Picchio Racing Cars is a small Italian racing and road automobile manufacturer, based in the town of Ancarano, Teramo. Founded in 1989 by Giotto Bizzarrini, Picchio built their first car, the SR2, in 1998. Also known as the A001 or the MB1, the SR2 used a 3-litre BMW straight-6 engine, and made its debut at the Misano round of the International Sports Racing Series in July 1998. In 2002, the firm gave Armando Trentini the exclusivity to introduced the D-USA which, with the collaboration of G&W Motorsports
Established
1989
Headquarters
Ancarano, Teramo, Italy
(now Synergy Racing), was used in the SRPII category of the Rolex Sports Car Series. Darren Law took second in the SRPII championship that year whilst driving a D-USA.
The team also had one victory at the six hours of Mont Trembland Canada (drivers Daren Law, Andy Lally, Armando Trentini). In 2003, Trentini and G&W Motorsports introduced the DP2, which was built for the new Daytona Prototype class of Grand-Am. On its debut, the DP2 finished 24th in the 24 Hours of Daytona. Darren Law was the most successful DP2 driver, and he took sixth in the Daytona Prototype championship whilst Steve Marshall won the SRPII championship in a D-USA, and helped give Picchio the SRPII Constructor’s championship.
History
The Picchio was founded in 1989 by a group of passionate from Ascoli Piceno with the collaboration of one of the most brilliant designers of automotive history: GIOTTO BIZZARRINI, engineer and creator of the legendary 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. In the 1990 Bizzarrini together with Ing. Francesco Di Pietrantonio, current Chairman of Picchio S.p.a., manually realized a racing prototype racing with steel tubolar frame and fiberglass body, which was just an exercise in style, but not an end in itself (see photo below). The result was something really impressive in form, design and technology, coming directly from his past Ferrari and Lamborghini experience.
1998 -THE FIRST CAR: In 1998 came the first car developed by Picchio specifically for racing, the SR2 (below). This car driven by Gianni Giudici and Arturo Merzario in CIP (Italian Prototypes Championship) and the European Championship Hillclimb. Known as the A001 or the MB1, the first SR2 used a BMW 3-liter engine with six cylinders in line. Was the first in the history of Picchio Cars to designed with the aid of CAD. Only 9 units produced. Today, after 20 years, the beauty of this car incredibly present and considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Italian engineering and a high collectible car.
Models:
Performance Series:
The Performance Series cars are two-seaters with the FIA Regulations. These italian race cars have a steel frame.
The body is in carbon fiber. The car features 18 “front and rear wheel rims. These are the models belonging to this series: CN4, with 3000cc engine; SR2, with 3000cc engine.
Light Series:
The Light Series models two-seater open top cars with covered wheels and a monocoque body built in aluminium and steel compliant to the FIA regulations.
The body is in fiber glass and the wheel rims’ size is 13″. The first car of the Light Series was presented in 2004, and it featured the innovative solution of the single front and rear shock absorber.
Daytona Prototype:
The Daytona Prototype models are two-seater coupe cars with covered wheels compliant with the US Grand Am regulations. They have a steel trestle frame and aluminium/honeycomb panels.
The body is in carbon fibre. We designed and produced the first DP in 2003, and on that same year this car obtained the third position at the Daytona 24 Hours Race.
Engineering:
The racing environment requires accurate designing in a short time. This need has pushed us to set up innovative CAD 3d programmes to minimize the error rate. Our cars not approved for production if they do not prove their efficiency first in virtual simulators. All technical choices tested at that stage. Innovation is the guideline of our engineers, who can make a car in few months from scratch to the finished product.
