1950 - 1970

ERCOLE MARELLI

Milan, 19^th May 1867 - Tremezzo (CO), 28^th August 1922

Son of an unpretentious artisan who moved to Milan from the nearby Como province, Ercole Marelli finished the mandatory schooling period and, at fifteen years of age, started working as an apprentice at a small mechanical workshop. Afterwards, he was introduced to Bartolomeo Cabella, Director of the Italian Tecnomasio, where he was employed from 1885 as a “mechanic for measuring instruments and especially for electrical jobs applied to lighting”. In October of 1888, he travelled to Asunción, Paraguay, on behalf of Cabella, where, only twenty years old, he assembled and started up  an entire electrical system for the Concha Sociedad plant, equipped with one hundred incandescent lamps and nineteen arch floodlights with power of 1,000 candles, which were also used in part to light up certain streets and the city’s main theatre. In 1891, a few months after returning to Italy, he opened his own laboratory in downtown Milan where, with the help of only one worker, he started building physics and geodesic equipment, electrical machines for school toilets, batteries, accumulators, and electro-medical equipment. In 1893, the positive sales volume allowed him to move to a larger workshop.

The penetration on foreign markets, in Latin America and in Western Europe, as well as in France, Austria, Germany and England, was supported by constant marketing activities and by targeted advertising campaigns.

In 1916, the Ercole Marelli company filed its first patent for start magnets, perfecting the innovation in 1917, followed by a “completion” patent towards the end of 1918. Because of the growing demand, a specific department was set up for the production of magnets, until 1919 when this activity was demerged from the limited partnership Ercole Marelli, founding with Turin’s Fiat the incorporated company Fabbrica italiana Magneti Marelli with 50/50 shareholding. The corporate agreement established for the share capital to be equally divided, reserving the title of President and Technical and Sales Manager to Marelli; he, in turn, placed the company’s management in the hands of a manager in his trust, his son-in-law Bruno Antonio Quintavalle, who stayed at the helm of the company until 1967, when the entire shareholding package was transferred to Fiat and to his brother Umberto Quintavalle.

RADIOMARELLI TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Radiomarelli

In 1927, the economic measures known as “Quota 90” made it more difficult for Italy’s large industries to penetrate foreign markets.

In Magneti Marelli, which already in the 1920s could count on an active commercial network in France, Belgium, England and Eastern Europe, concerns for the possible reduction in business volumes led to the search for new production areas in which to engage the company. In addition to diversifying the production of automotive, motorcycling and aviation components, a particularly important and significant decision was made at Magneti Marelli: to engage in a new activity in the sector of the mass production of radio equipment.

So, just like in the sector of electrical equipment for vehicles, Magneti Marelli found itself playing a pioneer’s role in Italy in the radio sector too.

In 1930, the very first radios made entirely by Magneti Marelli were displayed at the Milan Trade Fair in order to test the public’s response, which was immediate.

It was precisely the year 1930 that marked the origins of the historical name Radiomarelli, the trademark with which radios and, later on, televisions and household appliances made by Magneti Marelli and intended for the mass production, will be sold.

The first two Radiomarelli radios were the Musagete and the Sinfoniaco: a total of 200 units were produced, and the proceeds from their sales were entirely reinvested in an advertising campaign. We are talking about considerable amounts for the time, considering that the cheapest Musagete cost 2,700 former Italian Liras while a Fiat Balilla cost less than 10,000 former Italian Liras.

The press of the time enthusiastically wrote about Radiomarelli, which it described as being superior to the best American radios that ran on different voltage compared to the European one and consequently were affected by interference and sound distortion when used in Italy. Radiomarelli’s slogan was: “Beating everyone in terms of quality, allowing everyone to beat us in terms of price”.

For the production of its radio equipment, Magneti Marelli founded FIVRE, Fabbrica Italiana Valvole Radio Elettriche, as electrical valves were a necessary component of the radios made at the time and, in the future, of televisions.

In 1931, a crowd would gather at the Vittorio Emanuele Gallery in Milan every Monday night to listen, from the Radiomarelli store windows, to the concerts held in the Hall of the Royal Conservatory of Milan and broadcast to the public through the Radiomarelli Musagete radio.

As from 1970s, the company’s strategies focused on the automotive sector, consequently the radio, television and household appliance activity was gradually abandoned, first stopping their production and lastly, in 1975, their sale.

