An exhibition entitled “Modena Thunder” opened at the Museo della Figurina in the city’s Corso Canalgrande in mid-May. It spotlights the geographically small town of Modena and its surrounding areas, which are the heart of Italian motor racing and exotic road cars built by the likes of Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. The exhibition includes many priceless photographs that date back to the first glimmerings of motorized competition in the area in 1909 to the present day.
The event is part of the “Modena, Land of Engines” initiative that began three years ago to document the evolution of motor sport in the city and its surrounds.
Many of the photographs on show are priceless, because they are totally unique. They have been loaned by the 111-year-old Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport of Milan, many of whose photographs in the display are not available from any other source.
This first exhibition of its kind features Modena’s pioneers of speed and includes pictures of Ferrari’s first victory in the 1947 Grand Prix of Rome by Franco Cortese, Juan Manuel Fangio’s 1957 Formula One World Championship in a Maserati 250F and even Giulio Cabianca’s fatal accident in which his Cooper-Ferrari flew off the track in the 1961 Circuit of Modena and killed the driver plus three people.
A section of the exhibition is devoted to the work of Ferruccio Testi, a Gazzetta correspondent and photographer, who was a close friend of Enzo Ferrari, the Maserati brothers and the Orsi family, who bought the brothers’ business. Testi’s pictures cover the lives of Tazio Nuvolari, Alberto Ascari, Eugenio Castellotti and Vittorio Stanguellini. The photographs also focus on more recent stars of the local exotic motoring scene, Lamborghini, De Tomaso and Pagani.
The exhibition is open until July 22.
By Robert Newman
