[1][2] Cagno was apprenticed at 'Storero' in Turin, a builder of carriages, omnibuses and bicycles, that had started to build Phoenix motorised tricycles under license to the German Daimler company (Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft).

The staff included Cagno, Vincenzo Lancia and Felice Nazzaro, and they raced in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia and the USA.

[7] Driving the 120 hp Itala he completed the 3 laps of the Grande Circuit of the Targa Florio, covering the 446 kilometres (277 mi) in 9 hours 32 minutes 22 seconds, an average speed of 46.8 km/h.

[11] Cagno drove the Itala to fifth position at the 1907 Kaiser Preis, completing the two laps in 3 hours 07 minutes 26 seconds.

[1] At the 1907 Coppa della Velocita he completed the 486 kilometres (302 mi) in 4 hours 37 minutes 26.6 seconds, an average speed of 65.2 mph (104.8 km/h).

The car subsequently raced in the US and lapped Brooklands at over 100 mph and is now in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, England.

In the Vanderbilt Cup on Long Island he finished 7th with the Itala, 1 lap behind Louis Wagner in the winning Darracq.

[6][7] He made an unsuccessful return to racing at the 1914 French Grand Prix where he completed 10 laps before his Fiat retired after damaging a valve.

[6][7] Cagno returned to racing again in the 1920s when he won the 1923 Italian Grand Prix for voiturettes and the Leningrad-Moscow-Tbilisi event in a Fiat.

[3][6][13] By 1909 Cagno had lost interest in racing and turned to aviation, gaining his pilot's licence and becoming the instructor at Cameri about 90 km northeast of Turin.

[6][13] In Venice on 19 February 1911, Cagno made six flights in his 50 hp Farman III from the beach at the Lido di Venezia despite the fog.

[14][15] After volunteering for the Italo-Turkish War in Libya in 1911, he built the first Italian bomber (or "added a grenade launcher"[6][13](or a crude aiming device consisting of an angled surface or tube)).