MOTORSPORT 1919 > 1940

Vehicles equipped with internal combustion engine, which were called “horseless carriages” when they first appeared at the end of nineteenth century, have always stimulated a desire to compete, to measure oneself and to reach faster and faster seeds, much higher than those that could be reached with horse-drawn carriages, and comparable only to those of trains, which did not travel on the battered streets of the time, but instead darted on the safer and smoother flowing railroad tracks.

Magneti Marelli’s presence in motorsports competitions dates back to the company’s founding year, in other words way back in 1919.

In the 1920s, right in the middle of the futuristic period, the chronicles of the time reported how the “wonderful beasts”, intent in the competitive spasms of the mythical speed of 100 kilometres per hour, owed part of their success to the Magneti Marelli magnet.

In those years, automobile and motorbike competitions were held on unmade roads, and the few standard-production cars and motorbikes available were used to compete: drivers, mechanical components and electrical devices were subjected to extremely exacting uses, among dust, rocks and mud, which is the reason why toughness, reliability and effective assistance on the racing fields were often the keys to success.

Back then, Magneti Marelli was already betting on the performances and reliability of its magnets, coils and distributors. During the pioneer years, as well as later on, the constant presence on the racetracks of the Magneti Marelli racing service allowed drivers and vehicles to receive the necessary technical assistance in order to successfully finish the races.

In 1930, after the victory at the 1000 Miglia by the duo Nuvolari-Guidotti, the journalist Ruggero Tito Zanetti wrote: “The entire production benefits from the teachings of the “1000 Miglia”. We have all understood by now the extremely high technical value of this race: what persuasive measure it represents of the advancements in construction and in what strict and convincing test bench it turns into for any new technical and mechanical solution”. That year, three Alfa Romeos finished first second and third, all equipped with Magnete Marelli magnets!

Magneti Marelli was present in all motorsport sectors, from motoring to motorcycling, from motor-boating to aviation. The pages of Sprazzi e Bagliori always carried the sporting successes achieved by vehicles equipped with Magneti Marelli components: at the “1000 Miglia” race or among the rocks of the Carso, at the Milan-Taranto or on the new racetrack in Monza, on the biplanes of Baracca or at the famous aviation Schneider Cup, the young Marelli magnets “gave off prodigious sparks of Italic boldness”.

Airplanes, motorboats, seaplanes, automobiles and motorcycles equipped with Magneti Marelli devices broke record after record: both drivers and manufacturers sent telegrams, autographed photos and thank you letters to show their appreciation and gratitude towards Magneti Marelli. Famous drivers, such as, for example, Tazio Nuvolari and Achille Varzi, were even tied to Magneti Marelli through a dual experience: in motorcycling races with Bianchi, and in automobile competitions with Alfa Romeo.

SPRAZZI E BAGLIORI

Magneti Marelli was one of the first large industries in Italy to undertake the path of corporate communication by creating a veritable in-house magazine, which today would be known as house organ, intended for distribution to employees, distributors and company “supporters”: today known as stakeholders.

The legendary in-company magazine Sprazzi e Bagliori was published from 1924 until 1942. It was founded and run by Noël Caterino Giulio Quintavalle, the third and youngest of the Quintavalle brothers who covered top positions at the company, managing it uninterruptedly for more than 50 years.

Noëlqui, Noel Quintavalle’s signature that appears in the magazine, was not only the editor, but also the illustrator and author of the entire graphic project, as well as the person in charge of choosing the topics featured in the magazine and often the author, under various pseudonyms, of articles and sections.

When the austere tones of the politics and propaganda of the 1920s allowed it, Sprazzi e Bagliori displayed eye-catching graphics in which one can clearly see the echo of the artistic climate of those years: magnets and various components are ever-present, however reinterpreted in the illustrative style of the time. In fact, the strokes of the covers and drawings reflected the expressive forms of illustrators contemporaneous with or directly preceding Quintavalle, often presenting subjects and artistic gimmicks meant for effect similar to those of great artists such as Sironi, Codognato, Dudovich, Rubino, Mauzan, Cooper and Schawinsky.

The personality of Sprazzi e Bagliori is informal and often ironic, functional to a consent strategy that, in addition to providing information on technical and promotional aspects of the products, includes illustrations, cartoons, images, short stories and trivial facts, in order to make reading pleasant and fun in addition to useful. The illustrations and texts of Sprazzi e Bagliori offer a historically interesting point of view on the customs and issues of the time, on the debates within and outside Magneti Marelli, on the conquests made by society at large and on the goals to strive for. A useful tool with which to reconstruct not only the industrial world, but also its dreams and illusions.

