Virgilio Conrero (1 January 1918 – 6 January 1990) was an Italian automotive engineer,

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and racing team manager. He is known for tuning and racing cars from marques such as

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian carmaker known for its sports-oriented vehicles, strong auto racing heritage, and iconic design. Headquartered in Turin, Italy, it is a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe and one of 14 brands of mu ...

Lancia Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe, which is the European subsidiary of Stellantis. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganise ...

, and

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Gr ...

History

Conrero was born in

Turin 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 ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in 1918. After serving in the

Regia Aeronautica The Royal Italian Air Force (''Regia Aeronautica Italiana'') (RAI) was the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Regio Esercito, Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was ...

as an aircraft mechanic in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he established ''Autotecnica Conrero'' in 1951, and successfully tuned

cars until 1969. During this time he also tuned

Lancia Aurelia The Lancia Aurelia is a car manufactured and marketed by the Italy, Italian company, Lancia, from 1950 to the summer of 1958 — over a course of six ''series.'' Configurations included a 4-door Saloon (car), saloon/sedan, 2-door GT coupé ...

models. His workshops also built a small number of cars in the 1950s based on Alfa Romeo chassis, such as the Conrero Alfa Romeo that competed in the 20th Mille Miglia in 1953. He also built one of what had been a planned four-car team of Triumph Conreros for Le Mans. With only one car built, and Triumph facing financial difficulties, the car did not race. After his involvement with Alfas ended, he began a cooperation with General Motors Italy, tuning and race preparing Opels. The firm is now called ''Studio Futuro'' and located in

Lugo Lugo (, ) is a city in northwestern Spain in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. It is the capital of the Lugo (province), province of Lugo. The municipality had a population of 100,060 in 2024, ...

. The main client is Lotus. The company also offers sporting accessories for cars. Conrero died in 1990.

References

External links

Profile at autoindex.orgProfile at memorialconrero.it
(in Italian) 1918 births 1990 deaths Automotive engineers from Turin Italian Air Force personnel Italian motorsport people {{automobile-bio-stub