There’s a brutalist magnificence to the concrete sweep of the Mirafiori factory in Turin: a facility that was first inaugurated in 1939 under the gaze of Benito Mussolini – after Fiat outgrew its iconic Lingotto building – and progressively added to over the years.
In time it became a district all of its own; a city within a city where the streets are paved with cars in various stages of life and production. Not just Fiats, but Alfa Romeos and Lancias (remember those?) as well as Jeeps now, following the FCA organisation’s latest round of acquisitions.
It’s a behemoth of a factory, reportedly the largest in Europe, and yet it’s not completely used these days, which gives it a melancholy air of fading grandeur.
The automotive ghosts of the past can be found around every corner: from signwriting that is obviously a product of the 1950s, to abandoned corridors leading to long-dead departments, where footsteps of immaculately attired draughtsmen once echoed to the beat of the dolce vita.
It is here that the FCA Heritage Hub was recently created to safeguard the company’s creations, containing a brand new example of pretty much every model that Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo ever produced. And it is here that we find a breathtaking selection of rally cars including the Lancia 037 – which started the Group B story – and the Delta S4, the Group B monster par excellence. No other cars epitomised the whole triumph and tragedy of Group B quite so eloquently: the ephemeral highs and visceral lows that went hand-in-hand with