Due to its characteristics as painting of society, technical manual of the company’s products and innovative and extended communication vehicle, Sprazzi e Bagliori is still fascinating to this day, in part due to its graphic and chromatic form and in part  to the representativeness of its contents.

THE INDUSTRIAL DECENTRALIZATION

In the 1930s, Magneti Marelli experienced a period of extraordinary growth: the demand for goods and assets skyrocketed, sustained by the company’s technical development and encouraged by both the self-sufficiency principles which inspired the economy of the time and the closing of the borders, and by its having been declared an “auxiliary” factory since 1935.

In the five years prior to the outbreak of World War II, Magneti Marelli’s operations were feverish, with a constant request for labour due to an increase in the production of magnets for the National Aviation, the Italian economy was becoming more and more a wartime economy and the Company was required to comply with government directives on the decentralization of production facilities.

The industrial decentralization policy enacted by the Italian Supreme Defence Commission consisted in moving the production facilities of large industries engaged in the war effort to other peripheral locations, so that any air raids against a facility would not wipe out the company’s production.

In this context, in 1939 Magneti Marelli proceeded to purchase a plant located in Carpi, a small city in the province of Modena.

The Carpi plant was suggested by Vico D’Incerti: originally from Carpi, a degree in engineering from the Politecnico of Turin, in 1929 he was recruited by Bruno Quintavalle to work for Magneti Marelli, in Sesto San Giovanni, after an initial experience in Lancia. D’Incerti also penned certain technical articles published in Sprazzi e Bagliori.

At the start of the twentieth century, the building had hosted the factory “Il Truciolo”, specialized in straw processing for the production of mainly hats; it was located close to both the railway station and to Carpi’s downtown area.

Magneti Marelli’s arrival in a city with an almost rural economy like Carpi was the start of a radical change in the social fabric and local culture: it was therefore necessary to train the new inexperienced workforce. The first workers hired were sent for two months to the Magneti Marelli plant in Sesto S. Giovanni where, shadowed by skilled workers, they could learn the basics of their new job. Subsequently, the “Scuola Vedette” was set up at the Carpi plant, where the youngsters to be hired acquired the fundamentals of factory work.

In 1973, Magneti Marelli was organized into Divisions and, in the overall corporate reorganization, the Carpi plant became part of the “electrical equipment” division. In 1976, the plant was moved to the new industrial area, at the address of Via della Scienza 6, where Magneti Marelli was the first large factory to populate the budding industrial area.

Following a radical business transformation, the Company engaged in strategic acquisitions and sales: Magneti Marelli’s presence in Carpi ended in 1994, after more than fifty years.

MILESTONES 1950 > 1970

1953: Magneti Marelli built the first radio television bridges for RAI (Italy’s state TV), including the Milan-Palermo bridge, first in Europe in terms of size and power.

1954: Magneti Marelli built the radio bridges for the entire Italian weather network being completed at the time.

1956: Geneva’s CERN entrusted Magneti Marelli with the design and construction of the acceleration units of the largest proton synchrotron in the world.

1958: a survey conducted by Doxa revealed that Radiomarelli was the brand preferred by Italians, as one fourth of the population owned Magneti Marelli household appliances (radios and televisions).

1959: Magneti Marelli designed and built the radio bridge for the launch of the second RAI channel, in view of the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

1967: Fiat purchased the entire shareholding package of Magneti Marelli. The first business combinations operations were initiated, which lead to the incorporation in Magneti Marelli of the subsidiaries MABO (a commercial joint venture with Bosch, founded in 1935), Radiomarelli and Imcaradio (production and marketing of radios and televisions for the consumer market), Rabotti (professional test benches), Iniex (fuel injection systems), Fivre (valves and cathode tubes for radios and televisions).

1969: Mako, a company with head office in Turkey dedicated in the production of electrical and compressed air equipment, was founded.

1978: Magneti Marelli inaugurated its presence in Brazil, today one of the main hubs of the company’s activity, second only to Italy in terms of number of employees.

1979: Marelli Autronica, a joint venture between Magneti Marelli, Fiat and Weber (Bologna) was set up for the study and production of electronic control devices for ignition and fuel supply systems.

