Photo: David Gooley, courtesy of the Don Murray Collection
It is easy to examine an early Ferrari or a Maserati of the immediate post-war era and see only their curvaceous coachwork or their gorgeous engines; but there is much more to those and other well-known Italian sports and racing cars of the 1950s and 1960s if we look beneath their skin. Let us shed some light on that subject.
Does the name Colombo spring to mind? Yes, Gioacchino Colombo was the brilliant mechanical engineer who designed engines for Alfa Romeo’s pre-war racing cars and later laid out the marvelous V12s that would bring Ferrari so much success. There was, however, another industrialist who shared that surname, but was unrelated.
