Amedeo Gordini

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 Bazzano, currently part of the Metropolitan City of Bologna in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. He was a young boy when he became fascinated with automobiles and racing. In his early teens, he worked as a mechanic for Alfieri Maserati. After serving in the Italian army during World War I, in 1926 he married and settled in Paris, France: parenthood quickly followed. Using a Balilla chassis he developed a unique roadster which he used in his first races. In 1952 Gordini founded the independent Gordini company to build a line of sports cars for racing. In 1953 the government of France awarded Amédée Gordini the 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 Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse in Mulhouse, France featuring 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 World War II, obtaining adequate financial support for racing had become increasingly difficult, and the business struggled financially without the backing of Pigozzi. Timely salvation appeared in 1957 when Renault engaged Gordini. During the final two decades of his career his technical skills were combined with the financial muscle of France's largest automaker to give birth to a succession of performance versions of mass market cars, starting with the Renault Dauphine and including the Renault Caravelle, Renault 5 Alpine Turbo, Renault 8, Renault 12 and the Renault 17.

In Brazil, technical changes in the Brazilian version of Renault Dauphine, manufactured by 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. He was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery. He died a few weeks too early to be present for the first Formula 1 victory of the Renault V6 turbo racing engine, developed by the Renault Sport division into which he had merged his own company, and which he had built up since 1969.

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