THE QUINTAVALLE BROTHERS

In the history of Magneti Marelli there is a peculiar note, which is certainly unusual today as in those days, at the management level too: from 1919, the year of its foundation, until 1967, therefore for over half a century, the company, owned in equal parts by Ercole Marelli and Fiat, was managed by the Quintavalle brothers, who came from an aristocratic family with Sardinian origins but were raised in Milan.

After obtaining his diploma at the Technical Commercial Institute, in 1908 Bruno Antonio Quintavalle moved to London for three years. Thanks to this experience, upon returning to Italy he was hired at the export office of the Ercole Marelli. During World War I, he met Ercole Marelli’s daughter, Paola, and the two married at the end of the war. The company Magneti Marelli was founded in 1919, and Bruno became its General Manager from the very start. In 1923, following the death of Ercole Marelli, Bruno became a member of the Board of Directors, and in 1925 he took over the office of Managing Director. Bruno’s brother Umberto, on the other hand, obtained a degree in engineering and was hired as the head of the Technical Department of the newly founded Magneti Marelli. In 1924 he was appointed Authorized Representative, and in 1939 he too became a member of the Company’s Board of Directors.

Noelqui was the third and youngest of the three Quintavalle brothers, and also the family’s artist. During World War I, Lieutenant Quintavalle led the 33^rd Company of the Exilles Battalion, 3^rd regiment of the Italian Alpine Troops.

In 1924, Noel founded Magneti Marelli’s first in-house magazine, Sprazzi e Bagliori. The artist was not only its editor, but also illustrator and author of the entire graphic project, as well as the one responsible for choosing the topics to be covered and often the author, under various pseudonyms, of articles and columns.

PROFESSIONAL RADIO CONSTRUCTIONS

Magneti Marelli’s activities in the field of radio, television and electrical devices for domestic use entered the home of various generations, under the Radiomarelli brand. However, along with activities aimed at the public at large Magneti Marelli also worked extensively in the field of professional projects and of national and international infrastructures.

In order to support the heavy experimenting activity, starting from the 1930s Magneti Marelli set up many research laboratories, including the radio applications chemical laboratory, the measuring instruments laboratory, the sound diffusion laboratory, the ultra-short waves laboratory, the radio transmitter projects laboratory, and the radio scientific laboratory.

Since way back in the 1930s, Magneti Marelli started to apply studies conducted on land radio transmitters to aeronautics, designing and building large transmitters and radio bridges needed for communications on the entire domestic territory. The high technological level of Magneti Marelli systems encouraged work-orders from abroad as well, from countries such as Romania, Portugal (Lisbon), and Ethiopia (Addis Abeba).

To facilitate transmissions, the antennas built by Magneti Marelli for telegraph, telephone and television radio bridges were installed on mountain tops along the entire Italian Peninsula, as well as on the roofs of city buildings: this was the case of the Littoria Tower, today known as Branca Tower, in Milan’s Sempione Park, or the roof of the Magneti Marelli plant in Sesto San Giovanni.

The Italian state television network RAI also turned to Magneti Marelli for its infrastructures, transmitters, receivers and signal amplifiers, the radio signal first and then the television one, as well as for radio television shooting equipment such as television cameras, microphones and direction consoles.

Again in the area of telecommunications, way back in the 1950s Magneti Marelli started to develop the forerunners of today’s mobile phones, in other words portable systems that allowed telephone communications between fixed and mobile workstations.

In 1947, Magneti Marelli participated in the incorporation of the company Telemar, which grouped together free Italian ship owners for the exercise of radiotelegraphic and radiotelephonic transmissions at sea. In 1957, Telemar owned a fleet of 437 ships, with each ship featuring radio and radar equipment made by Magneti Marelli.

Closed-circuit television

At the end of the 1950s, years in which the television was still moderately popular in Italy, Magneti Marelli was already looking at the future of the medium, in order to leverage the advantages of remote viewing, and precisely by television. An absolutely innovative area for the time was remote surveillance, or video-surveillance. In the home, in the industry, in schools, in airports, in banks, in hospitals, in transports, the electronic eye was increasingly used for important applications.

Large and complex areas to control, such as airports and subways, could take advantage of the effective solution provided by Magneti Marelli video-surveillance systems: this is the case of the Rome Fiumicino or Linate airports, as well as of the Milan subway, which availed themselves of sophisticated closed-circuit systems. Line 1 of the Milan subway, inaugurated in November of 1964, relied on 125 video cameras, 76 monitors, and 26 video switchboards. Line 2, inaugurated in 1969, added another 54 video cameras, 28 monitors, 10 audio/video switchboards, 40 microphones and 700 loudspeakers.

