Horacio Pagani, a man who realized "the dream"

Horacio Pagani has had a surprising life. His passion for cars, speed and design emerged very early and, at the age of 12, he amazed everyone with models of supercars carved from wood or modelled in clay.

He made his debut into the world of racing cars when he was 20, designing an F.3 that competed in Argentina under the colours of the official Renault team. Then came an enormous number of industrial design projects in which he had an accelerated apprenticeship, combining a mixture of creativity and a maniacal search for perfection.

He met Juan Manuel Fangio, his childhood hero, who became the right person to introduce him to Modena, the home of legends like Ferrari and Lamborghini. And the miracle took place at Lamborghini. 

It was engineer Alfieri who provided the young Horacio with the space to express his imagination and manual dexterity.

He started off as a third level mechanic in the bodywork department but was rapidly promoted to manager of the new composite material department. He took part in all the important projects of those years: the LMA Jeep, the restyling of the Jalpa, the design of the Countach Evoluzione (the first car in the world with a one hundred per cent carbon chassis), the Golf Caddy and the 4 valve Countach.

In 1988, he set up Pagani Composite Research which carried out various projects, including the restyling of the Countach Anniversary, for which the company also supplied the final details in composite materials.

At the height of this collaboration, Pagani worked with the team that designed the Diablo, the Lamborghini P140, the L30 and the Diablo Anniversary.

The difficult economic climate created in 1992 by the events linked to the Gulf War did not discourage Pagani from producing his own supercar.

The final car was named  "Zonda C12".

In fact, says Pagani, he would have called his GT car Fangio instead of Zonda (a wind of the pampas) had the great man lived long enough to see it, but he did not want to trade on the Fangio name without direct approval, a nice reticence not everyone would have observed.

After Alejandro DeTomaso, Horacio Pagani is the second, from Argentina, who build his personal dream in Modena.

We are very proud to have Mr.Horacio and Pagani Automobili in San Cesario village and we are waiting for the new creature after Zonda C12.

Thanks to Mr. Horacio Pagani.

We are waiting for you...to Modena!

 " Come! Let us show you the beauty, mistery and magic of our ancient italian city, MODENA !"

This is the promise of  "Via Emilia Tours"!

Modena and its territory is one of the most surprising and cities in Italy for those travelers that are looking for new destinations.

ViaEmiliaTours will help you to discover the culture, the traditions and the food of Modena.

Surfing the website you can see the high number of visits and minitours that ViaEmiliaTours has selected for you and for your leasure.

Build up your itinerary or tell our staff to do it for you.

Do you like Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Lambrusco wine, Balsamic Vinegar?

Do you want to add history, gastronomy and rural tradition to your unforgetable dreamcars tour.

Do not miss the chance to complete your Italy tour visiting this beautiful land called...Modena.

Ciao

PS: on MinMO Video Channel you can see the video presentation of  ViaEmiliaTours..."Come to visit Modena"

CM Composit srl: The "Artisan" of Carbon Fiber Processing

Generally "artisan" or, better, "artisan production" means products with a very high level of quality, handmade and really customized to the desire of the client.

That's the reason why i called "The artisan" CM Composit srl company and i want to explain you why.
But first a small presentation:

CM Composit was established in 1988, in Vignola (Modena), to exploit modern composite material technology.

The technical and racing experience of the two partners, Massimo Sola and Claudio Degli Angeli, both former racing drivers, backed up by the expertise of Luciano Sola, father of Massimo Sola, and a real understanding of market trends, allowed CM Composit to become a pioneering business in the carbon industry.

Substantial capital investments yielded profits and resulted in a constant growth of the company's customer portfolio and skilled workforce. CM Composit's factory equipment is state-of-the-art. The Company sells nationwide and aims now to export a growing share of its products.

CM Composit designs, develops and produces engineered products from the construction of the model and mould for lamination of the parts through to finishing such as trimming, gluing and polishing..

In order to maintain its market leadership, CM Composit plans to invest in engineering and new ideas to meet the requirements of its customers.

"Tradition, Innovation and Racing" with these three words we could describe the spirit of this young company:

- Constant attention to Tradition and Innovation: every fiber carbon product is absolutely handmade but is also a single complete project and it mean design, realization of the model and a mould etc. and all made with the best modern technology.

- Racing, for Massimo and Claudio, mean passion and job.

Passion because the two partners are both drivers in Karting and they know very well the world of race.

Job because, thanks to their experience and continuos effort, they are suppliers of racing teams like:

Ferrari F1, Ducati SBK, Dallara Racing Team and others.
Thanks Massimo and Claudio - http://www.cmcomposit.com/eng_azienda.htm

It's time to save the world ?

