THE FOUNDER AND THE COMPANIES

ENRICO NARDI

… a piece of italian genius in the world … (Roberta Grosso Nardi)

Although Enrico Nardi never achieved the level and fame reached by many great names from the automotive world, he still holds a legendary place in the history of the automobile. His story is quite intriguing and it intertwines with the life of some famous characters.
Nardi was an engineer and a man with fine intuitions and a great practical sense. He applied his incredible talent to everything that was, in some way, connected to automobiles which gave him the chance to meet the greatest pioneers of the automotive industry such as Vincenzo Lancia, one of the first men to believe in Nardi’s abilities. He wanted him by his side entrusting him with more and more important responsibilities and tasks from test driver to close friend and confidant.
In 1937 Enrico Nardi moved to Modena to become the first Ferrari’s test driver and then a business consultant.
In 1946 he founded together with Renato Danese (roman racing car driver) a Company named “ND”.
In 1958 he restarted the cooperation with Enzo Ferrari: Mr. Ferrari was used to always pay a great attention to details of his cars. This is why most of Ferrari cars were equipped with Nardi steering wheels.
Nardi’s inexhaustible passion for anything on four wheels and great talent drove him towards a career as a businessman with a varied and original production line, which was initially embodied by motor cars and parts production and later by his world-famous steering wheels.
Two years after Enrico Nardi’s death, Nardi trademark was bought from Personal and, in 1990, Nardi Italia S.p.A. was founded as a completely autonomous company, located in Abbiate Guazzone – Tradate (Varese) – Italy.
The production is based both on sporty steering wheels under the Personal trademark and classic steering wheels with Nardi trademark. These two trademarks, during the years have been chosen as supplier of the most important car manufacturers such as Ferrari, Lancia, Audi, Maserati, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Lotus, TVR, McLaren, Volkswagen, Abarth and BMW.
In 2002 this famous company after 70 years’ activity confirmed itself as leader in the production of classic & sports steering wheels.

Personal birth in the early ’60, characterized by innovation both in terms of design and industrialization, ideas that made Personal a winning product by the begining
in terms of quality and design.

Personal, as further step of the evolution, using innovative test systems, was conceived as one of the most safe and reliable products, that brought Personal to enter in Formula one as technical supplier of various teams as Williams, Mclaren, Lotus and Benetton…. Action that brings Personal in the top of the market, becoming a market leader worldwide.