{"id":51897,"date":"2017-11-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/fondazione-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/"},"modified":"2022-06-13T15:37:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T14:37:40","slug":"totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Totally Pintacuda: A Driver of Level-headed Insanity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>He would stop for a moment to breathe, and then press down hard on the accelerator. If he had had the chance, he might also have closed his eyes. But it was best not to, because the wall was too close. Far too close. A hundred times. At each of the hundred malignant corners of the Trampolim do Diabo, the Devil\u2019s Springboard. For everyone else, it was just the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/archivio-storico\/fotografie\/detail\/IT-PIRELLI-FT0001-0000000336\/gran-premio-citta-rio-de-janeiro-del-1936.html?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Circuito da G\u00e1vea<\/strong><\/a>, but for the locals in <strong>Rio de Janeiro<\/strong> that infernal motorcar racetrack through the city was the <strong>Trampolim do Diabo<\/strong>: eleven kilometres of lamp posts and walls, tram rails, stretches of beach and sand, concrete and cliffs towering over the sea.<\/p>\n<p>You had to hold your breath and keep your eyes wide open, on the G\u00e1vea. And, possibly, pray one more time that your Pirelli Stella Bianca tyres would last the course. <strong>Carlo Pintacuda<\/strong> was well aware of this, for he\u2019d almost captured the Trampolim do Diabo in <strong>1936<\/strong> in his <strong>Alfa 8C<\/strong>, missing victory by a hair\u2019s breadth. Born in Florence in September 1900 and World Champion, with <strong>Count <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/archivio-storico\/fotografie\/detail\/IT-PIRELLI-FT0001-0000000290\/i-piloti-gastone-brilli-peri-e-pietro-de-paolo-della-scuderia-alfa-romeo-nel-1925.html?jsonVal=%257b%2522jsonVal%2522:%257b%2522query%2522:%2522brilli%2522,%2522startDate%2522:%2522%2522,%2522endDate%2522:%2522%2522,%2522fieldDate%2522:%2522dataNormal%2522,%2522_perPage%2522:20%257d%257d&amp;attachmentMisc=undefined#n\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gastone Brilli-Peri<\/a><\/strong>, in 1925, with <strong>Giulio Masetti<\/strong>, who by 1926 had already lost his life in the Targa Florio, and with<strong> Clemente Biondetti<\/strong>, a Sardinian from Buddus\u00f2 but by then an adopted son of the \u201cFlorentine school\u201d. Carlo Pintacuda was one of a little band of foreign champions of the steering wheel who, in that fateful 1936, landed in Brazil to see if they could bring a bit of spice into the local sports scene. And with Pintacuda came the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/archivio-storico\/bookreader\/pubblicazioni-e-riviste\/RivistaPirelli\/1950_3.html?q=L%27Alfa%20%C3%A8%20tornata%20alle%20corse&amp;start=13&amp;lang=en#page\/12\/mode\/2up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alfa Romeos<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/selezione_antologica\/fabbrica-campioni-del-mondo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scuderia Ferrari<\/a>, fitted with <strong>Pirelli Stella Bianca tyres<\/strong>. \u201cWe\u2019ve tested our new chassis with your new <strong>Superflex Cord tyres<\/strong>. We\u2019re really pleased\u2026\u201d Ingegner Nicola Romeo had written to the<strong> Agenzia Italiana Gomme Pirelli<\/strong> back in 1924, when the \u201cCasa del Biscione\u201d was preparing to make a clean sweep of all the motorcar races in Europe and go on to win the World Cup championship the following year.<\/p>\n<p>Carlo Pintacuda did not take his defeat in \u201936 too well. On the other hand, on Copacabana Beach he had been able to appreciate the bikini flaunted by the scandalous French driver <strong>Hell\u00e9 Nice<\/strong>, who was also in the race. But he had got his own back straight away, winning the <strong>S\u00e3o Paulo Grand Prix<\/strong> shortly after. Because the historic rival of the Carioca city had immediately put on a Grand Prix of its own. Too bad about the accident caused in that race by Elle est Nice \u2013 a nice Anglo-French pun on \u201cHell\u00e9 Nice\u201d, right? But actually, her real name was <strong>Mariette H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Delange<\/strong> \u2013 causing the death of four spectators. Victory on the Devil was close now. For the Florentine Pintacuda, the real triumph came in the following two years, when he emerged victorious in G\u00e1vea in his <strong>Alfa 8C<\/strong> in June <strong>1937<\/strong>, ahead of the Austrian <strong>Stuck<\/strong>, and in the 308 in 1938. Devil or no devil, it was also thanks to Pirelli tyres that Pintacuda \u2013 often in torrential rain \u2013 always managed to come first and build up his fame in Brazil as the \u201cwinning madman\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sou momole pra falar, mas sou um Pintacuda pra beijar<\/em>. I talk in snatches but I kiss like Pintacuda: so sounded the <em>Marcha de Gago<\/em> \u2013 the little stutterer\u2019s march brought out by <strong>Armando Cavalcanti<\/strong> and <strong>Kl\u00e9cius Caldas<\/strong> in the 1950s. Carlo Pintacuda, \u201co Her\u00f3i da G\u00e1vea\u201d, was by now a legend in the Pais Tropical. And the crazy daredevil drivers of Brazil had become \u201ci pintacudas\u201d. Few photos remain of Pintacuda, who died in <strong>1971<\/strong> in <strong>Buenos Aires<\/strong>, where he had opened a grocery store. One, however, is in the Pirelli Historical Archive: we see him at the finish of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/archivio-storico\/fotografie\/detail\/IT-PIRELLI-FT0001-0000000325\/mille-miglia-del-1935.html?jsonVal=%257b%2522jsonVal%2522:%257b%2522query%2522:%2522pintacuda%2522,%2522startDate%2522:%2522%2522,%2522endDate%2522:%2522%2522,%2522fieldDate%2522:%2522dataNormal%2522,%2522_perPage%2522:20%257d%257d&amp;attachmentMisc=undefined#n\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>1935 Mille Miglia<\/strong><\/a>, which he won in an <strong>Alfa P3 Grand Prix<\/strong> single-seater specially modified for him by the <strong>Scuderia Ferrari<\/strong> with the addition of a seat for the \u201cnavigator\u201d \u2013 <strong>Marquis Alessandro della Stufa<\/strong> \u2013 and a minimum of headlights. As always, Pintacuda is wearing his chic white racing suit, with a cigarette in his mouth and a cocky air about him. Next to him, Marquis della Stufa looks somewhat out of sorts: maybe because his seat really is tiny, or maybe because night has come and he\u2019s ready for bed. Or maybe because he\u2019s just completed a thousand-mile race next to an authentic <em>pintacuda<\/em>\u2026Standing next to them is an overjoyed <strong>Enzo Ferrari<\/strong>. Just