Constructors

Arzani-Volpini

In the early 1950s Gianpaolo Volpini built some successful Formula Junior cars, built around Fiat engines. The cars were not very successful but in 1953 Volpini moved up to the 500cc Formula 3 series, the chassis being raced with Gilera engines. In 1954 Volpini teamed up with engine-builder Egidio Arzani in a plan to enter the new 2.5-liter Formula 1 World Championship. Not having a vast amount of money, they concluded that the best thing to do would be to buy an old 1.5-liter car and rework it. They acquired one of the 1950 Scuderia Milano Milan-Maserati chassis. The engine was enlarged and renamed an Arzani while the chassis was clothed in a new and rather attractive bodywork. The car was entered for Mario Alborghetti in the Turin Grand Prix in March 1955 but was not ready in time and so it did not appear until the Pau race a month later. Alborghetti qualified at the back of the grid and was running at the tail of the field - after a pit stop - when he crashed head-on into a barrier. He suffered fatal injuries. The team regrouped and entered Luigi Piotti in the Italian Grand Prix in September that year but the car did not appear and the Arzani-Volpini operation was not see again, though Volpini Formula Junior and F3 cars continued to appear for most of the 1950s.