Amedeo "Amédée" Gordini (23 June 1899 – 25 May 1979) was an Italian-born race car driver and sports car manufacturer in France.
Biography
Gordini was born in
24 hours of Le Mans. He was a particular fan of the Fiat Balilla, released in early 1932.[1] Using a Balilla chassis he developed a unique roadster which he used in his first races.[1]
In 1934 Gordini approached
war.[1] Gordini rapidly found himself the head of the Simca motor racing department.[1] He quickly showed a flair for improving the performance from the cars' basic Fiat designed engines without incurring massive expenditure, acquiring the sobriquet "le sorcier de la mécanique" (roughly "the mechanic- wizard"),[1] and staying with Simca till 1951.[1] From the 1940s, his son Aldo
joined his racing team as a mechanic and occasional driver.
The break with Simca arose over the extent of the manufacturer's support for Simca-Gordini participation at the top level of motor racing, including Formula 1.
Legion of Honor
.
The cars that Gordini sent to the race track in Le Mans were very fast. Gordini's engine tuner, also called the “sorcerer”, breathed Grand Prix performance into regular engines - a feat no one believed possible. The
Schlumpf Collection has in its collection Grand Prix and road racing cars of the Gordini brand. Exhibits include a type 16 Grand Prix from 1954, a single seater type 32 from 1956 and the Gordini 26 S, the car driven by the famous French author Françoise Sagan
.
Despite racing successes, after
Renault 17
.
In Brazil, technical changes in the Brazilian version of
Willys-Overland, caused the company to rename this car model in 1962, releasing it with the popular nickname Gordini
.
Gordini died after several months of acute illness at the end of May 1979, in Paris, less than a month short of his eightieth birthday.
