Andrea Fraschetti info?

From "Men from Maranello" by Anthony Pritchard:

Born: 1928 (Florence, Italy)
Died: 29 August 1957 (Modena, Italy)

"When the Lancia racing equipe was taken over by Ferrari in 1955, Jano joined Ferrari as consultant, and Fraschetti, who had worked with Jano in Turin, went with him. Fraschetti had very considerable experience in the design and development of competition cars, and he became a senior engineer; Ferrari entrusted him with the design and development of a new competition sports car. The decision had been made to revert to the V12 layout, and the result was the 3490cc Tipo 290MM, which retained single overhead camshafts, and (apart from a de dDion rear axle) the chassis was similar to that of the early 250GTs.

"In most respects it was a completely new design of relatively low weight, and Fraschetti immediately began working on twin overhead camshaft cylinder heads - his design for these first appeared in early 1957. Soon, Fraschetti was at work on the very potent 3780cc Tipo 315 Sport and 3023cc Tipo 335 Sport cars. He was a designer who believed strongly in driving the cars himself, but sadly during testing on 29 August 1957 he lost control at the Monza Aeroautodromo and crashed with fatal results."

There are no photos accompanying the article. He doesn't mention the car that Fraschetti was driving, and it implies that the crash was at Monza, but that Fraschetti died in Modena.

Hope this helps.

Jack

 

Nick there was a very well researched article on Fraschetti by a Dutch Gentleman just a few weeks ago in the Ferrari Market Letter: if you contact them they can get you a copy.

I had always been curious about this little known clearly very competent man and discussed him a little with Mauro Forghieri who had a lot of respect for him.

Frachetti was the victim of an accident not at Monza but at the Modena Aerautodromo.

best regards,

Marc

 

Thanks for adding that, Marc. Not to be contentious, but are you certain of the crash site? I ask only because Pritchard's research is usually pretty thorough. Do you know what car was he driving? Thanks.

Best,

Jack.

 

Hello Jack.

The article was by Kees van Stokkum in FML volume 34 number 20 of October 3, 2009.

Yes Mr Pritchard usually does great research no question but in this case I am afraid it was Modena and not Monza (far, far more people have perished at Monza rather than the handful who were killed at Modena and he may have confused the passing of someone else at Monza with Fraschetti's.

The car was a 1500V6 F2.

You should get yourself a copy of the issue: as I mentioned here at the time it was a great piece of research but nobody seemed to care.

best regards,

Marc

 

This is a brief excerpt from that FML article describing the circumstances of his death.


"Just a few days later he decided to join some
mechanics for another test at the Modena track
with the 1500 cc V-6 Formula Two car, which had
shown some erratic road holding. Experienced
key-men Azelio Cappi, Gaetano Florini (later to
become General Manager of the Assistenza Clienti)
and Ener Vecchi went with the car, which racing
car test driver Martino Severi was due to drive.

After some warming-up Severi got to work,
did some laps and came in the pits to report to Fraschetti
some particular points. Andrea decided to
have a go himself, put on his helmet and went out
with the car. A moment later those who were left
behind saw the car suddenly leaving the track and
jolting over the grass, then topple over and over
and coming to rest, with the driver beside it.

Fraschetti had experienced a slide, and, while
trying to correct it, had come onto the infield. On
his track there he spotted a metal part, left behind
after a military exercise, and trying to steer around
it one of his front wheels had ducked into a hole
which caused his car to somersault, throwing the
driver out. Andrea Fraschetti succumbed of his
head injuries some hours later."

Copyright, Ferrari Market Letter V34 No. 20 October 3, 2009

The article is quite lengthy and detailed and seems to have been well researched.

 

Thanks for the clarification, Marc. Does the Modena track still exist?

Jack.

 

You might ask F-Chatter Nathan Beehl ("piloti"). Nathan's contact information is in his profile.

Jack.

 

Apparently there were multiple tracks in Modena; see http://www.gdecarli.it/index.htm. Incredible website.

 

There was only one permanent circuit, the aerautodromo which was a small road course with an airstrip in the middle. They would stop testing for a few minutes to let a plane arrive or depart.

There were some races Jean Behra won what was probably the most important one held there, in a 250F, I think.

