Luigi Villoresi: the old master of Modena

He shared the car with brother Emilio who proved to be a particularly quick driver. Quick enough, in fact, to be snapped up by Enzo Ferrari to drive the Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeos in the 1937 season. In the meantime, Luigi and the Scuderia Ambrosiana which he had helped form with Count Johnny Lurani bought a 6CM Maserati (C/N 1541).

By 1938 Villoresi was a full member of the Maserati team and, recalling those years, the car he remembers more fondly that any other is the fabulous 8CTF (Eight cylinder Testa Fissa – fixed head) of which only three were ever built. This had an in-line 3-litre, eight-cylinder engine with twin Roots superchargers, one driven off the crank and the other geared to the camshaft. It produced over 350bhp and was Maserati’s answer to the Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union cars which were dominating Grand Prix racing at the time. Had it not been for the war, the car might have developed into a true race winner. As it was, one of them went to the States and, as the Boyle Special, dominated Indianapolis, while one of the others appeared at the Goodwood Festival last year.

“I asked to see the remains of my brother’s car, but Enzo refused”

In 1949 Villoresi bought a 4CLT Maserati and came to race in Britain. It was while in England that he had a big surprise: “I received a message from Enzo Ferrari,” he remembers, “saying he had sent a single-seater Ferrari to Brussels for me to race in the Brussels Grand Prix, and a sportscar to race in Luxembourg. I won both races and when I got back to Milan I had a telephone call from a journalist called Corrado Fillipini telling me that Enzo Ferrari wanted me to drive for him.”

This brought a dilemma for Villoresi; he had disliked Enzo Ferrari since the day of the accident which killed his brother Emilio at Monza: “On that day, June 28 1939, Enzo Ferrari put on a lunch actually on the circuit to show the new Alfetta.” he recalls. “After lunch, they cleared the tables off the track and my brother ‘Mimi’ went out in the car. He did two laps with no problems and on the third lap he crashed into a tree and was killed.

“I asked Enzo if I could see the remains of the car but he refused, and when I asked him what had happened he told me he thought my brother had eaten too much at lunch and perhaps had indigestion which had caused him to go off the road. Then I asked him about insurance and he told me there wasn’t any, so I was very upset. After that, my brother’s road car, an 80 Alfa Romeo 2300 disappeared and some time later Consalvo Sanesi, the Alfa Romeo test driver, told me that the steering had broken on the car. So I really did not like him. However, I decided to go and see what he had to say.”

When he arrived at Ferrari’s house he was ushered upstairs to the great man, who was ill in bed. He immediately made his feelings known: “I told him I knew he didn’t like me and I didn’t like him, but let’s talk. At the end of the conversation I left Modena not only with an agreement to join Ferrari but also with two other contracts which I was to pass to my friends Alberto Ascari and Nino Farina. All three contracts were exactly the same.”

His career was now into full stride, but despite his brilliance Villoresi was to have a number of accidents, the two most serious being in Geneva. One was in a Maserati when his mechanic put new tyres on the car and he shot off the road on the first corner. The second, when driving for Ferrari in 1950, was much more serious.

“When we finished, Alberto and I said goodbye to Ferrari and Ugolini, got into the car and set off to drive back to Milan. While Alberto drove he reached inside his pocket and pulled out two sheets of paper, handed them to me and said ‘read this’. The first one was a contract from Gianni Lancia for Alberto to race for the new Lancia Grand Prix team in 1954 which he had already signed. The other was an identical contract signed by Gianni Lancia with my name on it and Alberto said ‘sign it’. I couldn’t believe it: Alberto had had this long discussion with Enzo Ferrari about a contract for 1954 knowing he had already signed for Lancia and left me to talk to Ugolini not knowing what had been going on!”

As we now know, the Lancias were not ready for most of the 1954 season, so Villoresi was loaned out to his old friends at Maserati and drove 250Fs. At the Spanish GP the Lancia appeared but Villoresi retired from the race with failing brakes. During the 1955 season he drove solely for Lancia, scoring a fifth place at the Monaco Grand Prix, the highest placing ever scored by a Lancia Corse-entered Lancia.

In addition to his Grand Prix work Villoresi raced Lancia sportscars he and Ascari won the Sestrieres Rally in a Lancia B20 saloon. “You know,” he confides, “some years later when Sandro Munari won the Sestrieres Rally for Lancia the company made a big show of the fact that it was the first time Lancia had won that event. They forgot about Ascari and me!”

“Gianni Lancia handed over his cars to Enzo Ferrari, but without Villoresi”

At the end of the season Gianni Lancia handed over his cars to Enzo Ferrari and the Lancia-Ferraris triumphed in the 1956 season, but without Villoresi. He returned to the Maserati fold and finished fifth in the Belgian GP in a Centro Sud 250F and sixth in the British GP in Luigi Piotti’s 250F. It was therefore only fitting that Villoresi should end his Grand Prix career at the Italian GP of 1956 in a factory Maserati; sadly, it retired.

His racing days over, Villoresi lived quietly in Modena. But he remained a fine ambassador for Maserati and was always present on the company’s stand at motor shows.

Explaining how Luigi is supported in the nursing home by a number of his racing friends, Don Sergio is quick to point out that many members of the VSCC in England have contributed. That very appropriate, as some of Villoresi’s very happiest memories came from places like Silverstone. Goodwood and Snetterton.

Many a glass will be raised to the white-haired Villoresi on his 88th birthday on May 16. He was truly one of the great Italian racing drivers.