Facetti was born in
Cormano,
Lombardy. For nearly 40 years, he would work in his workshop and on Sunday put his race overalls and helmet and going racing. He explained his success: "We work from seven in the morning until eight at night with the sole desire to makes engines unrivaled". He learned to drive at the age of 11, with
Alberto Ascari, a friend of his father, Piero Facetti, who in turn was a mechanic and a racer, who finished fourth in the 1947 Mille Miglia. His brothers, Giuliano and Rosadelle would also become racing drivers.
The early years Facetti started racing in 1953, paired with
Elio Zagato at the Giro di Calabria, using a
Fiat 8V 1100, although it was Zagato bodied with Facetti prepared engines. By 1960, he was building and racing
Formula Junior cars with
Lancia Appia engines. "It took a lot of passion, a racing seat and reverse shift from a
Fiat 600!". Despite everything, he was very fast though he had a great company: Facetti remembers at
Monza he was "able to score some good times compared to those of experienced pilots such as
Ludovico Scarfiotti,
Lorenzo Bandini and
Giancarlo Baghetti".
Autodelta years at
Nürburgring in 1973 Come 1969, Facetti was employed by
Autodelta, the competition department of
Alfa Romeo. He was hired to help development their sportscars and race in the European Touring Car Championship. Amongst other he teamed up with was
Ignazio Giunti and
Nino Vaccarella. During this period, Facetti finished third in the
Spa 24 Hours twice. In 1973, he was racing the team's
Alfa Romeo T33/TT in the
World Championship for Makes. After switch co-drivers in 1974, he was now partnered by
Andrea da Adamich. This resulted in him visiting the podium on four occasions, the best being second in the 1000 km Österreichring. By the end of the season, Autodelta had finished fourth in the overall standing, but Facetti collaboration with Alfa Romeo was over, after winning the Italian title. "[He] was going through a period of crisis: [he] worked a lot with little satisfaction on a personal level. However, [he] won the Italian title, but that does not stop [him] from leaving Autodelta. As [he] ran at the
Mugello Circuit,
Cesare Fiorio tells [him], 'I have to tell you about an interesting program… A few days later, [he] was in Fiorio office, offered [him] the development of the engine for the
Stratos. [He] would be working with
Mike Parkes, to give the engine fuel injection and 4-valve head."
Lancia Stratos Facetti between 1975 and 1976, was a racer and designer for Lancia, participating in the European Championship for Grand Touring cars. While Facetti immediately begins working on a 24-valve version of the Dino V6 engine, he was racing them. He was leading the Giro d'Italia Automobilistico when he retired with Gearbox problems. "They were three Stratros on the Giro that year; a turbo-charged 2-valve carburetor for
Munari, a Pinto and [his] 4 valves with indirect injectons. [He] retired because [he] was too stressed keeping the engine level with the much more powerful
Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 prototype of
Jean-Claude Andruet". Although the Frenchman retired before Facetti, his Statros was out of the fight really battered… "In Casale, in a final step before arrival, broke a connecting rod first, then infill the injection pump and finally fire!" at
Imola in 1975 1976 saw the arrival of Silhouette, of
Group 5 "Special Production Car" category. With it, Lancia switched to the
World Championship for Makes, and accepted the challenge from
Porsche who took their monstrous
935 Turbo and
BMW, with their reliable
3.5 CSL using the Lancia Stratos Turbo, prepared by Facetti, under the supervision of Parkes. The Stratos was not up to the challenge and following the death of Parkes in August 1977, the collaboration between Facetti and Lancia ended, along with the Silhouette program. His last commitment for Lancia saw him win the Giro d'Italia, with the Silhouette version.