Yes, it's time to save the world.
Now it's time to think about our future and to take care of this planet called Earth.
In the last 12 months a lot of cars manufacturers present to the market different solutions in terms of energy saving, fuel saving etc.
Never like today people is ready to accept the idea to buy an electric car in the next future.
Electric car is more, much more, than a Hybrid solution.
Electric mean no rumor, no smog, no fuel, less and less service. 
-Yes, ok, fantastic but what about the music of a 8 or 12 cilynders engine? An electric car is fantastic for my wife when she go to shop and also for my father because he is deaf ! But for all the people that love, because is "love", this music and the emotions after a drift?-

This is the point: Porsche is thinking, after a turbodiesel engine, to an hybrid system and also Ferrari and Maserati will do it.

But some car manufacturer is absoutely 20 years in advance....they start to sell (not thinking but to sell!!) electric powered sport cars.

TESLA: The Tesla Roadster is an all-electric sports car produced by the electric car firm Tesla Motors. Tesla has shipped more than 500 Roadsters to customers in the United States and Europe, and Canadian deliveries are expected to begin in late 2009. The Roadster can travel 244 miles (393 km) on a single charge of its lithium-ion battery pack, and can accelerate from 0–60 mph (0–97 km/h) in 3.9 seconds ( the model year 2010 will run 0-60 in 37 sec...equal to a Corvette Z06, Ferrari 599, Ferrari F50 just to understand better). The Roadster is the first production automobile to use lithium-ion battery cells and the first production EV to travel more than 200 miles (320 km) per charge.

The base price is US$109,000.

British sports car maker Lotus helped with basic chassis development. The Roadster has a parts overlap of roughly 6 percent with the Lotus Elise. Tesla's designers chose to construct the body panels using resin transfer molded carbon fiber composite to minimize weight; this choice makes the Roadster one of the least expensive cars with an entirely carbon fiber skin.

Tesla had delivered roughly 700 cars to customers by August 2009. The vast majority of customer deliveries so far have been in the United States.

So, my friend, what do you think about?

Are you ready to change your Maserati (or Ferrari, Lotus, Corvette etc etc) for a green, eco, politically correct, silent electric sport car?

Don't say: -Yes i'm ready!- because is not true! Not now, not today!

But you, we, will be...one day, we'll be ready, is inevitable.

Ciao

If you want to know more about Tesla Motors: http://www.teslamotors.com/

Maserati Biturbo: the fantastic plan of Alejandro de Tomaso

When Alejandro de Tomaso acquired Maserati in 1976, he had ambitious plans for the marque. His plan was to combine the prestige of the Maserati brand with a sports car that would be more affordable than the earlier high-priced models that had traditionally made up the Maserati range. The Biturbo was initially a strong seller and brought Italian prestige to a wide audience, with sales of about 40,000 units. Sales figures fell in subsequent years, due to enormous problems of reliability (much better on the '90s models), until de Tomaso sold the company.

The Maserati Biturbo is a sports car introduced by Maserati in 1981. The Biturbo was a two-door, four-seater notchback coupé featuring, as the name implies, a two-litre V-6 engine with two turbochargers and a luxurious interior.

The car was designed by Pierangelo Andreani.

The Maserati Biturbo was the first ever production biturbo engine.

The 2 liter version featured wet aluminium sleeves coated with Nikasil. The aluminum 90 degree SOHC V6 engine was roughly based on the 2.0L Merak engine. Itself based on earlier V8 Formula One Maserati engines, designed by Giulio Alfieri (1924 - 2002). The last street version featured over 150 hp/liter and 140 ft·lbf (190 N·m)/liter torque.

All Maserati models from the Biturbo's introduction in 1981 until 1997 (except the Quattroporte) were based on the original Biturbo architecture, among them the four-door 420/425 and 4.24v, the Spyder, the Karif , the 228 and 2.24v, the Maserati Racing and the later Shamal and Ghibli II.

Two years after Biturbo introduction was unveiled four door family version. This version has longer wheelbase, 2.6 metres (100 in).

The Spyder version was introduced in Turin Motor Show in 1984. The car was designed and built by Zagato. This version has shorter wheelbase, 2.4 metres (94 in).

The last model of Biturbo age it's called Shamal.

Dedicated to the true lover of top-level sports-car driving, the car stands at the top of the range in performance and technical attributes, with no sacrifice in comfort and class. Designed by the Maserati Design Centre in conjunction with Marcello Gandini. A powerful 325-bhp engine, mounted on an extremely rigid chassis, a system of active intelligent suspension, electronically adjustable, an overdimensioned braking system and a six-speed gearbox make the Shamal a car that is as thrilling and safe over high-speed bends and long motorway trips as it is docile in bumper-to-bumper city traffic.

" In conclusion, the Biturbo age was fantastic for sales (more than 30 cars/day) and for a resurrection of the Maserati brand, was very interesting under technical aspects but was also a hard period because the company, maybe, was not ready for a massive production.
Anyway the Maserati Biturbo Dream is still living and the testimony are the 500.000 results on Google, the Biturbo Club all over the world, the smiles and the emotions that feel the owner for his 228 or 430 (more, believe me, more than the tears and the swearword)."

Maserati Biturbo Video on MinMO TV: http://madeinmodenamotorvalleyandmore.magnify.net/video/Maserati-Biturbo

Ciao