Osella PA9
The Osella PA9 was a sports car prototype that was developed in 1981 by the Turin racing car manufacturer Osella and used by the factory in sports car and hill climbs until 1988 .
Development history
Osella's roots lie in the Turin racing team Abarth . When the owner Carlo Abarth sold his company in 1969, Enzo Osella took over the racing department. Since the early 1970s, Osella has been active as a manufacturer of racing vehicles for sports car racing; the first models still had technical references to Abarth vehicles. The PA9 was the consistent further development of the PA8, whereby all PA sports car types were based on the body shape of the PA3 and had a more or less similarly designed monocoque . A key feature of the PA9 was the 2-liter BMW engine from Formula 2 .
Racing history
Osella used the PA9 in its own factory team, the Osella Squadra Corse. In addition, numerous private drivers drove a PA9 over the years.
During the years of operation, PA9s were entered 59 times in sports car races. In this phase, eight overall and nine class wins were achieved with this type of racing car. 21 podium positions were achieved.
1981
In 1981 the PA9s were registered at the factory in both the World Sports Car Championship and the Italian Group 6 Championship. The vehicle - chassis 103 and 104 - was first used in a race on April 5, 1981 in the Group 6 race at the Autodromo Riccardo Paletti in Varano de 'Melegari ; at the wheel were Mauro Nesti and Carlo Franchi , who competed under the pseudonym Gimax . Franchi finished the race in third and achieved a podium place in the first race; After just under half an hour of racing time and one lap behind the winner, Pasquale Barberio, Nesti reached 14th place overall.
Already in the second race there was a surprising victory for the professional world and this was also in a race for the sports car world championship. Osella works drivers Giorgio Francia and Lella Lombardi , who had been active in the Formula 1 World Championship in the 1970s , won the Mugello 6-hour race well ahead of the privately registered Porsche 935K3 of John Cooper and Dudley Wood as well the BMW 320i from Anton Fischhaber and Mario Ketterer . The two works cars - chassis 107 and 104 - finished the 1000 km race in Monza in second and third place. Lella Lombardi / Giorgio Francia as well as Carlo Franchi and Luigi Moreschi only had to admit defeat to the Porsche 935K3 of Edgar Dören , Jürgen Lässig and Gerhard Holup . The two Osella works teams also achieved second and third place overall in the 6-hour race in Pergusa ; this time behind the Lola T600 by Emilio de Villota and Guy Edwards .
The season ended for the works team with victories from Francia in the national Group 6 race in Vallelunga and an Italian starting under the pseudonym Bloody Black Tiger in a race without championship status in Magione . Because Osella did not take part in the races of the World Sports Car Championship, which are part of the World Championship of Manufacturers, the team remained without points despite the good placements.
1982
Osella had already entered the Formula 1 World Championship in 1980 and in 1981 had exhausted the team's resources in all areas to the limit by participating in Formula 1 and sports car races. Especially financially, the duplication was an enormous burden. The great successes in the performances in the 1981 World Cup could not be repeated everywhere in 1982. However, the team recovered part of the development and deployment costs by selling chassis to Italian private teams.
At the 1000 km race in Monza , the works PA9, driven by Diulio Truffo and Luigi Moreschi, failed after 158 laps due to a gearbox failure. The 6-hour race at Silverstone and the 1000 km races in Spa and Mugello were far more successful for the works team . In Silverstone Francia and Truffo Fourth were and the race at Spa and Mugello ended Francia and Moreschi sixth or four. Class wins were not possible for Osella this year as the much more powerful Lancia LC1 also competed in Group 6.
In addition to chassis 113, which the Italian Jolly Club team used unsuccessfully in the sports car world championship, a converted PA9 (originally a PA8 ) came to North America and was there by Jacques Villeneuve senior in the Canadian-American Challenge Cup , better known as CanAm -Series, driven.
1983 to 1988
At the end of the 1982 racing season, Osella withdrew completely from sports car racing as a team. The remaining chassis were sold. One of them was bought by the Swiss racing driver Alfred Baer , who competed with the car in the Interseries, among other things . The last notable result with a PA9 was achieved by Tony LaRosa with second place in the CanAm race at Summit Point in 1986.
However, this type of racing car remained successful in hill climbs . From 1983 to 1988, Mauro Nesti won the title of European Hill Climbing Champion six times in a row with his PA9 in the racing car class.
literature
Georg Amtmann and Halwart Schrader: Italian sports cars . Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-01988-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Amtmann / Schrader: Italian sports cars. S: 377.
- ↑ Overall statistics on PA9
- ↑ Group 6 race in Varano 1981
- ↑ Victory in the 6-hour race in Mugello in 1981
- ^ Monza 1000 km race in 1981
- ↑ 6-hour race of Pergusa 1981
- ↑ Magione 1981
- ↑ Monza 1000 km race in 1982
- ^ 1982 Silverstone 6 Hours
- ^ Spa 1000 km race in 1982
- ^ Mugello 1000 km race in 1982