Lingotto: The Last Surviving 1920s Factory Rooftop Racetrack (Yes, There Were Others)
In 1923, the city of Turin unveiled a huge new car factory, with one very special feature: it had a high-speed circuit on the roof, complete with banked curves, and two 500m-long straights. But why would you put a racetrack on the roof of a factory? I travelled to northern Italy to see it for myself...
MORE INFO
Official page on the Pinacoteca Agnelli website - www.pinacoteca-agnelli.it/en/...
"Lingotto: Myths, Mechanisation and Automobiles" by John Cook - www.academia.edu/14362388/Lin...
INSTA - / the.tim.traveller
TWIT - / thetimtraveller
FACE - / thetimtraveller
IMAGE CREDITS
Historic Lingotto images by Carlo Maggio used under license from Alamy
Except for this one, by Dgtmedia - Simone - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Giacomo Matté-Trucco - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Fiat's original factory on Corso Dante - fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichi...
1920s theatre by charmainezoe - www.flickr.com/photos/charmai...
Aerial photo of Fiat Mirafiori factory - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
They really should have some bicycles on the rooftop tho! That would be so fun
just thinking that myself, it would make a brilliant velodrome.
That would be a sick velodrome
folding bikes, scooters, segways, … anything with 1-2 wheels not needing a combustion engine, really. In line with the times and future.
It would make a great Stunt Jump location in GTA Turin.
@@CoenFierst Make it like the Nordschleife, pay a fee to drive and only overtake from the left
Don't think we missed your cheeky low level shots of you walking by the "TIM Retail" signs. 😊
For anyone who did miss it you will find this at 07:52
@@pras12100 TY!
I came here to comment this but knew someone would have beaten me to it!
@@pras12100 Ahh, you missed the one at 1:20
@@pras12100 Also at 1:19
The Tim Traveling Jukebox for this ep. 0:10 Jessica by the Allman Brothers Band (BBC Top Gear used the track as its theme tune) 1:46 Left Bank Two by The Noveltones (BBC Vision On Theme) 2:11 The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. (BBC used it at the theme tune for its F1 coverage) 3:32 Cars by Gary Numan 5:00 Movin On Up by M-People 5:45 You Raise Me Up by Secret Garden (also covered by Josh Groban and Westlife) 6:00 Dont Stand So Close to Me by The Police 6:20 Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys 7:14 It's Caper Time (Self Preservation Society) by Quincy Jones (main theme to the Italian Job which featured the building in its car chase) 8:04 Movin On Up by M-People (again) 8:22 The Carnival by Gordon Giltrap (ITV Wish You Were Here theme) I think thats everything
What's the tune at 6:37? That's not still Good Vibrations AFAICT.
@@cpcallen I recognize it but can't put my finger on it, I think its something that a BBC show, 5th gear or something uses in between segments.
Tim missed an opportunity to rewrite the lyrics for The Flower Pot Men again though 😂😭
Tim also used “The Chain” in his visit to the old F1 track at Reims.
@@CussCuss16 It's the Location, Location, Location (Channel 4 property show) theme.
3:17 - The whole clock spins! Awesome!
I checked the website, the bouys movements are realtime repetitions of another bouys movements, which might be interesting to other technical nerds
@@MrHack4never Ok that's really cool too. Kinetic art in the factory that made motors, gears, and mobile machines.. I love it so much
Yeah weird, so that the time is always pointing up?
It would make a cool wall clock in my house
@@althejazzman lol no. So they can record laptimes. Each rotation is one minute. each tick is one second.
The Jessica cover is just perfect for a racetrack video!
And the song at about 3:30 is Cars by Gary Numan, a very fun idea!
2:12 Fleetwood Mac: The Chain. Used as intro to BBC's _Formula_ _One_ TV show 1978-1996 and 2009-2015, and therefore much associated with racing in the UK. The video game "Formula One Grand Prix" (1992) copied it for its intro but changed the notes just enough to avoid licensing issues ...
@@FindecanorNotGmail and not to forget "Movin' all up" starting around 05:00
I WONDER, IS THAT TIM'S ARRANGEMENT FOR JESSICA?
