Giotto Bizzarrini, Legendary Ferrari 250GTO Engineer, Has Died at 96

• The engineer who crafted both the Ferrari 250 GTO and Lamborghini's original V-12 has died, aged 96.

• As both an engineer and test driver, Bizzarrini also founded his own eponymous car company in the 1960s, and his car won its class at Le Mans.

• Earlier this year, the Bizzarrini name re-emerged as a company with plans for a V-12 supercar called the Giotto. It'll have its work cut out living up to the legend of the man himself.

Any automotive engineer seeks to leave a lasting piece of themselves in the machines they helped create. When Giotto Bizzarrini died last week, just shy of his 97th birthday, he did so assured of the immortality of his name. What greater legacy could any Italian engineer leave behind than fingerprints on both the most desirable Ferrari and most beautiful Lamborghini ever made? Further, like Enzo and Ferruccio, Giotto created a physical tribute to his surname in steel, glass, and rubber—the gorgeous Bizzarrini 5300 GT. We mark his passing as a linchpin of the golden age of Italian automobiles.

Born in 1926 in Quercianella in Tuscany, a small coastal hamlet, Bizzarrini attended university in Pisa (of leaning tower fame). His father, also Giotto, had worked with radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi. Shortly after graduation, Bizzarrini junior joined Alfa Romeo and began working on the chassis development of the Giulietta.

Surprisingly, the position was something of a frustration for the young Giotto—he wanted to work on engines. However, his innate skill soon found him transferred to Alfa Romeo's experimental division, where he became both engineer and test driver. In 1957, Ferrari head-hunted him to run its sports car development division.

His work here resulted in perhaps the greatest Ferrari ever made: the 250 GTO. Working with a 250 GT that was his own personal car, Bizzarrini created the test mule that became a thoroughbred, though he would not be at Ferrari to see the production car emerge. He was one of five chief engineers to walk out after a reorganization of staff in Ferrari's “Night of the long knives.” Enzo was an uncompromising leader, and the echoes of this dispute would have lasting effect.