. Ascari's car, 021, was more spartan. Touring also developed a design for a proposed convertible version of the 815. Drawings and a scale model were produced but this was not further developed due to the onset of World War II.
Performance at 1940 Brescia Grand Prix
![1940-04-28 Mille Miglia Auto Avio Rangoni e Ascari](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/1940-04-28_Mille_Miglia_Auto_Avio_Rangoni_e_Ascari.jpg)
Two 815s, numbers 020 and 021, were completed and entered in the 1940 Brescia Grand Prix, which ran nine laps of a street circuit. Rangoni and Nardi raced in 020, while Ascari and Giovanni Minozzi raced in 021. Minozzi was Ascari's cousin, who participated in many races during the 1920s and 30s without any major wins.
After leading the 1500 cc class in the first lap, Ascari's car developed a broken rocker arm and retired. Rangoni then took the lead, set the lap record for the class, and had a lead of more than half an hour when his engine or rear axle failed after seven laps.
After the Second World War
Further development and production of the 815 was indefinitely stopped when Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940. During the war years, the company focused on machine tool production, although Enzo Ferrari continued to plan future racing car production.
Car no. 020 was sent to a scrapyard by Lotario Rangoni in 1938, following an accident. Lotario died during
the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
and his brother, Rolando, inherited the car. Rolando attempted to recover the car from the scrapyard in 1958. After locating the car and confirming its identity with Enzo Ferrari, he returned to collect it only to find it had been crushed during his absence, irreversibly destroying it.
Ascari's car, no. 021, was sold to racer Enrico Beltracchini
who raced it in 1947.
After selling the car to a museum and then buying it back, Beltracchini sold it again to Mario Righini.
As of 2020, Type 815 no. 021 was still in Righini's collection, housed at
Castelfranco Emilia
Castelfranco Emilia ( Western Bolognese: ; Modenese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Modena, Emilia-Romagna, north-central Italy. The town lies about northwest of Bologna.
Castelfranco either occupies or lies near the site of the ancient For ...
near Modena.
References
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External links
*
{{Ferrari
815
__NOTOC__
Year 815 (Roman numerals, DCCCXV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Byzantine Empire
* Byzantine–Bulgarian Treaty of 815, Byzantine–Bulgaria ...
First car made by manufacturer
Sports car manufacturers