Hardcore pawn

Is a race-bred track star with impeccable Italian heritage too uncompromising for the road or worth the inevitable sacrifice? Massimo Delbò is feeling brave...

- Massimo Delbò

European car manufacturers typically take three or four years to develop a new model. Chinese manufacturers proudly declare that they need no more than 16 months to do the same. This might come as news to Giampaolo Dallara, the man who made his name as chief engineer on the Lamborghini Miura. It has taken him 45 years to bring this, the Stradale, from his mind to the road.

Dallara, born in 1936, is one of the world’s most prominent racing engineers, with a claim to being the most successful ever, thanks to thousands of victories in races globally in chassis designed by his company or built for other manufacturers and teams. After graduating from Milan polytechnic, he joined Ferrari and hoped to create racing cars there, but was considered too young and left for Maserati - shortly before its racing department closed.

And so in 1963, at just 27 years old, he started work at the recently founded Automobili Lamborghini, where he'd been appointed Technical Director. He engineered the first 350 and 400 GT models, then the Miura and the Countach. Yet despite his efforts to persuade Ferruccio Lamborghini to go racing, the company staunchly remained a builder of road-going cars. Dallara left in 1972 and established his own company, Dallara Automobili, an engineering firm dedicated - not surprisingly - to the racing world.

A Fiat X1/9 for hillclimbing was his first creation, then he moved into developing such rally-winners for Lancia as the 037 and Stratos, then the Beta Montecarlo Turbo that would win in the World Endurance Championship. Dallara became the sole manufacturer for the IndyCar Series, Indy NXT, FIA Formula 2, FIA Formula 3 and Super Formula Championships, and also produces endurance racers for Le Mans and Daytona. And with that, many would be satisfied.