The association Registro Storico Gilco has been established on the centenary of Gilberto Colombo’s birth, aiming to celebrate the works of this extraordinary inventor and be a further source of information for auto lovers, as well as to provide owners of Gilco cars with a service of research and authentication.
After the end of WWII, working as production manager at the drawing mill founded in 1919 by his father Angelo Luigi, Gilberto Colombo created a special applications department with the aim of taking his expertise in high-resistance dynamic structures and ultra-light tubing used in aeronautics and adapting it to the automotive industry.
He named this department "GC Autotelai" and began offering innovative CrMo micro-alloyed steel tubular chassis for racing cars, built according to a special design that made them particularly light and high-performing. Soon these frames were widely recognized as a remarkable improvement compared to the previous heavier and less stable ones, built with welded tubing, or with less resistant steel, or according to less sophisticated design criteria.
In 1947 GC Autotelai adopted the brand name Gilco and consolidated its internal structure in order to meet the growing number of orders coming from all Italian automakers and especially from Enzo Ferrari, and started producing and delivering approximately 30 chassis each trimester.
During the 1950s Gilco designed and manufactured all the chassis for Ferrari, as well as most of the chassis for Maserati and for all the other emerging automakers that weren’t yet equipped with the necessary internal production facilities or with the expertise required to obtain the sensational results that only Gilco could guarantee. In addition, Gilco provided wealthy customers and famous racing drivers with custom-made chassis for several vehicles produced in very limited numbers or in single models – the cars known today as Etceterini.
There is no doubt as to Gilberto Colombo’s important contribution to the golden era of Italian racing cars, which became world famous not only thanks to the outstanding performance of their engines and to the skill of their body makers, but also to the lightness and reliability of Gilco’s insuperable chassis.
Starting in the 1960s, as leading automakers developed their own frame construction facilities, Gilco’s activity shifted increasingly to the design of touring cars, and later of sailboats and bicycles, while continuing to deliver top-quality tubing to most prominent companies in the automotive sector.
The original drawings Gilberto Colombo made from the 1940s onwards, many of which are on transparent paper, are carefully preserved in the Archivio Storico Gilco. Today Gilco can assist auto lovers in the restoration of its antique and vintage chassis according to rigorous criteria and following their original designs, relying on this precious archive and on the technical know-how and production support of the drawing mill founded by Colombo, which continues to produce top quality micro-alloyed steel tubes.
Registro Storico Gilco is an association federated with ASI (Automotoclub Storico Italiano).
