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"Ho lavorato divertendomi, e mi sono divertito lavorando" - Nicola Materazzi
If Modena is the epicentre of the supercar world thanks to the determination of Enzo Ferrari from the 1920s, Caselle in Pittary (south of Salerno and Naples) could be considered the birthplace of its technical genius: Nicola Materazzi. For those who do not know him personally, here we describe the reasons why he has made such a difference to many who know him but also to people who have indirectly benefited from his work ethic.
A second page is dedicated to a a year by year project by project look at his life and career.
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If we had to pick a single word to describe Materazzi it would be "Intelligent". In the full sense: from family principles of honesty and integrity, through humanistic and technical studies, all the way to his transparent no-nonsense dialectic when debating any subject. Whenever you ask, you get well informed answer. His biggest weakness, like Ferrari, is that he can be polemic and will often deviate into talking about something tangentially related!
In the history of the performance car, "l'Ingegnere" par excellence is Enzo Ferrari, whether you like it or not. Although he had no formal technical education, all his engineers essentially attributed this name to him due to his marriage to racing.
We can very safely say that after Ferrari passed away, the important title of "l'Ingegnere" was inherited by Materazzi, because nobody has ever taken this work so seriously and passionately even though he has always openly stated that work was fun more than anything else. Like Ferrari declared that he had married the racing V12, Materazzi married the mid-engined car. Today he receives countless invitations to attend events which celebrate sportscars.
An italian adjective which would also describe him well is "operativo", a colloqual term used in Italy to mean "working for real, not just for status". If you were to go back in time as a spy camera amongst the engineers in Lancia, Ferrari & Bugatti you would not notice Materazzi for his desire to gain recognition or centre stage (in actual fact he has always shared his knowledge very openly). Instead after some time you would notice a 1970s and 1980s engineering environment where 99% of engineers might circle around a problem and "patch" it up whereas Materazzi would be the one studying late in the night and solving it the following day with proper science.
Materazzi in his large library
Materazzi interviewed by Massimo Delbo
Materazzi's life and career has always been a very down to earth one, in contact with drivers and team owners but often shying away from "intrusive" management when possible. Materazzi is de-facto "the engineers' engineer" and this is proven by the admiration of those who are closest to the arduous task of making things happen. It is no wonder that drivers Munari, De Angelis, Pironi, Villeneuve and Alboreto adored him, for the simple reason that he cared so much about their safety, the setup of their car and was always the one to truly solve their problems rather than just side-stepping them. He would calculate the material and design properties to help Munari's Stratos stay on the road, set-up De Angelis' car to be "out of the box" faster than BMW's best engineers and give Pironi, Villeneuve and Alboreto more engine power than they had ever dreamed of.
Look into the photo and written archives of Lancia, Osella, Ferrari or Bugatti and you may not see much of him. You will see plenty of Cesare Fiorio, Tony Southgate, Harvey Postlethwaite or Romano Artioli who are all continuously praised for being the courageous innovators but dig deeper and their work or success is often based on a solid foundation of Materazzi's work. History is written by the victors, as the saying goes, and at best Materazzi was too busy making cars to withstand the duty cycles of racing; hence it was unlikely that he would have much time to explain to cameras the true extent of his work. Fortunately there is more time now in the 21st century to look back at the size and contribution of his career. His legacy rises unstoppable as the years pass, and although it is often possible to bend or hide the truth, when digging deeper, the evidence always surfaces. Many are the car owners and motorsport fans who retrospectively show their appreciation for his skill.
A proud F40 owner in Spain asks Materazzi to pose in front of his car
Materazzi is frequently asked by auto enthusiasts to sign their F40 (some in full scale, others in model scale!)
It all started with Engineering studies after his humanistic high school education. Materazzi's first project was a go-kart that he designed and had constructed by a local mechanic in Naples. In his own time, he progressed to studying the engineering of early european and american steam machines, the theory and practice of fuel chemistry and the development of metallurgy and combustion in forced induction fighter planes. For this he had to buy, read and annotate every book he came to know of, leading him to spend vast amounts to access information at a time when nothing was available freely and "online".