for the record, sixteen of the first seventeen over the line were Alfa Romeos\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He would stop for a moment to breathe, and then press down hard on the accelerator. If he had had the chance, he might also have closed his eyes. But it was best not to, because the wall was too close. Far too close. A hundred times. At each of the hundred malignant corners of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[248,356,183],"class_list":["post-51897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-from-world-of-pirelli","tag-racing","tag-rubrica-en","tag-sport-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Totally Pintacuda: A Driver of Level-headed Insanity - Fondazione Pirelli<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Totally Pintacuda: A Driver of Level-headed Insanity - Fondazione Pirelli\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"He would stop for a moment to breathe, and then press down hard on the accelerator. If he had had the chance, he might also have closed his eyes. But it was best not to, because the wall was too close. Far too close. A hundred times. At each of the hundred malignant corners of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fondazione Pirelli\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-07T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-13T14:37:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wpsite-assets.fondazionepirelli.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/15151955\/Cose_da_Pintacuda_005-e1576593851203.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"552\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"403\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"fondadmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"fondadmin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/\",\"name\":\"Totally Pintacuda: A Driver of Level-headed Insanity - Fondazione Pirelli\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wpsite-assets.fondazionepirelli.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/15151955\/Cose_da_Pintacuda_005-e1576593851203.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-07T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-13T14:37:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/f47d097000832c4a6e54538c791fdf25\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wpsite-assets.fondazionepirelli.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/15151955\/Cose_da_Pintacuda_005-e1576593851203.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/wpsite-assets.fondazionepirelli.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/15151955\/Cose_da_Pintacuda_005-e1576593851203.jpg\",\"width\":552,\"height\":403},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Totally Pintacuda: A Driver of Level-headed Insanity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/\",\"name\":\"Fondazione Pirelli\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/f47d097000832c4a6e54538c791fdf25\",\"name\":\"fondadmin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e69498a9175ca244966e51e53c88712c024fcebe41f9a05f75657f1bb25e489b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e69498a9175ca244966e51e53c88712c024fcebe41f9a05f75657f1bb25e489b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"fondadmin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/author\/fondadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Totally Pintacuda: A Driver of Level-headed Insanity - Fondazione Pirelli","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Totally Pintacuda: A Driver of Level-headed Insanity - Fondazione Pirelli","og_description":"He would stop for a moment to breathe, and then press down hard on the accelerator. If he had had the chance, he might also have closed his eyes. But it was best not to, because the wall was too close. Far too close. A hundred times. At each of the hundred malignant corners of [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/","og_site_name":"Fondazione Pirelli","article_published_time":"2017-11-07T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-13T14:37:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":552,"height":403,"url":"https:\/\/wpsite-assets.fondazionepirelli.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/15151955\/Cose_da_Pintacuda_005-e1576593851203.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"fondadmin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"fondadmin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/","url":"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/","name":"Totally Pintacuda: A Driver of Level-headed Insanity - Fondazione Pirelli","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wpsite-assets.fondazionepirelli.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/15151955\/Cose_da_Pintacuda_005-e1576593851203.jpg","datePublished":"2017-11-07T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-13T14:37:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/f47d097000832c4a6e54538c791fdf25"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wpsite-assets.fondazionepirelli.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/15151955\/Cose_da_Pintacuda_005-e1576593851203.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wpsite-assets.fondazionepirelli.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/15151955\/Cose_da_Pintacuda_005-e1576593851203.jpg","width":552,"height":403},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/127.0.0.1\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/totally-pintacuda-a-driver-of-level-headed-insanity\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Totally Pintacuda: A Driver of Level-headed Insanity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/","name":"Fondazione Pirelli","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/f47d097000832c4a6e54538c791fdf25","name":"fondadmin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e69498a9175ca244966e51e53c88712c024fcebe41f9a05f75657f1bb25e489b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e69498a9175ca244966e51e53c88712c024fcebe41f9a05f75657f1bb25e489b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"fondadmin"},"url":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/author\/fondadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51897\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=51897"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51897\/revisions\/"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89910,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51897\/revisions\/89910\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55140\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=51897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=51897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=51897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}