Wifredo Ricart

Wifredo Ricart (May 15, 1897 – August 19, 1974) was a Spanish engineer, designer and executive manager in the automotive industry, who spent most of his professional career in Italy and Spain.

The Barcelona "Happy Twenties"

Born in Barcelona, "Wifredo-Pelayo Ricart Medina" graduated in 1918 as an industrial engineer. His first job was in a Hispano-Suiza dealer, but he soon moved to a new company, Motores Ricart-Perez, that successfully produced engines for industral stationary use.

At that time, Barcelona swarmed with automotive initiatives, in the wake of the successful Hispano-Suiza. In this technically exciting environment, Ricart became increasingly interested in automobile engineering, and in 1922 designed his first car. It featured a 4-cylinder, 16-valve 1.5 liter engine, very advanced for its time. Two of these cars ran in the Barcelona Grand Prix for "voiturettes", one winning its second race ever a few months later.

In 1926, Ricart founded his own company, Motores y Automóviles Ricart, and in October presented two prototypes of the new Ricart car at the Paris Motor Show, gaining a lot of attention. Nevertheless, financial difficulties compelled Ricard to merge his company with the one of industrial tycoon Felipe Batlló, to produce cars under a new brand, Ricart-España. It was for this company he designed a new model addressed to the high segment of the market, with a 2.4 liter 6cyl engine. Again this venture failed due to the general economic slump.

In 1930, Ricart became a member of the American Society of Automotive Engineers and he established himself as an independent consultant, working for different European firms.

The Italian period

In 1936 he started to work for Alfa Romeo, as Chief Engineer for Special Projects.He remained in Alfa for eight years, the most professionally fruitful in his life, aside from his later Pegaso era.

In Alfa Romeo he designed and developed many engines, from aviation to racing cars. There he met Enzo Ferrari, and it seems the two characters did collide somehow, for Ferrari evidently blamed Ricart for being fired from Alfa Romeo before World War Two. [Eric Dymock, "Postwar sports cars. The modern classics".]

Back to Spain. Building Pegaso

In 1945, with Italy desvastated by the II World War, Ricart returned to Barcelona, and shortly he managed to be hired by the American Studebaker corporation, but just before leaving for the USA, he was proposed to lead the creation of a new Spanish automotive group, Enasa, to be built over the remainings of the Spanish arm of Hispano-Suiza. He accepted, and for several years he struggled to get a modern, technically advanced, car and truck maker from an underdeveloped country, materially and morally devastated itself from a Civil War.

In the early fifties, the results of Ricart's efforts were visible: In October 1951, in the Paris Motor Show a newcomer attracted all the looks; it was an incredible sophisticated sports car, the Pegaso Z-102. This was above all an image coup, as the real objective of Enasa creation was the massive industrial vehicles production. But in this respect, Ricart had too every reason to feel proud: the Pegaso Diesel and Z-207 trucks, the Z-403 and Z-404 coaches or the Z-501 trolleybus, and last but not least the new from scratch Enasa plant in Barajas (Madrid) were not only technical successes, but situated Spanish automotive industry in the best starting point to cope with the impressive economic development Spain undertook in the 60s and 70s.

The final years

Ricart resigned as Enasa CEO in 1959, criticized for paying more attention to technical innovation than to economic realities. From then on he returned to his free lance consultant activities, as he was widely recognized as one of the most skilled and experienced automotive engineers. In his last years he increased his significant collaboration with several professional bodies, like S.A.E., F.I.S.I.T.A., and S.T.A.

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