Autocar UK – 28 August 2019

28 AUGUST 2019 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 61

LORIS BICOCCHI INTERVIEW

ots of automotive

engineers have worked

for more than one

brand, but few have a

CV boasting as many

highlights as Loris Bicocchi’s. The

Italian has worked for Lamborghini,

Pagani, Koenigsegg, KTM and

Da l l a r a. But it i s h i s c on ne c t ion t o

two different eras at Bugatti that led

t o t he c h a nc e t o t a l k a b out h i s c a r e e r.

When modern-era Bugatti showed

us the EB110-inspired Centodieci,

it effectively crossed the streams;

the original car was produced when

Bu gat t i b e lon ge d t o R om a no A r t iol i ,

that firm going bankrupt in 1995.

Bic o c c h i w ork e d on t h at pr oje c t a s

chief test driver and also performed

the same role for the Volkswagen-era

Ve y ron a nd Ch i ron.

While showing journalists around

the abandoned EB110 factory at

Campogalliano, Bicocchi admits his

emotions from that era are still raw.

“I ne v e r c le a r e d my de sk ,” he s ay s

as we stand in the echoing emptiness

of the R&D department. “I didn’t

w a nt t o – I k ne w t h at w ou ld me a n it

was really over.”

Bicocchi started out with

Lamborghini, both he and the brand

sharing the hometown of Sant’Agata

Bolognese. “I was never interested in

fo ot ba l l , ju s t c a r s ,” he s ay s. “I u s e d t o

stand in front of the company gates

w a it i n g for c a r s t o c ome out. My

mother was worried because of the

trucks – I was just 10 years old – but

one day Bob Wallace, who was the

t e s t d r i v e r at t he t i me , c a me out i n

a n I sle r o S. He s aw me w a it i n g, t he n

wound down his window and revved

the engine for me. That was the day

my career started.”

He worked initially in

Lamborghini’s warehouse, then

dropped out of college when an

e nt r y-le v e l R & D r ole c a me up i n 1974.

Bicocchi came up through the ranks

to become test driver, working on the

Countach and the Diablo. But when

former Lamborghini R&D boss Paolo

St a n z a n i s t a r t e d w it h Bu gat t i , he w a s

quick to offer his former protégé a job.

“I could not say no to something

l i k e t h i s ,” Bic o c c h i r e me mb e r s. “A c a r

with four turbochargers and four-

wheel drive – I have always wanted

new experiences.”

Bugatti became his life for six

years, Bicocchi working 60-hour

L

Bicocchi was the

EB110 and Chiron

chief test driver

`

The secret is not

to give the car

your personality

a

BUGATTI EB110

“I still think of it as my baby –

I was 100% involved in that

car from the beginning to the

end. I learned so much from

that car, and I still think it is

remarkable.”

PAGAN I ZON DA

“From Horacio Pagani

I learned to pay attention

to every detail. That is how

he is: every screw has its own

life – it can even become

a piece of art.”

KTM X-BOW

“I learned a huge amount

with the Dallara team. There

was not much power but

the chassis was so stiff,

you could feel even the

smallest change.”

BUGATTI CHIRON

“There is so much technology

but the devices have to help

without changing the driving

experience. Every car

m u st fe e l n a tu ra l , eve n

with 1500 horsepower.”

DALLARA STRADALE

“It was an honour to work on

such a personal project for

Dallara. I put all my experience

i nto th a t c a r a n d i t i s s o p u r e

• passive dampers, nothing

electronic, no servo even.”

LORIS BICOCCHI’S PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS

weeks and driving tens of thousands

of k i lome t r e s. He a d m it s t h at t he

company’s collapse in 1995 was

devastating: “I could see all my life

here – I was like a prince inside the

company. But then, poof, it was gone.”

After the collapse, Bicocchi

continued to work with the EB110

through the company that acquired

the stock of parts, later with Jochen

Dauer who put what would now be

termed a continuation version into

limited production. Dauer also used

Bicocchi’s skills for his road-going

version of the Porsche 962, which led

to a gig helping look after the Sultan

of Brunei’s enormous car collection:

specifically his Dauer 962s, EB110s

and 37 Lamborghinis.

T he n Bic o c c h i r e c e i v e d a

life-changing call from a former

Lamborghini colleague, Horacio

Pagani. “We were close friends and he

s a id he w a nt e d t o m a k e h i s ow n c a r.”

Bic o c c h i joi ne d Pa ga n i a nd

mechanic Remo Pizzinardi to form

the tiny team behind the first Zonda.

This led to a similar assignment with

Koenigsegg after seeing the CC8S

prototype at the Paris show in 2000:

“I moved to Sweden. There were five

or six mechanics, two engineers,

Christian [von Koenigsegg] and

me. Again it felt like starting

from scratch.”

Bic o c c h i’s sk i l l s w it h u lt r a-

powerful hypercars had been noticed,

with VW-era Bugatti calling him in

to work on the Veyron. At his own

insistence, he remained freelance.

This led to the situation of Bugatti’s

then-president Wolfgang Schreiber

and von Koenigsegg both jokingly

introducing Bicocchi to each other as

‘ou r t e s t d r i v e r ’. “ T he n t he y t u r ne d

to me and said: ‘Loris, who do you

belong to?’” he recalls.

“Of course, when both were doing

the high-speed testing, I was always

sitting in between – I knew what the

other was intending to do but I never

said. You have to close one door and

then open the next.”

Bicocchi admits that his

knowledge did play into ensuring the

c a r s he w ork e d on h a d c omple t e l y

d i s t i nc t c h a r a c t e r s. “ T he s e c r e t of a

t e s t d r i v e r i s not t o t r y t o c h a n ge t he

identity of a car,” he says. “You have

to make it the best it can be, to make

it s a fe a nd t o m a k e it e xc it i n g – not t o

give it your personality. A Koenigsegg

should never be like a Pagani, a

Pagani cannot be a Koenigsegg.”

Other projects included the KTM

X-Bow and Dallara Stradale, plus

s ome r e c e nt c on s u lt a nc y on t he

Zenvo TSR-S and its aero-vectoring

rear wing. One might-have-been

was working with Lotus under

Dany Bahar, having been brought in

during the development of what were

meant to be a family of new models.

That didn’t work out, but almost

everything else has.

“I w on’t do pr oje c t s t h at don’t

appeal to me. I always think: can I

help and is it interesting?” Bicocchi

says, admitting that he recently

t u r ne d dow n t he c h a nc e t o w ork on a

future high-performance EV. “With

hybrids, you can use electrification to

make the car more dynamic,” he says,

“but I am not a fan of pure electric

cars. Maybe I am too old.”

Not that Bicocchi has any plans

t o r e t i r e at t he a ge of 61. Ple nt y of

people still want his expertise – he is

currently working with Lamborghini

again, but won’t say on what – and

also runs a course for aspiring test

drivers. He still has a bigger ambition

a s w e l l: “I ’d lov e t o do my ow n c a r. It

i s mor e t h a n a d r e a m; I a m w ork i n g

on it. I hope it will happen.” L