@@mhoop1 I believe he plays all, or at least most, of the music in his videos.
okay, 'you raise me up' playing when you talk about the lifts is genius
"It's floors were it's flaws... well, you know what I mean", is a peak Tim Traveller line.
I saw that "of course, we're not here to see any of that" coming, but it was still extremely satisfying! In my opinion, it's the most epic one you have ever done!
I have to say your music choices on this video have been great. Top gear and the chain, perfect for the topic.
Italian Job theme too
Agreed! Who made the MIDI ones in the first couple minutes?
@@dogg0nit32- Tim does all his own music!
Also Cars, Gery Newman. , the "top gear music is " is Jesica by the Allman brothers band.
@@zorktxandnand3774 Gary Numan. Hate to correct but I saw Gary perform back in the late seventies, can't let it slide!
“Of course, we’re not here to see any of that” are some of my favorite words on the internet! Always followed by something completely unexpected and immensely interesting.
I rarely comment on videos, but I went to Turin 2 years ago, partly to experience parts of The Italian Job, after my siblings and I watched it so many times with my Dad when we were young and I agree, it is a truly beautiful place, and so many other things to do! Thank you Italy 🇮🇹 ❤️
8:00 Impressed to learn that the roof garden was apparently designed *by* 40,000 plants! They should feel at home then.
Haha I thought the same thing 😀
The rest of the English is no better. Then again, they couldn't even get the Italian right, where the 'Balilla' (a small Fiat from the 1930s) became 'Barilla'. Bah, humbug.
If it was a big wild garden, you could technically say that
Aha! The KZhead Research Paradox in practice!
@@TheTimTraveller It seems that your strategy of publishing a deliberately wrong information in order to get a comment with the truth has worked lol.
Your Easter egg songs are fun! Love the Top Gear intro.
And the chain as well, classic f1 intro!
Cars - Gary Numan 3:30
Don't forget _Good Vibrations_ when talking about the structural issues.
Aka Jessica by the Allman Brothers Band.
@@bewilderbeestie Nice catch
Even though it's not as high speed, I am glad that the new Hyundai Singapore factory that uses mostly robots to assemble Ioniq EV's in the city (35,000/car per year output using 110 workers) has a 6th floor test track keeping the tradition of these factories very much alive... There they allow users to watch their car being assembled and then you can take it for a test drive on the roof. Not a bad business model I hope more automakers revive... I'd love to see similar facilities in NYC, London, Los Angeles, etc. The re-regionalization of auto assembly using local labor and robots... Lots of robots!
Thanks for the update, I didn't know about that one, that's really cool! Just opened a few months ago apparently. I wonder how much a ticket to Singapore costs...
@@TheTimTravellersounds like a perfect material for a sequel video
Nothing like getting the opportunity to crash your new car before it was even delivered.
@@TheTimTraveller You should ask Noel Philips to do a collab with odd places to see in Singapore. He's currently doing it in Australia.
@@andreasu.3546 "This one seems to have crashed, I don't want to buy it anymore." lol
Love these wacky places you go to Tim in Europe 👏 🇪🇺
My mother actually got to drive a car around this circuit while holidaying in Italy in the 1970's.
Sorry, mate - your mum did no such thing; it was never open to the public, much less when it was still working as a factory.
-The 70s -Italian men working there. -@sirrliv's mom Oh, i bet his someone got a ride
@@dlevi67how do you know that? you have no idea who his mum was why she was there she could have been a test driver for all you know.
@@eddjordan2399 "while holidaying in Italy"
@@dlevi67 I mean, there's still theoretically a very narrow slice of posibilities where it's actually true (related to someone who was there for less holiday-related reasons that involved the factory, or the like)... but you're right that it certainly doesn't seem very likely.
My favourite Italian city, much underrated. I have been to the track several times ... and the gallery.
5:20 Edoardo Persico - was an Italian architecture and art critic, designer and essayist. In 1926 he moved to Turin, where he supported himself by working as a mechanic assembler for Fiat.
7:15 I was waiting for a tune that would sound like "Self Preservation Society"!
Was looking for an Italian Job reference!
