Scuderia Ferrari
Vittorio Jano along with Colin Chapman could arguably be called the greatest race car engineer in history. Born in 1891, he joined Fiat at the age of 20. Working as a junior draughtsman under Carlo Cavalli, the brilliant head of the Fiat design section, he eventually became head of the design team in 1921. While at Fiat he worked along side its test driver Luigi Bazzi. It was Bazzi who had left Fiat to join the newly formed Alfa Romeo, who recommended his former associate. Alfa Romeo's car the P1 turned out to be a big disappointment and Jano was hired in 1923 to design a completely new car from scratch. That car was the P2 which won its first race in 1924 and continue winning races for the next six years in one form or another. As the 1930 season progressed Scuderia Ferrari increasingly became seen as the Alfa Romeo factory team. At the end of 1932, as Jano was preparing a new P3 racer, Alfa Romeo decided to withdraw from racing and handed over the entire racing department to Ferrari. The P3 Monoposto was the first genuine single-seat racing car. It was powered by an eight-cylinder engine built around two four-cylinder blocks, each fed by its own Roots supercharger. One of the engine's major strengths was its low-speed torque. Power to the rear wheels was transmitted through twin driveshafts that allowed for the drivers seat to be placed lower in the chassis. The original leaf spring suspension was replaced in 1935 by an independent Dubonnet front suspension. The complete car weighed in at only 1,625 lbs. and were it not for its cast-iron block engine, it would have weighed considerably less.
Winning its first race out of the box, the P3 went on to win 5 more major races in 1932. With the two best drivers of the day, Nuvolari and Caracciola racing them, 1932 was a successful year. Some said that with a Jano-designed car and their two great drivers they should not expect anything less. The P3's most famous victory came very late in its career when Tazio Nuvolari beat the combined German might of Mercedes and Auto Union. That race, the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, in front of dozens of Nazi officials is considered one of Nuvolari's greatest victories of all time.