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The story of this car starts in November 1961 with the Great Walkout, a famous scandal that saw Enzo Ferrari fire some of his most important employees including chief engineer Carlo Chiti and development chief Giotto Bizzarrini.
Shortly after their dismissal, the renegades established Automobili Turismo e Sport (ATS), a company through which they intended to stop the Prancing Horse’s dominance both on the racetrack and in the world of road-going sports cars.
Backed by former Ferrari privateer Count Giovanni Volpi, ATS officially began operations in 1963. By this time, the team had unveiled the Tipo 100 Formula One racer and were applying the finishing touches on their limited production grand tourer, the 2500 GT.
Although many contributed to its development, the pioneering car was the brainchild of Bizzarrini and Chiti, two of the most influential engineers in the history of the automotive industry. The first was responsible for the tubular steel spaceframe chassis which employed a double-wishbone independent suspension configuration on both axles, while the second designed the bespoke engine.
This new 2.5-liter V8 was similar to the Ferrari racing powerplants Chiti helped create while working in Maranello. It had a 90-degree vee angle, employed an all-aluminum construction, and provided close to 215 hp and 188 lb-ft (255 Nm) with the help of Weber twin-choke carburetors. Matted to a five-speed Colotti gearbox, it could rev up to 9,000 rpm and sang a marvelous tune through the custom-made Abarth exhaust system.
To improve weight distribution and thus maneuverability, the two legendary engineers decided to place the engine in front of the rear axle, behind the passenger compartment, making the ATS 2500 GT one of the first mid-engine sports cars ever created.
read more: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...car-built-by-engineering-legends-166142.html#