In the 1970s, traffic control of Mount Blanc’s Tunnel was entrusted to a closed-circuit television system designed and built by Magneti Marelli. The system, chosen from among 14 projects submitted by prestigious international companies, consisted of 39 special video cameras for special visibility conditions of the tunnel, mobile video cameras, transmitters, and control desk.

Magneti Marelli also manufactured remote surveillance systems for the safety of level crossings, and closed-circuit systems to check the behaviour of cars and drivers on racing circuits, such as Ferrari’s Fiorano racetrack in Maranello.

Thanks to the experience and technical ability acquired in the area of closed-circuit televisions, Magneti Marelli was also called to supply its systems in especially qualifying sectors, such as the aerospace, medical and scientific one. In 1971, Magneti Marelli designed and set up a sophisticated closed-circuit system for the scientific activities of the gynaecological clinic of the University of Padua.

For the National Aerospace Research Institute, on the other hand, between 1963 and 1964 Magneti Marelli designed a special closed-circuit television system for the remote observation of the launch phases in orbit of the Italian artificial satellite of the “San Marco project”.

CERN

But the projects that top management was most proud of included the execution, in 1959, of the accelerator units for the first particle accelerator in the world, the famous proton synchrotron at the CERN in Geneva.

Sound diffusion systems

In the professional field, Magneti Marelli manufactures not only video systems but also sound diffusion systems aimed at settings of special value or utility, for the transmission of voice, music and information. For example, Magneti Marelli is responsible for the video and audio diffusion system implemented by Hotel Cavalieri Hilton in Rome in the 1960s, for the sound diffusion system installed in the 1950s in the halls of the Palace of European Council, in Strasbourg, in the Italian Parliamentary halls and in the main railway stations throughout Italy.

Didactics

The activity carried out by Magneti Marelli for the application of televisions to the teaching area, in order to bring the television into the classroom for the purpose of supplementing the educational services offered in the different types of schools, was particularly interesting. Starting in the 1960s, Magneti Marelli began producing audiovisual equipment that could be used to extend the educational experience beyond the limits of time and space set by the duration of a lesson and by the walls of a classroom. Depending on the needs, the systems consisted of shooting equipment and tele-cinema, for showing videos, tele-microscopes used to display images from the microscope to the television screen, and various types of audio-video consoles, sound diffusion and recording systems. They were used in schools as well as in special training institutes, such as, for example, the system installed in the “Ferdinando di Savoia” Police Academy in Roma.

MOTORSPORT 1950 > 1970

The first Formula 1 World Championship was organized in 1950. The first Grand Prix was held on the English racetrack of Silverstone, and that year’s Championship was won by Nino Farina driving an Alfa Romeo, of course equipped with Magneti Marelli components.

At the end of the 1960s, Magneti Marelli was a leader in the study and applications of the budding electronics in the world of competitions. The first electronic ignition with capacitive discharge, called Dinoplex, was created. In the 1970s and 1980s, Magneti Marelli developed the control electronics for the first Weber-Marelli injection systems used in Formula 1 by Ferrari engines. Particularly significant was the Ferrari-Magneti Marelli partnership, which started way back in the 1930s with the Alfa Romeos of the Ferrari stable, and which continued without interruptions with the start of activities by the Prancing Horse carmaker.

Magneti Marelli’s fame in Formula1 continued to expand.

Through the years, the company’s experience was enriched by many collaborations and supply relationships, in addition to Ferrari: Renault, Ford-Cosworth-Hart, Matra, BRM, Lotus, Ligier, Osella, Toleman, Spirit, and others still.

Negli anni si arricchisce con numerose collaborazioni e forniture: oltre a Ferrari vi sono Renault, Ford-Cosworth-Hart, Matra, BRM, Lotus, Ligier, Osella, Toleman, Spirit, e altre.

DINOPLEX: MAGNETI MARELLI’S FIRST ELECTRONIC CONTROL UNIT 

In 1968, Magneti Marelli produced its first electronic ignition, the Magneti Marelli Dinoplex.

This device was absolutely on the cutting edge for the time, and antedated the advent of electronics in engine management and control systems.

