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Motori Moderni (Modern Engines) was aFormula One engine manufacturer from 1985 through 1987. It was established inNovara by Italian engine designerCarlo Chiti.

Chiti, a formerFerrari,Automobili Turismo e Sport andAlfa Romeo Formula One chief designer, founded Motori Moderni with the idea of supplying customturbochargedV6 engines, also known asTipo 615-90, to Formula One teams. The engines were used by Minardi in Formula One from1985 to1987 and byAGS in1986.

Motori Moderni's power unit debuted at the1985 San Marino Grand Prix with the newly born Minardi Formula One team. RookiePierluigi Martini qualified theM185 19th on the grid but was forced to retire after 14 laps. Martini failed to score a point in 1985 with a best finish of 8th and last in the season-endingAustralian Grand Prix. The Motori Moderni engine weighed in at 147 kg (324 lb) and produced 720 PS (530 kW; 710 bhp) in race trim, with another 100 horsepower possible for qualifying.^[1] This compared unfavourably to the approximately 1,000 PS (740 kW; 990 bhp) of theRenault,Honda andBMW turbo engines, and the 900 PS (660 kW; 890 bhp) of theTAG-Porsche andFerrari engines. AtSilverstone for theBritish Grand Prix, Martini was 8.054 seconds slower thanKeke Rosberg's pole-winningWilliams-Honda (Rosberg had set the pole at an average of 258.9 km/h [160.9 mph], the fastest ever turbo lap speed). At theÖsterreichring inAustria he was 11.2 seconds slower thanAlain Prost'sMcLarenTAG-Porsche, while atMonza inItaly he was 8.8 seconds slower thanAyrton Senna'sLotus-Renault.

In 1986, as the Minardi team expanded to running two cars, Martini was replaced withAndrea de Cesaris, and paired with F1 rookieAlessandro Nannini, who showed his class by often outpacing his more experienced countryman. Again, no points were scored with the Motori Moderni engines rated at approximately 780 bhp (582 kW; 791 PS) next to the leading Honda, BMW, Ferrari, Renault and TAG-Porsche units which were producing well over 950 bhp (708 kW; 963 PS) in race trim (the BMW was said to be the most powerful qualifying engine at around 1,400 bhp (1,044 kW; 1,419 PS)).

The AGS team was Motori Moderni's second customer. The team only participated in two races during the 1986 season, withIvan Capelli retiring from both theItalian andPortuguese Grands Prix.

1987 would be the last season the Motori Moderni engine would be used in Formula One. Minardi, who had retained Nannini after an impressive debut season, replaced de Cesaris (who had moved toBrabham) with Spanish driverAdrián Campos. Once more no points were scored throughout the season, despite some spirited drives by Nannini which only resulted in 11th-placed finishes inHungary andPortugal. The engines, now rated at 800 bhp (597 kW; 811 PS) after the introduction of theFIA's mandatory pop-off valve aimed at limiting the turbos power to 4.0 bar, were often struggling against the 575 bhp (429 kW; 583 PS)V8Cosworth DFZ powered cars.

At the1987 Australian Grand Prix inAdelaide, Nannini qualified an impressive 13th on the grid only 3.434 behindGerhard Berger's pole-winningFerrari. Unfortunately, his race only lasted a few hundred metres as he was pushed into the fence just out of the chicane after the start. Campos qualified 26th and last (3.42 seconds slower than Nannini), with his race ending with transmission failure after 46 of the scheduled 82 laps.

With1988 being the final year for the turbos in Formula One (until2014), Motori Moderni pulled out of the sport at the end of 1987 rather than try to adapt the engine for an even lower pop-off valve limit of 2.5 bar and a lower fuel limit of just 150 litres. As a result, Minardi switched to the Cosworth DFZ engine in 1988.

In late 1988 Chiti was commissioned bySubaru to design a new 12-cylinderboxer engine, known as the1235 for the new 3.5-litre normally aspirated F1 regulations. This was briefly tested by Minardi in 1989 but rejected due to low power and excessive weight.^[2] The Japanese car company then bought theColoni team but withdrew and sold the team back to Enzo Coloni at the end of the season. The engine was later adopted in the 1989Jiotto Caspita prototypesports car before it was used bySubaru for the 1990 season.

After abandoning Formula One, the flat-12 engines were deployed in the Alba Racing Team's AR20 entry in the1990 World Sportscar Championship, but failed to start any rounds before being replaced by a more conventional 4.5-litre engine from Buick.^[3]

(key) (results inbold indicate pole position; results initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WCC	Points
1985	Minardi Team SpA	MinardiM185	Motori Moderni Tipo 615-90 1.5V6t	P		BRA	POR	SMR	MON	CAN	DET	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	BEL	EUR	RSA	AUS	—	0
					Pierluigi Martini			Ret	DNQ	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	11†	Ret	Ret	Ret	12	Ret	Ret	8
1986	Minardi Team SpA	MinardiM185BM186	Motori Moderni Tipo 615-90 1.5V6t	P		BRA	ESP	SMR	MON	BEL	CAN	DET	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	AUT	ITA	POR	MEX	AUS	—	0
					Andrea de Cesaris	Ret	Ret	Ret	DNQ	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	8	Ret
					Alessandro Nannini	Ret	Ret	Ret	DNQ	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	NC	14	Ret
	Jolly Club SpA	AGSJH21C	Motori Moderni Tipo 615-90 1.5V6t	G	Ivan Capelli													Ret	Ret			—	0
1987	Minardi Team SpA	MinardiM187	Motori Moderni Tipo 615-90 1.5V6t	G		BRA	SMR	BEL	MON	DET	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	AUT	ITA	POR	ESP	MEX	JPN	AUS	—	0
					Adrián Campos	DSQ	Ret	Ret	DNS	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	14	Ret	Ret	Ret
					Alessandro Nannini	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	11	Ret	16	11†	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret

^† — Driver did not finish the Grand Prix but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

• Profile at GrandPrix.com
• Statistics at StatsF1.com

• Motori Moderni
• Formula One engine manufacturers
• Engine manufacturers of Italy

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