Achille Varzi
![Achille Varzi, Targa Florio, 1930. Source is Bibliothèque nationale de France. This work is in the public domain in France for one of the following reasons; It is an anonymous or pseudonymous work (the identity of the author has never been disclosed) or a collective work[2] and more than 70 years have passed since its publication.](/Images/allimagesarecopyright.png "Achille Varzi, Targa Florio, 1930. Source is Bibliothèque nationale de France. This work is in the public domain in France for one of the following reasons; It is an anonymous or pseudonymous work (the identity of the author has never been disclosed) or a collective work[2] and more than 70 years have passed since its publication.")
Achille Varzi, Targa Florio, 1930. Source is Bibliothèque nationale de France. This work is in the public domain in France for one of the following reasons; It is an anonymous or pseudonymous work (the identity of the author has never been disclosed) or a collective work[2] and more than 70 years have passed since its publication.
Born: |
08 Aug 1904 |
Died: |
30 Jun 1948 |
Nationality: |
Italy |
Indy 500s: | 0 (1946) |
Italian racing ace, who surely would've been one of the top drivers in the 1950's, despite being well into his 40's by then, but for his untimely death in practice for the Swiss GP of 1948. Initially a motorcyclist, he won the Italian 350cc Championship in 1923 and then started a long-running rivalry with Tazio Nuvolari in both motorcycles and then cars. Although his brilliance was there for many years with wins in Grand Prix or F1 events between 1929 and 1947, an addiction to morphine and an ill-fated affair with the wife of Paul Pietsch overshadowed his life and racing from the mid 1930's onwards until he sorted his life out during World War Two.
Biography last updated 7 Mar 2016