The name derived from the car for which the ignition was designed: the Ferrari Dino, the first rear-engined road Ferrari, inspired by the last sports engine designed by Dino Ferrari, son of “Drake” Enzo, who died prematurely in 1956. A less powerful version of the same engine was also fitted on the Fiat Dino, which bears the same name, and on another “legendary” car, the Lancia Stratos.

One peculiar note: the Dinoplex electronic ignition was so innovative and futuristic for the time that the engineers who designed it took precautions against breakdowns due to unknown causes by adding a bypass switch: in case of malfunction, one had to simply open the bonnet, deactivate the control unit and continue driving, with lower performances perhaps, but warding off the danger of being left stranded.

THE TELEVISION

In 1939, almost twenty years before the official birth of television in Italy, Magneti Marelli had already produced experimental television sets with which to carry out the very first experiments on television broadcasts.

From the Park Tower of Milan, today known as Branca Tower, the first experimental television signals were broadcasted, intended for the three Magneti Marelli televisions in existence in Italy, featuring a cathode tube of such length that it had to be placed in a vertical position: the images were reflected in a mirror that allowed frontal vision. This television set is now on display at the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology of Milan.

With the start of the war, all developments of this new and extremely powerful means of communication were stopped. In Italy, the first official television broadcast began after World War II, in the mid-1950s. Magneti Marelli, which contributed significantly to the development of this technology, started its own mass production of Radiomarelli television sets: the first ones featured wooden cabinets, were large and cumbersome, intended for the family. In the 1960 the portable versions were introduced, smaller in size and in coloured plastic as dictated by the fashion of the time, often advertised through commercials featuring beautiful girls having fun. The newly founded RAI, Italy’s state radio and television, turned to Magneti Marelli for the construction of its infrastructures, transmitters, receivers and signal amplifiers, for radio signals first and later for television signals, as well as for radio television shooting equipment such as television cameras, microphones and direction consoles.

The launch of RAI’s second television channel, specifically to broadcast the 1960 Olympics in Rome, took place through the activation of Magneti Marelli transmitters and infrastructures.

SUBMARINES: TOTI AND SAURO

The submarines of the Italian Military Navy were also equipped with Magneti Marelli equipment.

The Enrico Toti, launched in 1967 was the first submarine to be built in post-war Italy.

The Peace Treaty after World War II prohibited Italy, which came out of the war as a defeated country, from building submarines. Once the clause expired, the Toti class was the first one to be produced, taking its name from the first model of the series, the Toti, which was followed by the twin submarines Dandolo, Mocenigo, and Bagnolini.

The Toti class stayed in active service for almost thirty years, until the end of the 1990s. Onboard the Toti Submarine, which is now on display at the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, the entire intercom communication system was built by Magneti Marelli.

On the Nazario Sauro Submarine, built after the Toti and currently docked and on display at the Sea Museum in Genoa, the large and powerful batteries that produce the energy needed by the engine, which on submarines is the electric type to allow operation underwater, were made by Magneti Marelli, just like the intercom system.

1983: the Digiplex electronic ignition started to be mass produced, the industrialization process began for the Cityplex systems, used to automatically turn the engine off and back on with the vehicle stopped, and for the Cut-off systems, which cut off fuel supply upon release of the accelerator, solutions which already aimed at fuel savings and at limiting polluting emissions.

1984: the Magneti Marelli headquarters was transferred from Sesto San Giovanni to Cinisello Balsamo (MI).

1987: Magneti Marelli was reorganized as an industrial holding, with leading and well-known European brands such as Weber, Veglia Borletti, Carello, Siem, Solex and Jaeger became part of the company.

1991: the Magneti Marelli headquarters was transferred to its current location in Corbetta, Milan, which was previously the head office of Veglia Borletti.

1994: merger between Magneti Marelli and Gilardini, originating the Magneti Marelli maxi hub in the field of automotive components.

1996: Magneti Marelli started its operations in China with the Guangzhou plant, strengthening its presence through the years with additional production facilities in Shanghai and Wuhu.

2000: after having started to operate in the area of satellite navigation in 1998, the first Magneti Marelli satellite navigation system was installed on a mass-produced car (the Alfa Romeo 147).

Between 2000 and 2001, the refocusing of industrial activities led to the delisting from the stock markets and to the decision by the Fiat Group to sell certain business branches, such as electronic systems, aftermarket and air-conditioning.

2001: in the field of motor vehicle lighting, Magneti Marelli took full control of Automotive Lighting, a joint venture with Bosch started in 1999.

