MARCH 14, 2008

Old racers never die

Giacomo Caliri was a celebrated engineer in the racing department at Maranello in the 1960s, working initially on sports cars. Moving into Formula 1 for a period, he headed off to start his own design company in the mid 1970s, working for Ferrari on road car projects.

Giacomo Caliri was a celebrated engineer in the racing department at Maranello in the 1960s, working initially on sports cars. Moving into Formula 1 for a period, he headed off to start his own design company in the mid 1970s, working for Ferrari on road car projects. He then helped out Emerson Fittipaldi to turn his F5 into a ground-effect car. He then returned to F1 fulltime to design for the ATS team. After that he began a relationship with Minardi and designed the team's first Formula 2 cars and was even a shareholder in the team. The car won its first race in the hands of Michele Alboreto in 1980. Caliri went on to design the early Minardi F1 cars before being replaced in 1988 by Aldo Costa. He sold his share in the team and went off for a varied career in and out of racing, but never again in F1.

Now 67, Caliri had the idea a few years ago to create an exhibition centre to show how racing technology developed, illustrating the lives of the great engineers and trying to interest new generations in racing engineering. The result is Expotecnica, where the technical development of F1 will longer hidden under the bodies of racing cars but exposed and explained. The plan is for the museum to include a conference facility, a reference library and a shop. There will also be an area for temporary exhibitions to show manufacturing methods through the ages.