Enzo Osella

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Formula 1 box from Osella Corse, in the background Enzo Osella (with blue jacket, 1988)

Vincenzo "Enzo" Osella (born August 26, 1939 in Cambiano ) is an Italian racing car designer and former motorsport team boss. He is the founder and owner of the company Osella Corse (now: Osella Engineering ), which is one of the most successful manufacturers of racing and hill climb cars . At times, Osella took part in Formula 2 and Formula 1 races with its own team .

Life

Enzo Osella's parents Luigi and Maria Osella ran a grocery store and transport company in Volpiano near Turin until the end of World War II . After the war, Luigi Osella took over a car repair shop in the center of Turin. After finishing school, Enzo Osella initially worked in a gravel works and, at the same time, helped his father work on the customers' cars.

One of his father's customers was a hobby rally driver . From 1957 he used Enzo Osella as a navigator in several rally runs, including the Rally Sestriere . In the same year Osella drove a rally himself for the first time in his sister's Fiat 600 , but was unsuccessful. With the support of his father, Osella then bought a Lotus Eleven , which he modified according to his own ideas. With this car, which was equipped with an Osca engine and an Alfa Romeo differential, Osella subsequently took part in various road and hill climbs.

In 1963, Osella took a job with Carlo Abarth , who produced Fiat-based racing cars in Turin and maintained a motorsport team. Osella worked at Abarth as a test driver and gained insights into the production of chassis and engines as well as aspects of tuning. During this time, Osella also worked as a mechanic and driver supervisor in races for the Abarth team.

At the end of 1964, Enzo Osella went into business for himself. He took over a works agency for Abarth in Turin.

In 1971 Carlo Abarth sold the naming rights and production facilities to Fiat and retired to Vienna . However, he sold the racing department to Enzo Osella, who continued to operate it under the name Osella Corse.

Enzo Osella is married. He has a daughter. A son born in 1968 died in 1991.

Entrepreneur

Abarth Osella PA 1 from 1973 at the Oldtimer-Grand-Prix 2011 on the Nürburgring

Enzo Osella's company Osella Corse - like Abarth before - manufactured customer vehicles, but also had its own racing team that took part in races for sports prototypes and mountain races. Osella's first in-house design, the Osella Abarth PA1 from 1971, was still largely based on components from Abarth. With the PA1, he won the team championship in prototype races in 1973. The Osella PA3 , released in 1975, shaped the image of Osella's sports prototypes; the later models up to the PA9 from 1989 were essentially derived from it or further developments.

In 1975 he designed a Formula 2 car that took part in the 1975 Formula 2 European Championship with little success . After operations had almost come to a standstill due to economic difficulties in the following years, Osella returned to Formula 2 in 1979 . This time the works team scored three wins. Osella then rose to the Formula 1 World Championship in 1980, in which the team participated until 1990 . In allusion to Enzo Ferrari , Enzo Osella was often referred to as "Enzo II" in the motorsport press at the time. The Formula 1 commitment was unsuccessful. The cars, some of which were designed by Enzo Osella himself, almost never reached the technical level of Formula 1, Gustav Brunner repeatedly referred to them as “cucumbers” and “the worst cars in the field” - and the company was heavily in debt at the time. Enzo Osella called the 1980s “the dark era”. In 1990 he sold the Formula 1 racing team to his previous sponsor Gabriele Rumi , who continued to operate the team under the name Fondmetal until 1992 .

Osella then put the focus again on the sports car and hill climb. During this time, the company was based in the southern Italian region of Basilicata . Due to the use of structural funds from the European Economic Community , Osella had to relocate its plant to Atella . Several successful sports prototypes were made there. Between 1993 and 2004 almost all titles in the European Hill Climb Championship went to drivers who fielded Osella cars. In the period that followed, Formula 3000 vehicles temporarily dominated ; From 2009, however, Osella again had models that regularly won championships.

After 20 years in southern Italy, Osella returned to his home region of Piedmont . The company, now known as Osella Engineering, is again based near Turin and will continue to be managed by Enzo Osella.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short biography on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on March 6, 2015).
personal data
SURNAME Osella, Enzo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Osella, Vincenzo (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian racing car designer and former motorsport team boss
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Cambiano , Italy