I just came across this I thought it was pretty cool.
Designed by engineer Giacomo Mattè-Trucco, the Lingotto factory was one of the first buildings of its size to rely heavily on reinforced concrete in the construction process. The five story building featured a simple loop rooftop test track with two banked turns that consumed a 1620 foot x 280 foot portion of rooftop. The test track's banked turns were constructed from an intricate series of concrete ribs in a construction technique that had not been used frequently before Lingotto's construction. It is safe to say the technique had never been used for a test track 6 stories in the air.
The Lingotto test track was even briefly featured in the Italian Job. During the famous escape sequence the red white and blue Mini's go 3 wide on the banked rooftop race course with police in hot pursuit. In the hundreds of times I watched that scene it had never occurred to me that the track really was on a roof.
Designed by engineer Giacomo Mattè-Trucco, the Lingotto factory was one of the first buildings of its size to rely heavily on reinforced concrete in the construction process. The five story building featured a simple loop rooftop test track with two banked turns that consumed a 1620 foot x 280 foot portion of rooftop. The test track's banked turns were constructed from an intricate series of concrete ribs in a construction technique that had not been used frequently before Lingotto's construction. It is safe to say the technique had never been used for a test track 6 stories in the air.
The Lingotto test track was even briefly featured in the Italian Job. During the famous escape sequence the red white and blue Mini's go 3 wide on the banked rooftop race course with police in hot pursuit. In the hundreds of times I watched that scene it had never occurred to me that the track really was on a roof.
