History

Passion for high-performance engines, passed on from father to son: this is EPAPOWER!

It all started in 1970 when Giovanni Albertinazzi founded his own company, just called ALBERTINAZZI. Since then, he has always been devoted to high performance engines applied to motorsport. At the beginning, he was mainly involved in the development of racing engines applied to Formula Ford and Formula Monza.

In the middle of the 70s he started an ambitious project for the design of a F3 engine 2.0 l based on Alfa Sud 1.1 l boxer engine with flat dry sump system that should have been applied to the March F3. Around the end 0f 70s he became involved in Touring and GT cars developing the Alfa Romeo GTV 1.6 l and GTA 1.6 l engines; just few years later he approached the racing nautical sector with his own racing version of a Fiat 128 engine.

The 80s started with the most ambitious project: a F1 engine on a Lancia base. It was a 4 cyl. in line Turbo engine 1.5 l with a performance of 1000 hp. Completely designed and manufactured by Giovanni inside his workshop with the purpose of applying the engine to the Brabham F1.

Unfortunately the regulations changed: from the turbo they passed to the atmospheric engine. The F1 engine by Albertinazzi finally run only at the dyno testing bench and it’s now a piece of history and skilled competencies proudly shown in the EPAPOWER workshop.

In the late 80s it was the time of another F3 engine on a Ford base, then again the return to the Touring cars with the first ever elaboration of a BMW M3 engine.

At the end of 90s Giovanni’s son Claudio approached the same passion for racing engines: Super Tourism, Formula Renault, Formula Junior and Sport Prototype were the field of interest. From 2000 on father and son worked hard for a new project: a V6 engine 3.4 l – 600 hp for endurance races. The engine was completely designed and manufactured inside the workshop….water pumps machined from the block of material, distribution all by gears, all covers machined from the block of material, injectors rail machined from the block of material, composite carbon fiber material airbox and fast mounting sparkplugs….a real racing engine with custom pistons, crankshaft and camshafts…all tailored for the purpose. Claudio quickly achieved skills in both the mechanics and the electronic management of the engine.

In 2005 Claudio was called to check the engine of his friend’s ultralight aircraft: what a surprise when he found it was a Rotax engine …still with carburetors….unbelievable!

Mostly for joke with his friend, he decided it was time for him to have an electronic fuel injection system. In a few months the first prototype was ready: an electronic fuel injection system for Rotax 912 atmospheric engines. The system immediately encountered the interest of some aircraft manufacturer, mainly the italian Alpi Aviation who decide first to apply the system to the Pioneer 330 Acro of the italian aerobatic patrol “Pioneer Team” leader Corrado Rusalen. In the meantime a new feature was developed: the inverted oil system for the inverted inverted flight.

The Rotax injected engine 912is was first shown at AERO-EXPO in 2012…many years later!

An important change was taking place in the field of activity; new company name was needed to state the changing: the EPAPOWER S.R.L. was born.

The motorsport division started a strict cooperation with Audi Sport Italia, first working on the RS4 engines and then on the RS5 engines with a full racing preparation that drove the team to win 2012 and 2013 Superstars Championship respectively with Johan Kristoffersson and Gianni Morbidelli ex-F1 driver, while in 2014 the title vanished for few points with Thomas Kostka. Engines revision of Audi R8 Gt cars are also carried out by EPAPOWER.

The sportavio division, devoted to ultralight aviation, developed very quickly, also thanks to the cooperation with the italian helicopters manufacturer CH-7 Helicopters Heli-Sport. In July 2011 CH-7 presented its new two seats side-by-side helicopter called “CH-77 Ranabot”: at the beginning the helicopter was equipped with a Rotax turbo base engine modified by EPAPOWER in the thermal unit to increase the power….the turbo injected version was under development and became ready in 2014, after 2 years in-flight tests.

In 2014 the company moved in a bigger workshop to improve its activity.

Across 2014/2015 the company worked on the development of racing version of a Audi V6 3.0 l Bi-turbo diesel engine for the Dakar, to compete against important names like Mini, Toyota, etc., applied on a prototype vehicle manufactured by Audi Sport Italia. The most important features were: full electronic management system of both engine and vehicle, racing preparation of the engine with dry-sump system, diesel piezoelectric injectors completely managed by the electronic system developed by EPAPOWER. The first positive results came only at the end of 2016, due to the magnitude of the project: the next important step will be the participation to 2018 Dakar.

In 2015 also started the manufacturing process of the Rotax base turbo version injected engine by EPAPOWER: the SA-R917Ti – the first turbo injected engine of this size on the market.

The Rotax brand turbo injected engine 915is is still not flying.

Thanks to this new technology, in 2015 EPAPOWER started a new important cooperation with the Argentinian manufacturer of ultralight helicopters Cicarè, founded by Augusto “Pirincho” Cicarè, recognized all over the world as the inventor of the helicopter.

The electronic fuel injection system by EPAPOWER is a fully redundant system with double injectors for cylinder, all in closed loop control included the turbo.

The R&D activity on the SA-R917Ti engine never stops: in 2016 a new engine management system was under development and became available from the beginning of 2017. The new system is now available also with its own EIS system for the survey of the engine parameters with a full diagnostic easy to use.

Almost 300 engines flying all around the world: this is our strength!

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