@@chrisward63 There are two
Years ago i stayed in the hotel in the Lingotto building and then you could get to the roof circuit from the hotel. They advertised it as a running track. Of course we did a lap (walking, not running).
The hotel is still there, we stayed there in September 2023 as part of a Great Rail Journeys holiday.
Now THAT is what is called "Vertical Integration"
If you're still in Turin, Tim, I can recommend going to the cinema museum there. A truly incredible place in a magnificent building 😊😊🐢
Very cool to see Lingotto again, I stayed at the NH Hotel in 2016 and the first thing we did was visit the Angnelli museum and track, walked the entire circuit, and saw helicopters landing on the helipad used for Fiat execs. The enter factory is a fantastic architectural conversion by Renzo Piano and is worth a visit just to see this famous building.
This has got to be one of my favourite videos from you Tim. The piano cover of The Chain, hilarious puns, flying-crashing-cars animation, and ability with languages and pronunciation is just amazing. Another thing to add to my motorsport bucket list (along with the Reims-Goeux circuit).
I'm pleased the lads from The Italian Job got a mention - If you're from the UK, this is likely the only reason you know of Turino at all.
Hardly : it is very well known as an automotive design and manufacturing centre , not just for FIAT .
Also, the Olympic Winter Games were held there in 2006. Granted, they're not as big as the summer event, but I suspect a fair few people noticed that, all the same.
How daring of you to walk trough the red light! Loved to video. :)
Just a test track for fiat that was used in the Italian job (1969)
Italian job: Hence the music at 7:14
Torino is a beautiful city, the city centre is very nice and relatively well kept. It was the first capital of Italy after unification and was the capital of the Savoy dominions for centuries, so lots of art and history is there. And then food. Being the capital of my region (Piemonte) I can tell you can eat very well and with more reasonable prices than Milano (my adoptive city later on). Go on with exploring mate, enjoying your channel so much! Cheers!
Sounds very nice. You'd think they would hold a winter Olympics there sometime.🙄🤭😁✌️
@@evryhndlestakn the Olympics were instrumental in making the city the small jewel it is now. The hardware was there (art and history and architecture) but almost non existent promotion and maintenance (heritage of an industrial past and culture)
@@Teo95sero of course as soon as I saw you had written Torino I immediately flashed to when the city hosted the winter Olympics & was only being cheeky. What year was it they hosted & have they hosted it more than once?
@@evryhndlestakn it was 2006, never hosted any other huge event like that ever since.
@@Teo95sero I think nowadays big events like that risk bankrupting all but the largest cities. Nice to have such a historically significant & attractive city in your life. All the best😁✌️
A flawless presentation of too many floors. And I didn’t know that’s why FIAT got its name.
That all capitals name is a pretty serious hint at an acronym, from there it is a pretty easy search.
@@apveening it is pretty well known , not just among car enthusiasts
@@derekheeps1244 We both know that.
They did once have a competitor called FART. Can't imagine why that never caught on........?
That Gary Numan cover was so smooth I almost didn't even notice it.
Haha, Gary Numan Cars well chosen music track. Great work, Tim!
To me, the factory building is a work of art. I love the fact that it’s coming up to 100 years old and still has a purpose and use to the community. Is the ultimate and recycling.
I’ve missed these brilliant films - we just wait for those features of “and of course we haven’t come to see any of that…”, the advice for disabled visitors and the piano covers. Superb editing, research, presentation and humour, all in all, fantastic! Keep up the great work.
love how when he was introducing the racetrack he used the old f1 intro, great and amazing detail
Secretly Tim went to the shopping center because of the Tim shop. The center just happened to have a race track on top
I remember seeing pictures of this during architecture studies in the '70s. Brilliant idea.
That's one of the most incredible mad-ladish pieces of engineering I've ever heard of.
5:44 You Raise Me Up 6:08 Don't Stand So Close To Me Two of the best and most subtle musical puns I've ever heard abd they're from someone I didn't expect to make musical puns! 😂👍
7:52 Certainly satisfying for Tim to see the sign for TIM Retail. Also let's appreciate the custom background music with various themes suiting the topic.