An obsessive problem solver is an adjective that would describe Materazzi's lifestyle fairly and accurately. After dinner time he would often draw long into the night because he was scared of losing the ideas and solutions by the next morning. His ability to step into any situation and spot the glaring mistakes and "common superstitions" is what elevated his reputation and admiration from Enzo Ferrari himself.
It all started with a self-designed go-kart
Behind his dark glasses Enzo Ferrari had a tenacious sense of humour
Ferrari had hired Materazzi to help get the Scuderia's latest downsized and forced induction engines to the finish line and win some races. Of course he had never doubted Materazzi's skill but perhaps he had not projected his vision very much in the future to really worry whether Materazzi would be like every other engineer or stand out. Little did he know how often he would come to talk about the most awkward problems (not always related to engineering) and find a strong ally willing to help from the heart to continuously improve every aspect.
A relationship of mutual respect and open discussion developed from 1979 to 1989, whereby Enzo Ferrari would often start by explaining the problem and then later dismiss Materazzi out of his office with a secret smile of a man who had found a genius. Far from being truly arrogant or cruel, Ferrari was instead always eager to move forwards not only Ferrari but his staff and Italy's industry. Famous was his insistence that his health was waning: so he convinced Materazzi that a new sportscar (the F40) had to be ready before the autumn of 1987. And Materazzi was left with only 10 months to take the GTO Evoluzione basis and create a car worthy of celebrating the Scuderia's 40th birthday.
The management, technical and drivers team with the F126 at Fiorano. Materazzi between Pironi and Enzo Ferrari
Materazzi with the mechanics and development drivers in Nardo' Proving Ground
A young Materazzi had never applied with any zeal to work at Ferrari, knowing how selective it was already by the 60s. As an engineer from Salerno who had completed his military service then worked for some time in an oil refinery and as a professor's assistant, he was not the youngest of applicants at Lancia. His job application however goes down as the shortest ever Cover Letter in history; it read something like: "To the HR Director, I am an engineer looking for employment in Lancia".
Owing to some family hesitation towards his engineering direction (they hoped he would become a medical doctor) Materazzi took more of a calm route towards the automotive industry by learning first the "foundations": fuels, mechanical theory and technical drawing. These details are not trivial though and stood him in great steed when working in rallying and F1 during the era of fuels development: the combination of his work experience at the refinery near Naples and his careful study of WW2 literature on aircraft fuels made him much more versatile than the majority of engineers in the F1 paddock.
Materazzi worked on 3 of the 4 versions of Stratos (the recent one being a re-creation by Stoschek)
Lancia was a perfect fit for an engineer looking to challenge his astute mind with hand calculations until the FIAT mainframe computer was installed. Even then, the mainframe had a back-log of FIAT calculations to do and Lancia were typically forced to use it later in the evening or early in the morning! In 1971 came "the call" to work with the racing team, an opportunity that flew him around the world for 40 week-ends a year to nurture the very successful Stratos.
Materazzi had the opportunity to "play" with volumetric compressors and turbochargers to achieve high levels of efficiency and power. Playing is perhaps an ambivalent expression: he in fact applied a great deal of theory and testing to the systems, with the support of Brown Boveri and other suppliers. However all systems at the time had been developed for the heavy duty industry of diesel trucks so this posed a major problem for racing applications due to the high rotating inertias of most designs as well as their intolerance to very high exhaust temperatures. He followed the Stratos from road car to rally car and from rally car to Group 5 circuit monster (the "Silhouette").
