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Vincenzo "Enzo" Osella (born 26 August 1939) is an Italian former racing driver and team owner. He is the founder and chairman of Italian auto manufacturer Osella. The team competed in Formula One between 1980 and 1990. [1]
Enzo Osella was born in Volpiano, [2] near Turin, to Luigi and Maria Osella. His parents ran a grocery store and a transport company in Volpiano until the end of the Second World War. After the war Luigi Osella took over a garage in the centre of Turin. Enzo Osella first job out of school was in a gravel plant. He then started helping his father at the garage by working on the customers' cars.
One of his father's regular client was an amateur rally driver who enticed Enzo to assist him as navigator. From 1957 Osella competed as co-driver in several events, including the Sestriere Rally. Osella later switched to the driver seat and borrowed his sister's Fiat 600 to race. He then purchased a Lotus 11, which he modified according to his own wishes and equipped with an Osca engine and an Alfa Romeo differential, and took part in hillclimb races.
In 1963 Osella was invited by Carlo Abarth, to replace Mario Poltronieri as test driver for Abarth's Fiat-based racing cars and motorsport team in Turin. The experience gave Osella the opportunity to earn insight into chassis and engine production and tuning aspects. Osella also worked as a mechanic and driver supervisor.
At the end of 1964 Enzo Osella went into business for himself and took over an Abarth factory agency in Turin. In 1971 Carlo Abarth sold the name rights and production facilities to Fiat and retired to Vienna. Osella purchased the entire racing department, and started operating it under the name Osella Corse. After a few years competing mostly in hillclimbing, Can Am, Formula Three and Formula Two, in 1980 Osella established a Formula One team. The Osella team participated in 132 Grands Prix, achieving two points finishes and scoring five world championship points.
In 1990 Osella retired from Formula One and relocated his team to Verolengo, in the Turin metropolitan area, to focus again on sports car and hillclimb races.
Enzo Osella is married and has two children, a boy and a girl. His son died in 1991.
Abarth & C. S.p.A. is an Italian racing- and road-car maker and performance division founded by Italo-Austrian Carlo Abarth in 1949. Abarth & C. S.p.A. is owned by Stellantis through its Italian subsidiary. Its logo is a shield with a stylized scorpion on a yellow and red background.
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Osella is an Italian racing car manufacturer and former Formula One team. They participated in 132 Grands Prix between 1980 and 1990. They achieved two points finishes and scored five world championship points.
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Josef Anton Gartner was a Formula One and sports car endurance driver from Austria. After a successful lower formula career, including a win in the Formula Two Pau Grand Prix, he participated in eight Formula One Grands Prix for Osella during the 1984 season, scoring no points. He was killed in an accident at the 1986 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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Jolly Club was an Italian motor racing team, which competed in the World Rally Championship, the Sportscar World Championship, the European Touring Car Championship and briefly in the Formula One World Championship, along with several domestic championships, it was mainly connected to brands like Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Ferrari. It was created in 1957 in Milan by idea of Mario Angiolini, the team won several championships. The team's main sponsor was Italian gaming totalizer Totip so the cars used orange and green colors on their livery until the World Rally Championship 1996. They also had a lengthy association with alcoholic beverage company Martini & Rossi.
Giorgio Stirano is an Italian racing car engineer, who worked for Forti and Osella in Formula One.
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The Giro d'Italia automobilistico was an automobile race around Italy, historically first held in 1901, then reinstituted as annual event between 1973 and 1980, resurrected for 1988 and 1989, and again in 2011. Both in its historical and modern iterations the Giro d'Italia was inspired by its French equivalent, the Tour de France Automobile.
Nicola Materazzi was an Italian mechanical engineer who developed several sports and racing cars, including the Ferrari 288 GTO, Ferrari F40, Bugatti EB110, and B Engineering Edonis. He was one of Italy's leading turbocharging specialists from the mid 1970s, a respected sports car and motorcycle engineer and is sometimes referred to as "Mr F40" or the "father of the F40".
The Osella PA6 and Osella PA7 are Group 6 prototype racing car designed, developed, and built by Osella, to compete in the World Sportscar Championship sports car racing series between 1978 and 1982. It was powered by a number of different engines, including the 2.0 L (120 cu in) BMW M12/7 and the Cosworth BDG, and the 1.6 L (98 cu in) Cosworth FVA was also used. After retiring from sports car racing, these cars later competed in hillclimb racing.
The Osella PA9 was a 2-liter, Group 6, sports car prototype, developed in 1981 by the Turin racing car manufacturer Osella and used by the factory in sports car and hill climb races until 1988.
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