0:33 They made some rooftop circuits ontop of some of the factories in Detroit too*
You must have been there about the same time as me! I'm already missing the place. Fun fact. Even though there is a Fiat 500 cafe on the roof, the 500 was never made there...
I still cannot praise enough the musical choices Tim makes in his videos. I absolutely love "Cars"!
Fantastic video sir, noticed a shop called \
There was actually a fourth rooftop test track that perhaps you missed, because it doesn't seem to have lasted very long. This one was at the main plant of the Studebaker Corporation in South Bend, Indiana, USA. Not much information on it, but it appeared to be made of wood planks and was wide enough for the small, slow cars made in the early 20th Century. Studebaker later constructed the first automotive proving ground in 1926, not far from South Bend. While Studebaker itself is gone, the proving ground was sold to Bendix Corporation, then Bosch Automotive, and finally to Navistar, which is the successor to International Harvester's truck business and still uses the test track. The most striking thing about the facility was built in 1938, when Studebaker planted some 8,000 pine trees to spell out the company's name. The tree sign and the Studebaker Clubhouse (originally an office building for test engineers) are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Never thought that I would end up seeing one of your videos about my hometown, I’m so glad you liked it 🤩 love your work!
This is probably the highest value of any tourist attraction I’ve ever been to. €2 to go up and walk the circuit, with a great view of that area of the city is a steal! Theres a decent amount to do as a tourist in Torino, but I would put a trip to Lingotto as probably at the top of the list. I stayed in the hotel because I was in town for a business trip with no idea of the significance before I arrived. I was very glad I did.
Have there been any incidents of a car going off the side?
It's so nice to see that the quality of your videos remains as high as when I first discovered this channel years ago! The stories are fascinating, and the editing is the cherry on top 😄
Thanks, Tim and thanks to Pinacoteca Agnelli.
These types of places are why I love this channel so much! I doubt I would have ever found out this place exists were it not for seeing it here. It’s a place I’d absolutely love to visit - not a big tourist draw, but historically significant and utterly fascinating. Excellent video, as always!
Thanks Tim for bringing back "We're not here to see any of THAT!" This IS a great video. Informative and fun! Really enjoyed it.
In Belgium, there is still a similar track on the roof of the defunct Imperia car plant. That test track was built in 1928 and is 1km long. Currently the site is being reformed into housing but the track will be integrated into it.
Great video, I attended the Turin Auto Show in the Lingotto building almost exactly 30 years ago in April 1994.
Mate i have been missing your videos! glad to see you are back!
Genius as always. Love Numan's 'Cars 'being played over the car factory description.
Suitable backing music underneath each topic... loving it
Holy I live in Nessonvaux, Belgium. Never figured you'd mention this forgotten place, although if there was one YT channel where it could be mentioned it would be this one.
Jessica, The Chain, absolute great music as always
Glad to hear The Chain being used as part of the soundtrack
Fantastic video sir, noticed a shop called "Tim" early in the video, did you buy anything from it?
It's a mobile phone shop, so probably not.
Ahhh ok.
🎶”Let’s go, to Lingotto… where the cars go, up to driiiiiiive!”🎶
I arrived in Torino the day of your upload to celebrate my 50th birthday and dragged my wife to Lingotto. Mind blowing coincidence; wish I’d checked KZhead on the day. I’m a Lancia & Fiat car fan and an architect so Lingotto is a must see for me. The wife is now a Lingotto fan and also now a Tim fan too 😊
Happy (belated) 50th!
That terrible floor/flaw pun is just the sort of thing that keeps me coming back ;) Keep up the good work.
This is just such great feel good content. Did I know Lingotto before? Yes. But listening to Tim muse about it is always worth it.
I studied abroad in Torino many years ago, and our school was essentially across the street. Got to see it every day on the bus ride in. Unfortunately, the roof wasn't open then, so I never got the chance to see it. Got a great dose of nostalgia from your video!
Cool! Thanks for the pictures, Tim… 🚗💨🇮🇹
Brilliant storie Tim. Thank You. 👏
Another cracking video Tim. 👍My wife and I are both petrol heads and we finally got to visit the Fiat rooftop track in June last year, and it did not disappoint.