Stratos Group5 for which Materazzi carried out chassis & powertrain calculations and development
Materazzi's sharp mind and search for the mathematical truth is easily comparable to that of Galileo: by refuting old nonsense or fake new ideas with solid theory and experiments, from 1968 to 2005 Materazzi worked tirelessly at calculations, technical drawings and test bench analysis. From the stress and impact analysis on steering and suspension components of the Lancia Stratos, to full car development of the Osella in F2, he used mathematics to prove each point. The development of forced induction for the Stratos, F126C, GTO, F40, EB110, Edonis cemented his reputation as "Mago del Turbo" but he also worked on naturally aspirated engines at Cagiva and Laverda and large industrial diesel engines.
The turning point for a man who had always shared his knowledge and never guarded it jealously was when some engineers started to claim his work as theirs. His work on the powertrain of the GTO - now frequently referred as 288 GTO - is what put Ferrari back on the supercar map after Porsche and Lamborghini had taken large portions of the market. In reality Materazzi had begun working very closely with manufacturers of sensors and turbochargers during the Lancia years and can simply claim to have done the job in the same painstakingly responsible way as Stanley Hooker or Beatrice Shilling had done on the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines during the 1940s. For every "novel" idea that was ever used on a racing or sports car Materazzi was able to find documentation in one of his books showing the first pioneer. This close relationship with history and the truth is one of his best qualities and merits.
Unveiling of the GTO; Materazzi (third from the right) developed the powertrain
The F114 engine in the GTO was not the only turbocharged engine with his touch: the 208 Turbo as well as the Lancia LC2 benefited from his choices of turbo supplier, engine valvetrain design, intake and exhaust design, piston details and much more. Materazzi also had a very friendly and constructive way of getting along with close suppliers. An example is when he showed the management of KKK turbochargers the performance benefits of the IHI turbochargers: a simple acceleration test in the F40 was enough to prove the difference in response ("lag") and convince KKK that they needed to adopt new bearing and shaft designs to compete.
Lancia LC2 for which Materazzi developed the powertrain
The F40 is arguably the car where Materazzi (thankfully) managed to have freedom to follow a cohesive set of ideas and work with the people he trusted, from the wind tunnel testing to the road dynamics. Enzo Ferrari was always first and foremost interested in racing, and secretly adored the closed cockpit GTs. Not that he did not like the Formula 1 cars but the political nature of the paddock and complicated route to victory (think unreliable electronics or legality of fuels as an example) made them that much more frustrating. Once the seed of the F40 had germinated in his dreams, he made it clear to Materazzi that the car could not have a long gestation. To which Materazzi agreed on condition that he would not have any kind of fastidious interference from management. Famous was Ferrari's note in his agenda: "No rompi-coglioni" (No ball-busters). This wit and eagerness to be creative is found also in other occasions. In an interview given by the old man he tells the joke: "Mio padre mi diceva sempre: i coglioni sono cari ad ogni prezzo. Così io cerco di stare con chi coglione non è." (My father once told me that an idiot is expensive at any price. So I try to stay amongst those who aren't idiots).
Unveiling of the F40 which was developed by Materazzi from start to finish; Enzo Ferrari aged 89
Materazzi photographed during the presentation on 21 July 1987
F40, Werner Schruf / Gotz Leyrer
Materazzi at the Drive Experience Track Day organised by Davide Cironi and F40 owners
After the F40, Ferrari never built any turbocharged engines until the 488, perhaps because Formula 1 returned to naturally aspirated engines or perhaps because the loss of the great Enzo left the management in a technological limbo. For sure Materazzi had lost his mentor and employer and life at the company afterwards would not be the same ever again; he departed to pursue other opportunities.
It would be natural to think that starting with Lancia road cars, then working on rally cars and transitioning to Osella would be a "weaker" position to start from compared to his contemporaries who had started young and graduated through the ranks at Ferrari. From the outside any viewer is naturally inclined to think that the companies representing the pinnacle of engineering are the ones where the most interesting technology is developed. In real life this is seldom the case. While it is true that Bugatti, Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini have dominated the world of performance for decades, we need to look at Citroen, Honda, General Motors, Yamaha, Jensen, Toyota and many others when it comes to pioneering the most successful ideas in powertrain & vehicle dynamics (pneumatic valve actuation, twin scroll turbocharging, Rear Wheel Steering, Active Suspension etc).
