Automobile Club Modena e Angelo Orlandi

Since the distant 26 February 1926, the date on which the Automobile Club of Modena was formed, the cars of Modena have truly come a long way. To remind us there are some splendid albums edited by A.C. Modena for its members and which now represent a valuable record of thos golden years of boom.
For example: on 31 December 1957 the population of the province of Modena was about 500,000 residents with little more than 12,000 cars, or one for every 41 inhabitants.
Twenty years later the population had grown to 580,000 but the number of cars had become more than 200,000, with an average of 1 for every 2.7 inhabitants!, which is equivalent to saying that already at the end of 1976 every family in Modena had access to a car.
Within the province, Carpi ranked first with the highest motorisation index in all of Italy.
This fact – which can be explained by the parallel economic growth of the Modena area – gives an idea of the demand on the services that A.C.Modena had to provide.
To meet this demand A.C.Modena created a articulated organisation of peripheral services during the twenty years from 1957 to 1977 beating a record: in proportion to the vehicles in circulation the Automobile Club of  Modena had the greatest number of delegations.
Starting in 1953, it also created five special special committees: sports, legal, traffic and circulation, technical, tourism.
In 1957 it then commenced the process of acquiring assets since up to that point it had possessed nothing.
Thus at the end of this period A.C.Modena owned not only a head office (the entire building of Viale Verdi n.7, which is still the head office), but also a engine centrewhich at that time was a the only organisation of its kind in Italy.
Parking management was created, a service provided for the members in particular but also for all the motorists of Modena: car parks with attendants and automobile insurance coverage for risks associated with parking.
These too are aspects that document how the history of A.C. Modena (under the presidency of Angelo Orlandi and directed since 1980 by Giovanni Conti) is an integral part of the city’s history, just like the motor racing that is closely connected with it.
(research by Nunzia Manicardi)

Angelo Orlandi

The son of Renzo Orlandi: it was he who gave the Carrozzeria Orlandi – which has been in business for more than 140 years – international fame with the manufacture of buses which have also been exported to many foreign companies. It is not by chance that Renzo Orlandi, together with Ferrari a Orsi, was awarded the Order of Merit for Labour in 1955.
the life of his son Angelo in the Automobile Club of Modena began as a hobby after the war when, as an engineering graduate he bcame a member of te Sports Committee which organised races.
The motor racing environment enthralled him as it still does today. So, at the suggestion of Enzo Ferrari, he became a Board Member of A.C. Modena which appointed hime as President in 1955: with his 50 years of service he is the senior president of Provincial Automobile Clubs. For some years he was the owner and managing director of the Carrozzeria Orlandi. In 1972 he signed an agreement with Fiat which became a major shareholder and later acquired the entire shareholding in 1989. Angelo’s children work at the Orlandi works and thus represent the fifth generation of this glorious name.
(reconstruction by Nunzia Manicardi based on an interview with Angelo Orlandi)