Aurelio Lampredi was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 and aircraft

Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

 engine

Engine

An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion. Heat engines, including internal combustion engines and external combustion engines burn a fuel to create heat which is then used to create motion...

 designer.

Born in Livorno

Livorno

Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...

, he began his career at Piaggio

Piaggio

Piaggio based in Pontedera, Italy encompasses seven brands of scooters, motorcycles and compact commercial vehicles. As the fourth largest producer of scooters and motorcycles in the world, Piaggio produces more than 600,000 vehicles annually, with five research and development centers, more than...

, makers of the Vespa

Vespa

Vespa is an Italian brand of scooter manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian.The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A...

 scooter, but quickly moved up to larger engines. He worked at Isotta-Fraschini

Isotta-Fraschini

Isotta Fraschini represents two Italian manufacturing companies which produce, respectively, marine engines and luxury goods. In the early 20th century it was famous worldwide as a luxury car manufacturer.-History:...

 before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and then joined Reggiane

Reggiane

Officine Meccaniche Reggiane SpA was an Italian aircraft manufacturer, owned by Caproni and situated in Reggio Emilia, a city of what today is the Emilia-Romagna region...

 to design aircraft engines.

Lampredi's fame brought him to Ferrari

Ferrari

Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...

 in 1946 where he designed a large 4.5 L V12 (the "Lampredi engine

Ferrari Lampredi engine

Aurelio Lampredi designed a number of racing engines for Ferrari. He was brought on to hedge the company's bets with a different engine family than the small V12s designed by Gioacchino Colombo. Lampredi went on to design a number of different straight-4, straight-6, and V12 engines through the...

") which first saw use in 1950s 257S

Ferrari 275

The Ferrari 275 was a 2-seat front-engined Gran Turismo automobile produced by Ferrari between 1964 and 1968. It used a 3.3 L Colombo 60° V12 engine and produced 280-300 hp. The Pininfarina-designed body was a graceful evolution of the car's predecessor, the 250, and strongly contrasted...

. Lampredi returned to Isotta-Fraschini in March 1947 but returned to Ferrari at the beginning of 1948. Lampredi's engines were used as large naturally aspirated alternatives to the diminutive Gioacchino Colombo

Gioacchino Colombo

Gioacchino Colombo was an Italian automobile engine designer.Colombo was born in Legnano. He began work as an apprentice to Vittorio Jano at Alfa Romeo. In 1937, Colombo designed the 158 engine for the Alfetta and caught the attention of Enzo Ferrari. Ferrari asked Colombo to design a small V12...

-designed V12s used in most Ferrari cars until that time. Especially after the failure of Colombo's supercharged engine in Formula One

Formula One

Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

, Lampredi's design began to find favor in the company. Lampredi oversaw Ferrari's racing effort during its early success in 1952 and 1953.

Lampredi's work at Ferrari ended permanently in 1955 when Ferrari bought Lancia

Lancia

Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and which became part of the Fiat Group in 1969. The company has a long history of producing distinctive cars and also has a strong rally heritage. Some modern Lancias are seen as presenting a more...

's racing team and famed engine designer Vittorio Jano

Vittorio Jano

Vittorio Jano was an Italian automobile designer of Hungarian descent from the 1920s through 1960s.Jano was born Viktor János in San Giorgio Canavese, in Piedmont, to Hungarian immigrants, who arrived there several years before the birth of Jano. He began his career at the car and truck company...

, formerly of Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...

. Though Lampredi's engine designs lived on in Ferrari road cars, Jano's V6 and V8 engines quickly replaced Lampredi's large V12s for racing use.

After Ferrari, Lampredi went to Fiat

Fiat

FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

, where he oversaw that company's engine design efforts until 1977. It was at Fiat where he designed the Fiat Twin-Cam

Fiat Twin Cam engine

Designed by Aurelio Lampredi the Fiat Twin Cam was an advanced inline-4 automobile engine produced from 1959 through 1994 as a Fiat/Lancia engine until it was replaced by the "family B" series of engines...

 and SOHC

Fiat SOHC

Designed by Aurelio Lampredi, the Fiat SOHC engine first appeared in the front-wheel drive Fiat 128 of 1969. The in-line four-cylinder engine comprised an iron block with an aluminium cylinder-head containing a single over-head camshaft operating directly on both the inlet and exhaust valves in a...

 engines, which provided motive-force for most Fiat automobiles for over 32 years. He was also made manager of Fiat's Abarth

Abarth

Abarth is an Italian racing car maker founded by Austrian-Italian Carlo Abarth and Italian Armando Scagliarini in Turin in 1949. Its logo depicts a stylized scorpion on a red and yellow background.- History :...

factory racing group from 1973 through 1982.

Lampredi died in Livorno in 1989.