The fans who are interested in the obscure and forgotten Formula One know the Life Racing Engines team for sure. Entering the Formula One in 1990 with an one-year-old car that failed to pass the FIA crash test in 1989. Fitted with their own in-house designed W12 engine it became a recipe for failure. The original idea behind establishing Life Racing Engines seems to be forgotten though by most of us. As are the original plans to debut in 1989 instead of 1990. Time to dedicate another article about Ernesto Vita’s Formula One team.
Most of the people seems to know Life only because of their W12 engine, which was underpowered badly. Some will recall it as the team that just tried their luck in the Formula One. The dedicated one know the story as no one wanted their W12 engine for 1989/1990, besides Moneytron who showed some interest, so they just looked for a chassis to race and show their engine was the best.
However, there is a part of the story that has not been told often, seems to be forgotten and unrelated, or perhaps it is simply not known. Ernesto Vita is what you call a dedicated person with pure passion and love for motor racing. In the early 1970s, he did some racing himself mainly in the Formula Ford. Later on, he owned his own movie production company before he ended up in trading iron.
Then there came Life or Life Racing team in late 1987 and early 1988. As his passion for motor racing is too big to do nothing he had the plan to appear with his own team in the Formula One. However, here is where the story becomes interesting and I will ask you to ask yourself the following question; “Why was Life in the Formula One, what was the purpose to do so?”. This might interest you. The original idea was to debut in the Formula One, build up a good name, and on behave of the reputation start producing and selling very expensive passenger sports cars. Originally, these were due to appear in 1990 or 1991.
To build this reputation Ernesto had a small team of 15 employees behind him to realise the goals. In 1988, they operated from their office in the heart of Reggio Emilia’s old town. Here Ernesto hired former Ferrari Franco Rocchi, Giampiero Lauro (Sporting Director). On the upper floor, there was a design team of four people and a secretary. In Formigine Ernesto purchased a factory where the cars would be build and prepared. The factory was at that time well equipped even with own testing equipment.
Franco Rocchi would focus on his own idea of a W12 engine, which the original dated back to 1967 when he worked on an experimental engine this was a W13. Which eventually was to be used as the base for a W18 (!) engine for Ferrari. However, due to regulations, changes only up to 12 cylinders were allowed to use, and the W18 plans were canned. Vita had asked him to design the W12 engine and have it build to be raced with in 1989. He stated to Autosport in 1988 that his engine would produce eventually 620HP, the engine would be on the testing bench in early October 1988.
The rest of the information was vague, the chassis was to be built in England, however it was not known which company would do it. There were also talks with F3000 teams at that time with a “future” view to collaborate in some form. A lot had to happen and 1989 approached rapidly. In the meantime, Ernesto had contacted Martin Brundle if he was interested to race for the team in 1989.
Then it became quite, a long period of radio silence, and then in February 1989 the team aired again. The time was too short to debut in the Formula One in 1989. Therefore they focused on the development of the W12 engine. In the meantime, contact was made with several teams on the grid if they were interested to test their W12 engine. Only one team seemed to be interested in the W12 from Rocchi. This was the Moneytron team from Belgium team owner, at that time still, Alan Jenkins soon after Jean-Pierre Van Rossem would take over the show. While talks were held to test the engine it eventually never happened. Life kept their focus on developing the engine and looking for a chassis. The plan now was to enter the Formula one in 1990. They eventually found a chassis this was the First 189 which failed the FIA test crash in 1989.
