Giulio Alfieri

Giulio Alfieri (July 10 1924 - March 20 2002) was an Italian automobile engineer, affiliated with Maserati in Modena, Italy since 1953, where he was central to the development of racing and production cars in the 1950s and 1960s.

Alfieri was born in Parma. After graduating the Politecnico di Milano, he first worked on steam turbines for the ship industry Cantieri Navali of Tirreno, in Genova, before joining the automaker Innocenti in 1949. Employed in September of 1953 by Adolfo Orsi, Alfieri joined the technical staff of Maserati alongside Gioacchino Colombo, Vittorio Bellentani and two others.

Alfieri worked on the six and eight cylinder engines used in the Maserati A6 (1955), Maserati 250F (1957), as well as V8 racing engines, later to be used as a basis for the V6 of Maserati Merak and Citroën SM (1969). He also contributed to V12 prototype engines intended for use in Cooper-Maserati for Formula One racing (1966). He was best, however, known for the Maserati 3500 GT design (1957) and the Maserati Birdcage (1961), both employing the superleggera lightweight body.

Alfieri left Maserati in 1973 and later worked for Lamborghini with Ubaldo Sgarzi on V8 and V12 engines (1975-1987).

He died at Modena in 2002.