2003: Magneti Marelli launched in Brazil the multi-fuel technology called Flexfuel SFS®, which allows internal combustion engines to run on both ethanol and petrol or on any combination of the two.

2005: with the installation of Sergio Marchionne in 2004 at the helm of the Fiat Group, the automotive components business regained strategic importance, and with the new management team a new season started for Magneti Marelli: the industrial perimeter was rebuilt by reintegrating the Electronic Systems and After Market areas.

2007: Automotive Lighting built the first full-LED headlight in the world intended for mass production (to be fitted on the Audi R8).

MOTORSPORT 1980 > 2000

Between the 1980s and the year 2000, all the top Formula 1 teams relied on Magneti Marelli for the electronic and electromechanical systems fitted onboard their cars, as well as for the technology of their electronic and communication infrastructures, for which Magneti Marelli is a leader in terms of testing and know-how. This is the case, for example, of the introduction of telemetry in race management or in the development of the complex steering wheels found on single-seaters, but also of equipment that appears to be of secondary importance but is in fact crucial for the management and coordination of teams and drivers, such as the communication equipment in the pits or between the pits and the car on the racetrack, or the “beverage system”, which allows drivers to replenish fluids and salts during the race.

Magneti Marelli’s commitment to motorsports also made history in the world of rallies, for example with the legendary Fiat 131, Lancia Stratos, 037 and the mythical Lancia Delta Integrale. Not to mention the spectacular Motocross and Motor-boating competitions, in which Magneti Marelli’s specialized components and technical assistance has provided crucial technologies, solutions and support to the teams.

Moreover, at the end of the 1980s Magneti Marelli incorporated the competitive experience and know-how of Carello and Weber, two companies historically engaged in competitions with winning results, the first one in the lighting sector, and the second one in the area of engine supply.

The top 5 innovations introduced by Magneti Marelli Motorsport in the world of modern motorsports can be summed up as follows: semiautomatic transmission with steering wheel controls in 1989, intelligent steering wheel in 1994, engine and vehicle control system with distributed architecture and miniature components (Step 10) in 2000, real-time advanced telemetry (DST Data Stream Telemetry) in 2001, and KERS for the recovery of kinetic energy in 2008.

Today, Magneti Marelli supplies hi-tech injectors to all Formula 1 teams and the electronic control unit for all FIA GT cars. It also supplies engine control and data acquisition systems, telemetry systems, electro-hydraulic systems for the automation and control of sports gearboxes, and dashboard-displays in practically all two- and four-wheel competitions: Formula 1, MotoGP, WRC, Superbike, Le Mans Series, FIA GT1, WTCC, and so on. In 2009, Magneti Marelli was a pioneer in the supply of KERS, the system for the recovery of kinetic energy, to the Formula 1.

During competitions, operating conditions are pushed to the utmost limit, and the agonistic commitment is dominated by the unexpected and sometimes even by the irrational: Magneti Marelli has always been able to use the races as a test bench for its products. The strict testing of the competitions that has accompanied Magneti Marelli throughout its history allows it to rightfully claim: “from the races comes our experience”.

THE COMPANY REORGANIZATION: THE HISTORICAL BRANDS THAT BECAME PART OF THE MAGNETI MARELLI GROUP

Between 1986 and 1987, Magneti Marelli implemented an  important internal reorganization that resulted in its conversion into an industrial holding , incorporating leading and prestigious industries in the automotive area at the international level, such as Weber and Solex in the area of engine control and  fuel supply, Veglia Borletti and Jaeger in the area of instrument panels and electronic systems,  and Carello and Siem in the lighting field, historical brands that sink their roots into the Italian and European industrial tradition all the way back to the 1800s.

The various industrial technological specializations and the diverse experiences come together to make up an incredible industrial heritage, one that has allowed Magneti Marelli to gain exceptionally rich technological skills and know-how.

CITYPLEX E CUT-OFF

In the 1980s, electronics also began to spread heavily on mass production vehicles, such as, for example, the Digiplex electronic ignition. The advantages offered by the new ignition systems included reliability, extremely low maintenance, and the possibility to work on engine management and control parameters that would otherwise be inaccessible. The 1980s also marked the industrialization of the Cityplex, the electronic device that automatically turns off and on the engine while the vehicle is stopped, and of the Cut-off, a function that cuts off fuel supply while the accelerator is being released. Both solutions antedated the modern systems adopted by most carmakers which aim at saving fuel and limiting polluting emissions.