This Is Still the Most Unique Car Factory in the World (+Photos)

Lingotto is no longer an active car factory, but its famous building and test track remain, a legacy of an era when Fiat chose a different path to move vehicles from the production line to testing.

Ambassador Arjan - Lingotto Fiat factory in Turin, Italy, is one of the most different automobile factories in history; A five-story building where the production line was designed from the bottom up, and the completed cars would eventually reach the test track on the roof. The complex still stands today, although car production has been discontinued for many years.

From the vertical production line to the rooftop track

The Lingotto factory was designed by the Italian engineer Giacomo Matteo Trucco and started its operation in 1923. Unlike conventional factories, the production process in this building proceeded vertically; The raw materials were imported from the lower floors, and the cars reached the highest floor after passing through various stages of construction.

A striking feature of the factory was the car test track on its roof. The track consisted of two steep corners and long straights, allowing Fiat to test its production cars without leaving the factory premises.

The fame of this track went beyond the world of cars and it was also featured in the movie "The Italian Job" produced in 1969; where Mini Coopers were driving on the track on the factory roof in a famous scene.

A factory that became a cultural complex

As car production methods changed, the importance of the Lingotto plant for Fiat decreased and production was finally stopped in 1982. However, the building was not destroyed. Renzo Piano, a famous Italian architect, played a role in the reconstruction of this complex and turned its industrial space into a multi-purpose complex.

Today, the Lingotto building still exists in Turin and houses spaces such as shops, restaurants, hotels, exhibition venues and art galleries. The historic track on the roof has also been preserved and visitors can walk along it and get up close and personal with a part of Italian automotive history.