Dante Giacosa

Dante Giacosa (3 January 1905 - 31 March 1996) was an Italian automobile designer and engineer responsible for a range of Italian automobile designs — and for refining the front-wheel drive layout to an industry-standard configuration.

He studied engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin until 1927.

After completing his compulsory military service he joined Fiat in 1928, at first working on military vehicles and then in the aero engine division.

The director of the aero-engine division was Tranquillo Zerbi, designer of Grand Prix cars for Fiat.

Transverse engine and gearbox front-wheel drive had been introduced to small inexpensive cars with the German DKW F1 in 1931, and made more widely popular with the British Mini.

As engineered by Alec Issigonis in the Mini cars, the compact arrangement located the transmission and engine sharing a single oil sump — despite disparate lubricating requirements — and had the engine's radiator mounted to the side of the engine, but with fan blades shaped to expel heated air into the left wheel arch, and thus drawing cool rather than heated air over the engine.

In various cars with front-drive configuration the whole power unit needed to be removed for many repairs, and especially for the clutch, but that did not apply to the Mini where the clutch could be removed with the power unit in-situ.

As engineered by Dante Giacosa, the 128 featured a transverse-mounted engine with unequal length drive shafts and an innovative clutch release mechanism — an arrangement which Fiat had strategically tested on a previous production model, the Primula, from its less market-critical subsidiary, Autobianchi.

In 1933 when work commenced on the Fiat 500, the director of the aero-engine division was Antonio Fessia.

He had sufficient confidence to entrust the design of all the mechanical components of the car including the chassis to Giacosa.

The Fiat Topolino was a state of the art two-seat miniature car that soon proved popular when production commenced in 1936.

It was a two-seater and had a 569 cc side-valve engine, but the chassis with independent front suspension using a transverse leaf spring and wishbones and neat packaging was a big advance, with the engine located over the front wheels and radiator behind it over the four-speed synchromesh gearbox, also excellent hydraulic brakes.

With fuel consumption around 18 km/L and a maximum speed of 90 km/h, but with handling good enough to allow average speeds of 60 km/h.

Between 1936 when first introduced until the end of production in 1948, 122,000 were made of this original version.

Giacosa's subsequently designed the Fiat 508C, replacing the 508 Balilla, the 508C or as it became known as the "Millecento", had a short-stroke 1100 cc engine, with overhead valves (the 500 engine had side valves), an outstanding chassis design that earned it a reputation for good handling and ride quality.

It was with a 508C chassis that as engineering manager Giacosa led a team that developed the Fiat 508CMM a streamlined coupe.

Fiat used the car to win the 1100 cc class in the Mille Miglia of 1938.

Giacosa was engineering manager at Fiat by 1937 and he had become director of the engineering division of Fiat by 1950.

The 508C was produced from 1937 to 1948, when it was replaced by an updated versions the 1100B and 1100E which was produced until 1953.

This model was produced in small numbers until 1940.

Wealthy Italian industrialist Piero Dusio approached Giacosa in 1944 with a request to design a single seat racing car that could be purchased for a relatively low price.

This he did in his free time away for the Fiat factory.

The design utilised components from the Fiat 500 and 508C.

The resulting car the Cisitalia D46 was on sale in 1946.

The space frame chassis was designed using steel tubes and the body consisted of light alloy panels - this was the famous superleggera ("super-light") construction technique.

The Fiat 1100 cc fitted to the car was tuned to produce 60 bhp.

A maximum speed of 175 km/h was claimed.

Ready for production in 1964, the Primula featured the four-cylinder water-cooled 1221 cc from the Fiat 1100D mounted transversely with the four-speed gearbox located inline with the crankshaft.

With a gear train to the offset differential and final drive and unequal length drive shafts.

The layout enabled the engine and gearbox to be located side by side without sharing lubricating fluid while orienting the cooling fan toward fresh air flow.

By using the Primula as a test-bed, Fiat was able to sufficiently resolve the layout's disadvantages, including uneven side-to-side power transmission, uneven tire wear and potential torque steer, the tendency for the power of the engine alone to steer the car under heavy acceleration.

Fiat quickly demonstrated the layout's flexibility, re-configuring the 128 drive-train as a mid-engined layout for the Fiat X1/9, and the compact, efficient layout — a transversely-mounted engine with transmission mounted beside the engine driving the front wheels through an offset final-drive and unequal-length driveshafts — subsequently became common with competitors and arguably an industry standard.

Born in Rome, where his father was undertaking military service, Giacosa's family roots were in Neive on the southern edge of Piedmont.

Giacosa served as President of FISITA, the International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies, from 1967 to 1969 and authored Motori Endotermici (translated from Italian: Endothermic Engines ), which discusses diverse features related to internal combustion machines with explanations of their design, construction and function.

The work became a reference for mechanical engineering courses in many universities and was translated into numerous languages.

When Fiat began marketing the Fiat 128 in 1969 — with its engine and gearbox situated in an in-line, transverse front-drive layout, combined unequal drive shafts, MacPherson strut suspension and an electrically controlled radiator fan — it became the layout adopted by virtually every other manufacturer in the world for front-wheel drive.

The approach of unequal drive shafts was crafted by Dante Giacosa.

He retired from his full-time position with Fiat in 1970, but retained close association with the company courtesy of a position which translates as "Consulting Engineer to Fiat's Presidency and General Management and a Company's Ambassador with National and International Organizations".

Following his retirement he wrote several volumes of memoirs concerning his professional life.

Giacosa died in Turin in 1996.