Racing car ‘BISILURO’
one of mollino’s greatest and life lasting loves was
the one for speed and motoring, not just as a sport cars
pilot but also as a designer and car planner, voted to
the inexhaustible search of the perfect line, seduced
by the myth of ‘record’, with a futurist taste, of whom
still today - half a century after, we discover unpublished
and surprising testimonies.

carlo mollino’s works dedicated to motoring world date
back to the early 50s. the ‘bisiluro’ - the racing car that
allowed carlo mollino to get through the hard selection
of the ‘24 hours le mans’ race - remains in the collective
memory as stupendous and spectacular.

mollino steered his attention to a new boundary,
something that evolved in a way so interesting
to involve an ever-increasing number of researchers
and engineers: the speed record. he undertakes the
study and the aerodynamic analysis of innovative
solutions - creating a new racing car, a bluebird powered
with a turbine.

the right-hand side of the asymetrically shaped car was
considerably higher than the rest of the machine.
he connected the two sections of the car by a horizontal
spoiler, built into the bodywork. the coonecting element
contained the brake flap and the radiator, and there
was a negative lift wing that kept the very light car (450 kg)
flat to the ground.
another aerodynamic solution was the complete retractibility
of the rear-view mirror.

in the exhibition you can see both - the original car
‘bisiluro’ and a 1:1 scale model of the racing car,
produced by stola. this 5.5 metres (16 feet) long car
model is based on mollino's futuristic designs in his
attempt to break the speed record;
an ambitious goal he never achieved.











Racing car model
the vehicle portrayed in this page only existed in carlo mollino's immagination, and today we can admire its clean cut lines thanks
to the remarkable engineering skills and craftmanship of carrozzeria stola, a traditional manufacture amongst the modelling enterprises
in turin.

stola could only rely on the original model, produced by mollino
in the fifties in laminated wood. starting from its wheel proportions,
stola engeneers found a proportion that is six times that of the model. following an accurate photogrammetric survey, it took 5 weeks to produce this record breaking vehicle 5295 mm long, 1957 mm wide,
836 mm high and a weight of 1150 kg.
this life-size car model is shown in the hall of the torino modern
art gallery - a futuristic attempt directed towards the speed record.

'racing car' by carlo mollino, life model built by the stola group











via designboom
exhibition