Matt_Briston
Fiat Test Track.
The one shot I was after while away; we stayed at a hotel in Turin which was part of Fiat's old Lingotto factory until the seventies. This is eight portrait shots, second attempt, at a time when there was no-one else in sight, thirty-degree heat in an extremely perilous crouch at the very top of the bank.
The building atop, the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli Art Gallery - not the ugly, incongruous glass and steel one being built behind - contains an exhibition full of works by Canaletto, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani and others. I love this place.
The factory was completed in 1923. Unlike any other car factory to date, the factory featured a spiral assembly line that moved up through the building and a concrete banked rooftop test track. It was the biggest car factory Europe had ever seen and was the second largest in the world.
Designed by engineer Giacomo Mattè-Trucco, the five story building featured a simple loop rooftop test track with two banked turns that consumed a 1620 foot x 280 foot portion of rooftop. The test track's banked turns were constructed from an intricate series of concrete ribs in a construction technique that had not been used frequently before Lingotto's construction. It's safe to say the technique had never been used for a test track six stories in the air.
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 Fiat 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 a running driving Fiat by the time it spiraled its way to the top of the building.
When a Fiat had finished its climb through the 16,000,000 square feet of Lingotto it exited the building by way of the roof. Each Fiat was taken on to the roof and around the banked race track to make sure the prior five floors of manufacturing had done their jobs to satisfaction. The Lingotto test track was even briefly featured in the Italian Job. During the famous escape sequence the red white and blue Mini's go three wide on the banked rooftop race course with police in hot pursuit.
If you're in Turin, go. It's worth the trip. Plus you can go to the track for free if you use a little confidence or you can buy a ticket for the exhibition and go with your ticket.
Fiat Test Track.
The one shot I was after while away; we stayed at a hotel in Turin which was part of Fiat's old Lingotto factory until the seventies. This is eight portrait shots, second attempt, at a time when there was no-one else in sight, thirty-degree heat in an extremely perilous crouch at the very top of the bank.
The building atop, the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli Art Gallery - not the ugly, incongruous glass and steel one being built behind - contains an exhibition full of works by Canaletto, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani and others. I love this place.
The factory was completed in 1923. Unlike any other car factory to date, the factory featured a spiral assembly line that moved up through the building and a concrete banked rooftop test track. It was the biggest car factory Europe had ever seen and was the second largest in the world.
Designed by engineer Giacomo Mattè-Trucco, the five story building featured a simple loop rooftop test track with two banked turns that consumed a 1620 foot x 280 foot portion of rooftop. The test track's banked turns were constructed from an intricate series of concrete ribs in a construction technique that had not been used frequently before Lingotto's construction. It's safe to say the technique had never been used for a test track six stories in the air.
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 Fiat 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 a running driving Fiat by the time it spiraled its way to the top of the building.
When a Fiat had finished its climb through the 16,000,000 square feet of Lingotto it exited the building by way of the roof. Each Fiat was taken on to the roof and around the banked race track to make sure the prior five floors of manufacturing had done their jobs to satisfaction. The Lingotto test track was even briefly featured in the Italian Job. During the famous escape sequence the red white and blue Mini's go three wide on the banked rooftop race course with police in hot pursuit.
If you're in Turin, go. It's worth the trip. Plus you can go to the track for free if you use a little confidence or you can buy a ticket for the exhibition and go with your ticket.