Tulio Crespi S.A. (

trade name A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

: Crespi Competición) is an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

manufacturer, founded in 1962 by Tulio Crespi (b. June 22, 1938), a former racing driver. With an industrial plant in

Balcarce, Buenos Aires San José de Balcarce (shortened to Balcarce) is a city in Buenos Aires Province (Argentina) about west of Mar del Plata with a population of approx 44,064 (2010 census). It is the head town of the Balcarce Partido (District of Balcarce). The U ...

, Crespi has been producing

s and

Formula racing Formula racing, also known as open-wheel racing in North America, is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. A "formula", first devised by FIA for its post–World War II single-seater races, is a set of regulations for ...

vehicles.Fábrica Crespi Competición
by Verónica Martínez on Welcome Argentina Crespi made significant contributions for Formula Renault 2.0 (building many chassis for former

Formula 4 FIA Formula 4 (F4) is an open-wheel racing car category intended for junior drivers. There is no global championship, but rather individual nations or regions can host their own championships in compliance with a universal set of rules and speci ...

) and Argentine

Turismo Carretera Turismo Carretera ( Road racing, lit., ''Road Touring'') is a popular stock car racing series in Argentina, and the 2nd oldest auto racing series still active in the world. The series is organized by Asociación Corredores de Turismo Carretera. ...

. Its

sports car A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...

s included models ''Tulio'' and '' Tulieta'', both exhibited at the 1975

Paris Motor Show The Paris Motor Show () is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently takes place in Paris expo Porte de V ...

, the first time an Argentine manufacturer participated in the biennial. In the last years, the company expanded its products line to

mini truck Mini truck, also called a micro-truck or mini-lorry, are tiny but practical light trucks, available in RWD or 4WD version, originally built to satisfy the Japanese '' keijidōsha'' (軽自動車) statutory class of light vehicles. Generally they ...

vehicles.

History

Tulio Crespi started his career as

racing car Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including ...

constructor, giving his first steps in "Fórmula Mini Junior", where he also made good performances as a driver. In mid 1960s he made cars for

open-wheel racing car An open-wheel car is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, Sports car racing, sports cars, Stock car racing, stock cars, and Touring car racing, touring car ...

category

.Crespi - Medio siglo creando automóviles
on Auto Historia
on Depo.com.ar, 16 Sep 2021 In 1967, racer Nasif Estéfano crashed his

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

in the Autódromo de Buenos Aires, destroying it completely. The destroyed car was taken to the Crespi's workshop in barrio of Chacarita. Estéfano commissioned Crespi to rebuild the car with a new design that fit to

rules. The remodelled car was named "Petiso". Its success in subsecquent competitions encouraged Crespi to build a limited-series of that car. The first sedan built by Crespi, inspired on a Maserati Ghibli seen by him during a trip to Europe with TC drivers, was named "Tulia". The prototype was finished in mid-1969 and featured in the Rural Exhibition that same year. The ''Tulia'' reached a top speed of 230 km/h. During its first three years of production, 10 units were sold. It is believed that a total of 30 units were produced. Postal_Tulieta

Crespi's most famous model, the Tulieta GT, came into production in 1972. The engine was a 1397cc or 85 cubic inch engine made by

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

, and was known for being unreliable as well. It was the same engine used in the 1976 R5 Alpine/Gordini, which produced 93 horsepower. The C6J Turbo engine was also used in a small number of the GTs. Later in 1977 Crespi ended production of the Tulieta GT, and only a few survive today. A total of 45 units were made. Articles published on automobile magazines of Germany, France, and Japan about his business gave Crespi's global recognition so he received invitations to participate in the

, which he had to refuse due to lack of financial resources. Nevertheless, in 1975 Crespi was invited to take the vacant place of British manufacturer Lotus which had withdrawn. After some arrangements, the

Argentine Air Force The Argentine Air Force (, or simply ''FAA'') is the air force of Argentina and one of three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic. In 2018, it had 13,837 military and 6,900 civilian personnel. FAA commander in chief is Brigadie ...

provided a

Lockheed C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 w ...

to transport two cars, a Tulia and a Tulieta to be exhibited at the 62nd. Paris Show.Cómo trabaja Tulio Crespi, el argentino que con sus diseños triunfó en el Salón de Paris
on ''La Nación'', 11 Feb 2017 by Agustín Lafforgue It was the first time in the history of the show an Argentine manufacturer exhibited cars designed and produced in the country. By mid-1970s, the Chacarita workshop could not keep up with the growing demand of vehicles. Helped by

Juan Manuel Fangio Juan Manuel Fangio (, ; 24 June 1911 – 17 July 1995) was an Argentine racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "el Chueco" and "el Maestro", Fangio won five Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles and—at the ti ...

, Crespi could acquire a land on PR226, only 4 kilometers distant from the city of Balcarce (home town of Fangio) to build and industrial plant and make Crespi's business grow. The factory was inaugurated in early 1980s and it has been producing vehicles since. In 1985, Crespi launched the ''Spiaggia'', a small

convertible A convertible or cabriolet () is a Car, passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary across eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air drivin ...

built on a

Renault 4 The Renault 4, or R4 in short (and 4L, pronounced "Quatrelle" in French ), is an economy car built by the French company Renault from 1961 to 1994. Although the Renault 4 was first marketed as a short estate or wagon, its minimal rear o ...

platform. It had a reinforced plastic body, inspired on

Renault 5 The Renault 5 is a five-passenger, three or five-door, front-engine, front-wheel drive hatchback supermini manufactured and marketed by the French automaker Renault over two generations: 1972–1985 (also called R5) and 1984–1996 (also call ...

and four seats. Crespi's most recent vehicle was ''Campomóvil'', a

that featured a glass fibre-reinforced resin body and powered by a

Briggs & Stratton Briggs & Stratton Corporation is an American manufacturer of small engines with headquarters in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Engine production averages 10 million units per year as of April 2015. The company reports that it has 13 large faciliti ...

engine, released in 2012. In 2022, Crespi launched a new version of the Campomóvil equipped with an

electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

.El primer utilitario eléctrico lo fabrica Tulio Crespi
by Javier Delle Rose on Carburando, 18 May 2022

Business

Crespi Competición has exported its prototype cars to Ecuador, Colombia, México, and Chile. The company is also provider of racing cars for

, TC 2000, and Turismo Nacional. Crespi's cars has been driven by Juan Manuel Fangio II, Oscar Aventín, Guillermo Ortelli, Omar Martínez, Fabián Acuña, Juan María Traverso, Daniel Cingolani, Miguel Etchegaray, Juan Manuel Silva, and Tito Bessone, among other notable drivers.

References

External links

* {{Automotive industry in Argentina Argentine companies established in 1962 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1962 c