Valerio Colotti

Valerio Colotti (Modena, 1925 - 19 January 2008)[1] was an Italian automotive engineer, known for his early work with Ferrari and Maserati chassis and transmission systems.

He joined Ferrari in 1948,[2] working under Aurelio Lampredi, followed by employment with Maserati (1953–1957), until the company dropped factory works racing. In 1958 he started his own company, known as Tec-Mec (Studio Tecnica Meccanica).

Tec-Mec, assisted by Giorgio Scarlatti, attempted at the tipo F/415 Formula One car, mostly based on the Maserati 250F, in which Colotti had been deeply involved. There was cooperation with Behra-Porsche (1959) and others such as Stirling Moss, who failed in his racing with Cooper T51, fitted with Colotti's, unfortunately rather unreliable, gearboxes. Colotti's cooperation with Alf Francis lead to the widely used in competition Colotti-Francis gearbox systems. With Wolfgang von Trips he designed the Trips-Colotti-Auto Union (TCA), and later their transmissions were never used in the original Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1967), as the Stradale used the transmission designed and built by Alfa Romeo in house, despite many incorrect references in the general media.

The company is now called Colotti Trasmissioni and is run by his son Marco alone, as his brother Paolo died.[3]

References
  1. Scientific committee at expotecnica.it (last accessed: April 16, 2007)
  2. Workshop history from maserati-alfieri.co.uk.
  3. Colotti Trasmissioni homepage
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