Vittorio Jano
Encyclopedia
Vittorio Jano was an Italian automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 designer of Hungarian descent from the 1920s through 1960s.

Jano was born Viktor János in San Giorgio Canavese
San Giorgio Canavese
San Giorgio Canavese is a town and comune in the province of Turin in the region of Piedmont, northern Italy.The main attraction is the castle, once a possession of the Novarese counts of Biandrate.-External links:* *...

, in Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...

, to Hungarian immigrants, who arrived there several years before the birth of Jano. He began his career at the car and truck company Rapid owned by G.B. Ceirano
Ceirano GB & C
The Ceirano GB & C was a historic automobile company, founded in October 1898 by Giovanni Battista Ceirano, Emanuele di Bricherasio, Attilio Calligaris, Pietro Fenoglio and Cesare Goria Gatti....

. In 1911 he moved to Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

 under Luigi Bazzi. He moved with Bazzi to Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo in motorsport
During its history, Alfa Romeo has competed successfully in many different categories of motorsport, including Grand Prix motor racing, Formula One, sportscar racing, touring car racing and rallies. They have competed both as a constructor and an engine supplier, via works entries and private...

 in 1923 and designed the Alfa Romeo P2
Alfa Romeo P2
The Alfa Romeo P2 won the inaugural Automobile World Championship in 1925, taking victory in two of the four championship rounds when Antonio Ascari drove it in the European Grand Prix at Spa and Gastone Brilli-Peri won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza after Ascari died while leading the intervening...

. The P2 was notorious, winning its first race, the French Grand Prix
French Grand Prix
The French Grand Prix was a race held as part of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's annual Formula One automobile racing championships....

, with driver Giuseppe Campari
Giuseppe Campari
Giuseppe Campari was an Italian opera singer and Grand Prix motor racing driver.-Racing career:Born Giuseppe Campari near the city of Lodi southwest of Milan, as a teenager he went to work for the Alfa Romeo automobile company...

 but killing driver Antonio Ascari
Antonio Ascari
Antonio Ascari was an Italian Grand Prix motor racing champion.Antonio Ascari was born near Mantua, in the Lombardy region of Italy, as the son of a corn dealer. He began racing cars at the top levels in Italy in 1919, using a modified 1914 Fiat...

 in the same race the next year. Alfa refused to race them, but Enzo Ferrari
Enzo Ferrari
Enzo Anselmo Ferrari Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian race car driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari car manufacturer...

 took them over, continuing to race P2s through the 1930s.

Turning to sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....

 racing in 1929, Jano designed the 1750 Sport
Alfa Romeo 6C
The Alfa Romeo 6C name was used on road, race and sports cars made between 1925–1954 by Alfa Romeo. 6C refers to a straight 6 engine. Bodies for these cars were made by coachbuilders such as James Young, Zagato, Touring, Castagna, and Pininfarina...

 and P3
Alfa Romeo P3
The Alfa Romeo P3, P3 monoposto or Tipo B was a classic Grand Prix car designed by Vittorio Jano, one of the Alfa Romeo 8C models. The P3 was first genuine single-seat Grand Prix racing car and Alfa Romeo's second monoposto after Tipo A monoposto . It was based on the earlier successful Alfa Romeo P2...

. Once again, Alfa turned away from Jano's cars and Ferrari took them over to great success. Now designing aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

 engines, Jano watched as Tazio Nuvolari
Tazio Nuvolari
Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari was an Italian motorcycle and racecar driver, known as Il Mantovano Volante or Nivola. He was the 1932 European Champion in Grand Prix motor racing...

 drove a P3 to victory in the German Grand Prix
German Grand Prix
The German Grand Prix is an annual automobile race.Because Germany was banned from taking part in international events after World War II, the German GP only became part of the Formula One World Championship in 1951...

 at Nürburgring
Nürburgring
The Nürburgring is a motorsport complex around the village of Nürburg, Germany. It features a modern Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a much longer old North loop track which was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains. It is located about...

 in 1935.

Ferrari requested that Alfa have Jano work on a new car, the Alfetta
Alfa Romeo 158/159 Alfetta
The Alfa Romeo 158/159, also known as the Alfetta , is one of the most successful racing cars ever produced. The 158 and its derivative, the 159, took 47 wins from 54 Grands Prix entered. It was originally developed for the pre-World War II voiturette formula and has a 1.5 litre straight-8...

, in 1937. In 1945, after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Jano moved to Lancia
Lancia
Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and which became part of the Fiat Group in 1969. The company has a long history of producing distinctive cars and also has a strong rally heritage. Some modern Lancias are seen as presenting a more...

's Grand Prix
Grand Prix motor racing
Grand Prix motor racing has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as far back as 1894. It quickly evolved from a simple road race from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car and driver...

 efforts. His car, the Lancia D50
Lancia D50
The Lancia D50 was a Formula One racing car designed by Vittorio Jano for Lancia in 1954. The car's design made use of many innovative features, such as the use of the engine as a stressed chassis member, the off-centre positioning of the engine to allow a lower overall height, and pannier fuel...

, was introduced in 1954, but 1955's loss of Alberto Ascari
Alberto Ascari
Alberto Ascari was an Italian racing driver and twice Formula One World Champion. He is one of only two Italian Formula One World Champions in the history of the sport, and the only one winning his two championships in a Ferrari....

 and the 1955 Le Mans disaster
1955 Le Mans disaster
The 1955 Le Mans disaster occurred during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race, when a crash caused large parts of racing car debris to fly into the crowd. The driver was killed, as were 83 spectators. A further 120 people were injured...

 soured the company to GP racing. Ferrari took over the effort and inherited Jano that same year.

Jano's contribution to Ferrari was significant. With the encouragement of Enzo's son, Dino, Jano's V6 and V8 engines pushed the older Lampredi
Ferrari Lampredi engine
Aurelio Lampredi designed a number of racing engines for Ferrari. He was brought on to hedge the company's bets with a different engine family than the small V12s designed by Gioacchino Colombo. Lampredi went on to design a number of different straight-4, straight-6, and V12 engines through the...

 and Colombo
Ferrari Colombo engine
Ferrari's earliest cars used engines designed by Gioacchino Colombo, who had formerly designed Alfa Romeos for Enzo Ferrari. These V12 powerplants ranged from the diminutive 1.5 L unit fitted to the 125S to the 3.3 L unit in the 1966 275.Enzo Ferrari had long admired the V12 engines of...

 engines aside in racing. After Dino's death, Jano's "Dino" V6 became the basis for the company's first mid-engined
MR layout
In automotive design, a RMR or Rear Mid-engine, Rear-wheel drive layout is one in which the rear wheels are driven by an engine placed just in front of them, behind the passenger compartment. In contrast to the rear-engined RR layout, the center of mass of the engine is in front of the rear axle...

 road car, the 1966 206 Dino. The V6 and V8 went on to displace Ferrari's V12
V12 engine
A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....

focus and their descendants continue to be used today.

Like Enzo Ferrari, Jano lost his own son in 1965. He became gravely ill that same year and committed suicide in Turin.

External links




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