I love your videos. You discover the most bizarre, yet interesting features in life, features which are hard to find in mainstream media. Love your presentation style. If there was a black pebble on the ground in a wood on a dark night, i am sure you can make that interesting to watch.
I'd love to see a collaboration between Tim and Bim. It would be calm, likeable knowledge-overkill and it would be AWESOME!
Missed you Tim! Glad you're back!
OMG you are in my hometown! Wish I could meet you!
Same for me, I'd have liked to tell him some stories about the damage left by fiat in this city and italy tho
Great story - again! Absolutely stunning. And I really like the background music. Wonderful job!
My wife and I visited this site last year, it really is as good as in the video.
Thank you, Tom Scott 2 for introducing me to this.
Great video! I'm an ex Fiat / Alfa Romeo employee and was taken to the roof of lingotto by them on a "busman's holiday" back in 2005, when I was lead to believe it wasn't open to the general public then. It certainly wasn't an art gallery or as pretty as it is now. The shopping centre was open then though, which in itself was a pretty cool place! On a side note, Fiat also have , or at least had, a secret test track in the suburbs of Turin for development testing. I won't say where. It's not pretty, or even state of the art, at least not back in 2005! But it did have all the fundamentals of a car breaking test track and was very interesting to visit during the same trip.👍🏼
nothing makes my day more than when i see a new Tim Traveller video has dropped.
Thank youTtim, you just rememberd me how youtube was when i liked it. Interesting, informative, lovely made Videos. Keep on going,
I was actually expecting a horse race track when I saw the thumbnail, never would've thought it's a car race track!
an enormous factory, would have loved to tour it in the 20's
This is brilliant! I've seen pictures of Lingotto but never really thought my about why they put the test track on the roof.
Great video! I got to stay in the hotel when my orchestra played in Torino. There's a beautiful, small concert hall nearby.
Never knew about this, but yeah so wonderful. I’ll definitely have to visit some day. Thanks so much for the video!
Great video. Loved the renditions of The Chain and Cars. I really appreciate the hard work you've put in to become a musician, video maker, producer and performer. I look forward to each new video you make and I'm never disappointed. Congratulations on 333K subscribers, well deserved.
Good to see you are 1/3 of the way to your millionth subscriber, Tim. Good luck.
I was there in '17 but couldn't find a way to get to the roof. I didn't know about tickets from the Gallery. Now I do, thanks Tim!
Just modelled this track for our racing sim. Great track and great video.
thanks a lot for this fascinating reel - You've added Turin to my bucket list 😀
Loved the rooftop montage music!❤
Thats what I call a Gigafactory!!!! Thanks for sharing
This was very cool. Thank you!
I feel like this could be a pretty cool bike race
I was JUST thinking this morning that I've been missing Your videos!
Your videos are always brilliant, Tim! Thanks for another entertaining episode, full of humour as usual.
As usual, excellent video. I visited in 2017. At that time, it was unclear how to get to the roof. The museum was much smaller, and the roof was still pretty vacant. I wandered the mall looking for (what I assumed would be) obvious signs to the roof and found none. Finally, after ordering "nachos" at the food court, I asked directions and was told it required a visit to the museum. It is one of those buildings which from whenever I first saw a photo of it, I said, I need to go there someday! Thanks again for all your excellent work.
I also went there in 2017 and yes, get up there was quite a task. And when we finally managed to get there the building security was so surprised of seeing people that they started to run after us. What a memory!
In Belgium, we have a factory Rooftop racetrack too ! IMPERIA factory in Nessonvaux between Liège and Verviers. Now, totally destroyed.
What a fantastic building - thanks for showing us! (Also, some great tunes on this one - bet you had fun with the Chain!)
These MIDIs crack me up man, nice video!
The Rooftop Circuit was revived thanks to the newly-opened Hyundai Innovation Centre in Singapore, and the main attraction in this video cited the inspiration for an idea of automotive production that once was a unique concept after all.
Your videos are feel good anyways, but everytime I see your intro and you giving a thumbs up on the Fähri in Basel where I grew up, it's a special kind of coziness for me