A proving ground like no other
Automotive factory proving grounds and test tracks are like Disneyland – the fun is varied and never-ending. Even the work feels like car play. Every carmaker has these facilities, and they are as varied as the planets in our solar system. Many of them are large sprawling properties that pack a variety of test tracks, road surfaces, crash test facilities, hot and cold testing areas, into a hundred acres, or in some cases, hundreds of acres. These facilities allow test drivers and engineers to run cars in development under a variety of conditions – high speed, low speed, rough road, or no road, to shake out (sometimes literally) any engineering foibles in the design, all in the safety of a controlled facility free of kids crossing the street and law enforcement. Not to mention in the privacy needed to keep next year’s new model a secret from the media and competition.
Traditional test tracks
Many of these facilities are somewhat famous (or infamous) and have developed histories of their own: Originally Ford’s (now Fiat-Chrysler’s) legendary five-mile high-speed banked oval in Kingman, Arizona. GM’s Milford Proving Ground in Michigan, or a challenging road course General Motors facility developed at the direction of then GM exec and ultimate car guy Bob Lutz – the property is nicknamed the “Lustzring,” riffing on the name of Germany’s famous Nurburgring. Your writer has driven and tested cars at several of these properties.
Downtown testing – in Turin!
Between 1916 and 1922/3, Fiat built a new factory complex in Turin called Lingotto. During the birth of the automobile industry, these giant sprawling factory complexes weren’t built far out of major cities and employment centers as they most often are today, but instead in the center of major cities – Detroit and Turin, Italy are classic examples of this philosophy. Fiat being Italy’s largest carmaker (then, and now) and a concern that employed more workers than any other company (then, and also likely now) was more than welcome to set up shop in Torino’s downtown industrial district.
The Lingotto complex was a major architectural and industrial undertaking that began in 1916. Two main factory and assembly buildings run longitudinally attached by five transverse building and internal transportation structures that connect them. Each of the main buildings is 1663 feet long – more than a quarter of a mile – and 79 feet wide. The test track atop the conjoined roofs of the structures can be thought of as hairpin shaped oval, with each straight being 1453 long, or nearly five football fields in length, each end capped by a 180 degree parabolic corner to connect the two straights, giving nearly a mile of smooth pavement for testing cars.
79 mph on a roof top
The straights were relatively flat, the 180-degree corners at each end steeply banked to help keep speeds up, and of course as a safety measure to prevent cars from losing control in one of the corners, and literally, flying off the roof. Fiat’s highest horsepower production car of the day was a six-cylinder sedan with 77 horsepower and a 79mph top speed, so speeds never got that high in the early days, but given the tire and braking technology of cars in the early 1920s, this was a legit concern.
The complex was completed in 1922/3, and the office building next door served as Fiat’s HQ as it does today. Besides its standing as an architectural wonder, Lingotto’s most international claim to fame came as the site of getaway scenes in the original 1969 version of The Italian Job caper and chase flick. It was generous of Fiat to allow filming there as the star cars were Minis, not Fiats.
16,000,000 sq. ft roof top
Over time, the Lingotto track was embellished by a variety of interesting features and structures. There’s a Heliport, a fascinating cantilevered glass half-golfball-shaped meeting room called the Bubble, and a six-story photo gallery dedicated to the company’s car producing and Agnelli family history. Particularly interesting are the winding circular driveways, original part of the continuous production line that allow driving from ground level to roof; staring up or down these structures recalls the dizzying winding cross-sectioned shape of a six-story tall conch or snail shell. The rooftop test track at Lingotto was not a novelty or an afterthought but an integral part of the manufacturing process. The Lingotto factory featured a unique upward spiral assembly line. As each vehicle was put together it would progress upwards through the building story by story. Each floor was sequentially designated to specialize in a major part of assembly. What would start on the ground floor as raw materials and individual parts became an operational Fiat by the time it spiraled its way to the top of the building. The total floor space under roof was about 16,000,000 sq. ft – or about 367 acres.
Largest in Europe
It was at the time Europe’s largest automotive factory, and likely second largest in the world – only Ford’s even more massive, rambling River Rouge complex was larger. Production finally wound down at Lingotto in 1982 (the final car built there was a Lancia, by then a Fiat owned brand). Fiat then decided to reimagine it as an innovative multi-purposed complex – that assignment was handed to famous Italian architect Renzo Piano, who took a decade to survey and redesign it as such. The restoration was epic and also took many years. Lingotto is still a Fiat owned and operated property, housing corporate offices and other company spaces. The rest of the space is artfully occupied by two hotels, a large auditorium and conference center, an exhibition space, a shopping mall, and automotive engineering and dental schools, plus the requisite shopping mall and cinema complex.
The Lingotto rooftop track itself of course is no longer used for development driving, and prototype testing, and never was intended for motorsport, but is open to the public for viewing and “walking laps.” The company of course uses it for various media-related car reveals and events; the view of other Fiat properties, office buildings, and greater Turin is fabulous as you can imagine. Amazing as it may seem, no one ever drove off the roof.
Photos by the author and courtesy FCA Archive.
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