Gioacchino Colombo
Encyclopedia
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...
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.
Colombo was born in Legnano
Legnano
Legnano is an Italian town and comune with 59.147 inhabitants in the province of Milan, about from Milan.It's crossed by the river Olona, and it's the 13th town for inhabitants in Lombardy....
. He began work as an apprentice to 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...
at 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...
. In 1937, Colombo designed the 158 engine for the Alfetta
Alfa Romeo 158/159 Alfetta
The Alfa Romeo 158/159, also known as the Alfetta , is one of the most successful racing cars ever produced. The 158 and its derivative, the 159, took 47 wins from 54 Grands Prix entered. It was originally developed for the pre-World War II voiturette formula and has a 1.5 litre straight-8...
and caught the attention of Enzo Ferrari
Enzo Ferrari
Enzo Anselmo Ferrari Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian race car driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari car manufacturer...
. Ferrari asked Colombo to design a small V12
V12 engine
A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....
for use in the new 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...
marque's racing and road cars. The first Ferrari-Colombo engine
Ferrari Colombo engine
Ferrari's earliest cars used engines designed by Gioacchino Colombo, who had formerly designed Alfa Romeos for Enzo Ferrari. These V12 powerplants ranged from the diminutive 1.5 L unit fitted to the 125S to the 3.3 L unit in the 1966 275.Enzo Ferrari had long admired the V12 engines of...
appeared on May 11, 1947.
Colombo's great work for Ferrari was a tiny 1.5 L V12, first used in the 166
Ferrari 166
Ferrari used its 2 L V12 engine in a number of models, all called 166 for the displacement of a single cylinder. Most early 166es were sports cars built for racing, though a later line of GT cars launched the company's street model line.The following models used the 166 name:* 1948 Ferrari...
sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....
s. This engine, known in Ferrari circles as the "Colombo engine
Ferrari Colombo engine
Ferrari's earliest cars used engines designed by Gioacchino Colombo, who had formerly designed Alfa Romeos for Enzo Ferrari. These V12 powerplants ranged from the diminutive 1.5 L unit fitted to the 125S to the 3.3 L unit in the 1966 275.Enzo Ferrari had long admired the V12 engines of...
", was produced for road cars and endurance racing cars for more than 15 years in displacements up to 3.3 L. These included the famed 3.0 L Ferrari 250
Ferrari 250
The Ferrari 250 is a sports car built by Ferrari from 1953 to 1964. The company's most successful early line, the 250 series included several variants. It was replaced by the 275 and the 330.-Similarities:...
racing, sports, and GT cars.
Colombo's engine was not as successful 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...
racing. After stunning early success in the 166, the engine was supercharge
Supercharge
In theoretical physics, a supercharge is a generator of supersymmetry transformations.Supercharge, denoted by the symbol Q, is an operator which transforms bosons into fermions, and vice versa...
d for use 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...
but failed to perform well. Ferrari hedged his bets, as he often did, by bringing on competing designer Aurelio Lampredi
Aurelio Lampredi
Aurelio Lampredi was an Italian automobile and aircraft engine designer.Born in Livorno, he began his career at Piaggio, makers of the Vespa scooter, but quickly moved up to larger engines...
to create a large naturally aspirated V12, which replaced Colombo's. Later, Colombo's former mentor, Vittorio Jano, came to Ferrari and displaced the work of both men.
Colombo left Ferrari in 1950 and returned to 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...
. Here, he oversaw the company's racing efforts, including the success that year of Nino Farina and, in 1951, Juan-Manuel Fangio.
In 1953, Colombo turned to Maserati
Maserati
Maserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...
and created the 250F
Maserati 250F
The Maserati 250F was a racing car made by Maserati of Italy used in '2.5 litre' Formula One racing between January 1954 and November 1960. Twenty-six examples were made.-Mechanical details:...
Grand Prix
Grand Prix motor racing
Grand Prix motor racing has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as far back as 1894. It quickly evolved from a simple road race from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car and driver...
car. Two years later, Colombo headed to newly restarted Bugatti
Bugatti
Automobiles E. Bugatti was a French car manufacturer founded in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, as a manufacturer of high-performance automobiles by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti....
to work on the 251. He then worked for MV Agusta
MV Agusta
MV Agusta is a motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1945 near Milan in Cascina Costa, Italy. The company began as an offshoot of the Agusta aviation company formed by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923. The Count died in 1927, leaving the company in the hands of his wife and sons, Domenico, Vincenzo,...
in 1957-1970.
Colombo died in Milan in 1988.