When Ferrari built Fiorano it fell into disuse, Maserati was no longer racing so they and Lambo and no doubt de Tomaso used it a little for testing but the writing was on the wall. After years of back and forth it was turned into a park. If you go on google earth you can see this rectangular park about a mile north of the Duomo (cathedral).

There were in the first half of the 20th century races on the avenues just outside the centro storico, these are the photos in which you see the monunent to the war dead in the background. The Mille Miglia passed through those avenues this year.

best regards,

Marc

 

Hi!

Anyone have a photo of Andrea Fraschetti?

Thanks.

 

Better late than never?
This is poor Andrea's memorial card.
Nathan
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So can you tell us now the reasons for your inquiries?

 

May he rest in peace.

 

I only see now the correspondence

Indeed Andrea, who was my uncle, had that car.

He then raced on a Stanguellini

regards

Eugenio Pozzolini
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Interesting thread.
True; Andrea Fraschetti activity in Ferrari is poorly documented, aside from the excellent article by Kees von Stokkum. I had the opportunity of exploring his life and work at Ferrari in some detail as a part of my research work for the forthcoming "Ferrari in Linea - the 4- and 6-Cylinder Sports Cars and Related Types (1953-1957) written jointly with Antoine Prunet.
As Marc (Nembo 1777) mentioned above, he was very highly regarded by Mauro Forghieri and, I may add, by all the engineers and personalities who had a chance of working with him at the time, as Rocchi, Salvarani and Tavoni.
I had the pleasure of having first-hand recollections also from ingegnere Francesco Fraschetti, Andrea's brother. I am wondering, BTW, if Sig. Eugenio Pozzolini - certainly a relative - might kindly get in touch with me by PM ([email protected]).
Further details should be published in our book in a not-too-distant future.
Let me add that, at the best of my knowledge, the Fraschetti car in the photo by Eugenio Pozzolini is safely his Stanguellini 750 (chassis CS 04084), later registered in Florence as FI-79279 and rebodied in 1957 by Scaglietti with a very elegant and rakish design.
Fraschetti started his racing activity with his friend Adalberto Parenti with two different Fiat Topolinos (enlarged to 750cc). They ended-up rolling one of them at Montaldo di Castro during a Giro della Toscana. Apparently he did also twice the Pontassieve-Consuma, a local hill-climb.
Unfortunately, I cannot confirm the presence of a Fiat Topolino bodied by Colli in between the classic Topolinos here mentioned and the Stanguellini and I would be happy to learn more about this. Good look to Bizz5300 on his approach to this car!
Hope to hear from him, BTW, as I am researching at the moment some details of the 1956 Sveriges GP. Could he be of any help?
Franco Lombardi

 

I know it's been a long time, but did you buy the Fraschetti car? Just curious.
Nathan

 

You can trace what happened to the second F2 car after the accident in Modena in the Jenks book "Motor Sport" Racing Car Review 1958.
It was rebuilt as an F1 car - cars of this type formed the mainstay of Ferrari racing in 1958
Very nice photo of the first in F2 guise on page 65.

 

Gone since many years!

 

There were also some sports car races at the Autodromo in the very late 40s and during the 50s.

 

Anthoney Pritchard died some years ago!

 

The Aerautodromo di Modena was one of the most important social institutions in Modena after the second war until the end of the Sixties and considerably backed the after-war 'automobilismo' and the car- and racing industry in 'terra di motori'. Located north of the city along the via Emilia, it was replaced in the Seventies upon green, socialist politics with the 'Parco Enzo Ferrari'. In period, there was intensive racing and testing there and the track was used - often at the same time! - from all manufactures. Fangio, Ascari, Clark etc. raced there and Cabianca, Faranda and Castellotti died there. But also Catholic ceremonies with mass-blessing of cars, motorcycle and pilots were held on the track and the Aerautodromo was also the local airport and the headquarter of the Aeroclub di Modena. Today, the control tower can be still visited in the Parco Enzo Ferrari as the last witness of that wonderful institution.

https://klemcoll.wordpress.com/2016/08/13/modena-aerautodromo/#jp-carousel-1399
https://www.google.ch/search?q=aerautodromo+di+modena&client=firefox-b&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj0tJmU5bPUAhVSLlAKHeLeCeMQ_AUICigB&biw=1212&bih=561

 

Here.

Marcel Massini
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