Carlo Facetti

In his single attempt at Formula One he failed to qualify for the 1974 Italian Grand Prix with a Brabham BT42 run by the Scuderia Finotto team.

He learned to drive at the age of 11, with Alberto Ascari, a friend of his father, Piero Facetti, who in turn was a mechanic and a racer, who finished 4th in the 1947 Mille Miglia.

Despite everything, he was very fast though he had a great company: Facetti remembers at Monza he was "able to score some good times compared to those of experienced pilots such as Ludovico Scarfiotti, Lorenzo Bandini and Giancarlo Baghetti".

He used a Lancia Flaminia to fight with the best from around Europe, at the circuits such as Nürburgring, Brands Hatch and Népliget Park, Budapest.

There I had the pleasure of meeting the great Juan Manuel Fangio and later become good friends and we were often in competition in Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata."

After returning from South America, he runs a Formula Three teams with Jo Siffert and Clay Regazzoni, then participates himself in 1965.

By the end of the season, Autodelta had finished fourth in the overall standing, but Facetti collaboration with Alfa Romeo was over, after winning the Italian title.

[He] retired because [he] was too stressed keeping the engine level with the much more powerful Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 prototype of Jean-Claude Andruet".

The Stratos was not up to the challenge and following the death of Parkes in August 1977, the collaboration between Facetti and Lancia ended, along with the Silhouette program.

[2][9] For the following season, Facetti successfully returned to the ETCC with a new partner, Martino Finotto, and a new car, BMW 3.0 CSL, while participating in the selection of World Championship Group 5 races, in a Porsche 935.

Despite having to drive their Jolly Club entered Porsche 935 very carefully and with low boost from the start, they did finish second, as well winning their class.

This after their BMW had survived an engine rebuild following qualifying, helping Facetti move clear in the championship, with Finotto being his nearest rival!

After a number non-finishes, the pairing took third place at Jarama in Spain, and lost the lead in the title race to Dieter Quester.

Fresh from their second place in England, Facetti/Finotto were only challenged by their tyres in the four hours event at Monza, eventually winning by seven laps.

[19][21][22] After taking pole position for the 1979 6 Ore di Mugello in the 935, Facetti lead the race until a collision and he wound up in third at the end.

After quick repairs, Facetti set off desperately to regain ground loss to the rival Luigi BMW.

[29][30][31][32] When the ETCC visited Enna, once again it was a BMW festival, with a podium clean sweep, and after a spin by Finotto, the order was decided with the Jolly Club car in second.

As Group 5 was a Silhouette formula, Facetti know he could change a lot of things provided the car looked like the standard road version.

[36] The standard 308 GTB was not in the same league as a 935, so Facetti designed his own cylinder heads and added two tugrochargers, and ended up with 700 bhp.

[36] Facetti and Finotto also entered themselves as driver in their Lancia Beta Turbo, as they intended to race both cars over the 24 hours.

While at Monza, Facetti put the Carma FF on pole, only for the fuel pump pack up on the warm-up lap and they were out.

[36] For 1982, Facetti and Finotto decided against returning with the Carma and its twin-turbo 308 experiment, instead opting for more conventional Osella-BMW PA9, but equally unsuccessful as they failed to finish a race in the car that season.

[38] The Alba AR6 continued to use Facetti's engine for the 1985 season, the team lost reliability with it, trying to keep up with pace-setter Gordon Spice, Finotto turned his attention to the IMSA Camel Lights category in America for 1986.

Finotto and Facetti, who prepared the overhead camshaft Ferrari engines, joined forces with Gaston Andrey Racing and enrolled fellow Italian, Ruggero Melgrati, who proved to be pace-setter in the Lights division.

The team rarely enjoyed reliability to match, but Melgrati and Facetti shared success at Grand Prix of Palm Beach and Löwenbräu Classic.

He then retire full-time from International motor sport, albeit bar a one-off outing in a Ferrari F355, where he finished fourth in a round of the Coppa GT Special at Mugello in 1995.

Facetti on Alpina BMW CLS at Zandvoort in 1979
Ferrari 308 Carma FF by Facetti