Unforgettable Car Geniuses: Giuseppe Busso

It’s rare for an engineer’s name to become the identity of the engine he created. Among the few exceptions — like Fuhrmann and Mezger of Porsche — is the Italian Giuseppe Busso. Still today, Alfa Romeos fitted with his V6, first built in 1979, are known as models with the “Busso V6”. Even though the engine’s most famous success was Alfa Romeo’s dominance in the highly competitive German DTM touring car championship — a serious slap in the face to Germany’s own automakers, long-standing protagonists of the series — the engine had an incredibly long life and was used in many vehicles, not only from Alfa Romeo but also Lancia and Fiat.

Busso, however, didn’t begin his career with this engine, nor even with Alfa Romeo, despite his deep affection for the brand. He started his professional path at Fiat in 1937 at age 24, but in 1939 he left Turin for Milan, drawn to Alfa Romeo, which was tied to the world of racing he loved. There, he met Enzo Ferrari and worked with a talented engineer, Orazio Satta Puliga. The world was on the brink of war, and Ferrari left Alfa to start dreaming of his own cars — even though, due to the times, he was forced to produce machine tools useful for war material production. Busso worked on Alfa’s aviation engines, specializing in the application of compressors and turbines.