In actual fact during the 1979 to 1989 era Materazzi was the perfect engineer to bring a "fresh" perspective from the outside and a healthy attitude to Ferrari. After his departure he was interested in motorcycle technology and received a call from Claudio Castiglioni, then owner of Cagiva. The company was pursuing aggressive engine development for the 500cc world championship and the Paris Dakar, hence needed a Technical Director. Once again Materazzi found himself working closely with the riders Mamola and Haslam to give them the best possible motorcycles.
Materazzi's job advert, trying to avoid Fiat management
Development of the engine for the 500cc Cagiva race motorcycles
Unknowingly many engineers have been influenced by Materazzi's projects: we only need to think about the use of turbochargers in the majority of road and race cars, the benefit of down-sized and down-cylindered engines, the use of computer calculation and simulation. In particular the EB110 can be considered one of the first carbon fibre chassis to have its stiffness simulated (by Aerospatiale) in computer simulation, much to the delight of Materazzi who was pushing its development in order to replace the early aluminium honeycomb designs which suffered from cyclic ageing.
The EB110 gestation was a difficult one. Back in 1987 any initial interest from Lamborghini or Bertone had waned and Artioli had decided to take full leadership and forge ahead. While this would prove to be a courageous move that revived the brand, the project was overly ambitious and draining large financial resources: from an expensive factory building to design and manufacture of Bugatti fashion (jewellery, interior design, clothing items etc). Artioli and wife Kettmeir were very gifted at building up the brand image and getting the interest of important people, however the car specification sheet was an enthusiast's dream and an engineering Everest. With four wheel drive, twelve cylinders, 60 valves (5 per cylinder), four turbochargers, a gearbox nested on the side of the engine block to keep the wheelbase short the car was somewhat over-engineered. Upon coming on board as technical director, Materazzi could see that while such spec was fireworks on paper, his Ferrari experience had taught him that lightness and simplicity was the best key to success and a true driver's car.
Materazzi at a dinner gala with Ferruccio Lamborghini
Materazzi was Technical Director of Bugatti in the 1990s
First of all the aluminium honeycomb chassis commissioned to Aerospatiale was not suitable for the endurance/stress cycles over a road car mileage. A riveted honeycomb construction for the EB110 was acceptable for 70s race cars but not for a heavy car (1700 kg) enduring significantly longer distances. Materazzi proposed the use of a carbon fibre chassis and Aerospatiale was more than happy to oblige, using their latest software to calculate and simulate its torsional stiffness at every point along its length, much to the delight of the Ingegnere. Other car unrealistic features were the rear diffuser fans which would simply throw stones at following vehicles, then the lack of air exits for the front radiator. This was resolved by Materazzi with the signature vents to the side of the front lights which are an exceptionally novel detail and make the shape unique. Unfortunately he was unable to change the quad turbo setup to a simpler twin turbo due to the development and emissions work which had already been carried out. Although the four turbochargers were of small size for low rotational inertia, the overall efficiency was less and the setup is overly complex. More info on the EB110
The EB110 chassis manufactured and supplied by Aerospatiale
The engine block with integrated gearbox housing
EB110 model at the Pininfarina wind tunnel
A better chassis and powertrain setup was achieved with the Edonis where the four wheel drive system was simplified to rear wheel drive, the engine size was increased slightly and two turbochargers instead of four were used. The balance and performance was transformed and Jean Philippe Vittecoq was able to say the car handling was just perfect. He had been one of Michelin's finest development engineers and had worked with Bugatti on the EB110 GT and SS. JP then took the Edonis to 359.6 km/h at the Nardo' proving ground for Sport Auto magazine. Materazzi had hoped the car would achieve 100 m/s and, well, it came within 0.2% of the target. Not bad at all!
Materazzi with Sergio Scaglietti
Vittecoq, a great gentleman and excellent development driver to Materazzi and the team
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