Return to the ETCC For the following season, Facetti successfully returned to the ETCC with a new partner,
Martino Finotto, and a new car,
BMW 3.0 CSL, while participating in the selection of World Championship Group 5 races, in a Porsche 935. The new partnership started with a podium finish in the 1977 24 Hours of Daytona. Despite having to drive their
Jolly Club entered Porsche 935 very carefully and with low boost from the start, they did finish second, as well winning their class. The returning to the ETCC was a winning one. In Finotto's ex-Luigi BMW form the previous season, and joined by
Umberto Grano for the season opener at Monza, the all-Italian were the only contender for victory once the work-supported Jaguars and Alpina BMWs had retired. This trio followed this was second place at Mugello, albeit three laps behind another Luigi BMW. This result promoted Facetti into the lead of the drivers' championship. The
Enna round was Grano dropped, but Facetti and Finotto lead the 500 km race from start to finish, leading home the clear sweep of the podium by the BMW CSLs of Luigi Racing. A trip to
Czechoslovakia, saw Facetti/Finotto triumph once again, beating the more fancied teams for the third time in five rounds. This after their BMW had survived an engine rebuild following qualifying, helping Facetti move clear in the championship, with Finotto being his nearest rival! After a number non-finishes, the pairing took third place at
Jarama in Spain, and lost the lead in the title race to
Dieter Quester. Going into the final round, Facetti was just 11 points behind. This round was held at
Estoril, dominated by the changeable weather. As early leader, Grano (now racing for Alpina BMW) faltered, Facetti took his CSL past in the final few minutes of the four-hour race, and scored another win for himself and his partner, Finotto. Grano's second place with his partner, Quester secured the Austrian the championship by just six points. For 1978, Finotto had brought the Alpina BMW CSL, and continued to share with Facetti. The first round of the 1978 European Touring Car Championship saw the car arrive at
Brands Hatch, although two of the four BMW entered had used the supply of engines in qualifying and therefore did not start. The other remaining BMW was quicker in the hand of Grano and
Tom Walkinshaw, but due to poor pit by the BMW Italia crew, Facetti/Finotto were able leading until three laps from the end, when Walkinshaw took over the lead. Fresh from their second place in England, Facetti/Finotto were only challenged by their tyres in the four hours event at Monza, eventually winning by seven laps. In the Mugello race, Facetti and
John Fitzpatrick diced the lead in the early stages of the race, only for the Englishman to drop away when his
gear lever came loose. Facetti continued in the lead until Fitzpatrick retook it during a tyre stop. Soon afterwards, the car began to overheat with Finotto at the wheel and would eventually record a
DNF. Facetti/Finotto soon returned to their winning ways when they took victory in the Austria-Trophäe, held at the
Salzburgring. Facetti's pole lap was over a second faster by
Gunnar Nilsson's time set the previous season set in the same car, albeit with an engine revised by Facetti with some 'Italian parts'.
BMW CLS at
Zandvoort in 1979 After coming fifth at Jarama, Facetti suffered more bad luck in Estoril with a slipping clutch. As a result, saw Facetti/Finotto lose the championship lead. They retire with fuel feed problems on the
Österreichring. But, returned to winning way when the series visited Czechoslovakia, when they trashed the opposition, finishing over an 11 km lap ahead of series leader, Grano. When the pair suffered an engine failure on the Nürburgring, they left the series only to return again in 1979. After taking pole position for the 1979 6 Ore di Mugello in the 935, Facetti lead the race until a collision and he wound up in third at the end. After this WCM outing, Facetti returned to ETCC at
Vallelunga. After 300 of the 500 km, Facetti/Finotto were amongst the leading BMWs, when Finotto pitted with boiling radiator; only moments later
Eddy Joosen pitted with exactly the same problem. Repairs were made and both BMWs were back at full pace. At the end of 500 km, Facetti/Finotto were only 9 seconds behind the winners
Bruno Giacomelli/Grano/Joosen. The next ETCC race at Mugello, once again was a battle between the BMWs. Although the result was the same as before the margin of victory was down in just 2.6 seconds. Facetti/Finotto had a dramatic time at Brands Hatch, when they lost the lead of the 500 km race. They were comfortably head of the field for 100 of the 120 laps, when the gear level broke in their old BMW CSL. After quick repairs, Facetti set off desperately to regain ground loss to the rival Luigi BMW. Just a few laps, he had a patch of oil and shot into the catch fencing surrounding the track. Another retirement at the next race, Jarama, this time due fuel feed problems. Their third DNF in a row was down the issues with the cooling system at Österreichring Main rival for the 1979 title was Grano (Luigi BMW), and while he and Facetti/Finotto both suffered from blown head gaskets at Brno, the green Jolly Club BMW could salvage the car to second place the end of the race. The trip to the Nürburgring, saw the first time this season, the pair won a race after they took pole as well. Next on the ETCC agenda was
Zandvoort, which saw the Jolly Club pairing head another BMW 1-2 finish. The BMW dominated the race at Salzburgring, taking all the steps of the podium, with Facetti/Finotto on the number one step, completing a hat-trick of victories. When the ETCC visited Enna, once again it was a BMW festival, with a podium clean sweep, and after a spin by Finotto, the order was decided with the Jolly Club car in second. They went one better at
Silverstone, by winning the
RAC Tourist Trophy, with it the European Touring Car title. Their winning ways continued at
Zolder, the pairs fifth victory in the last six races.
World Sportscars By 1980, Facetti was in change at Achille Motors in Milan. This was a business venture with long-time racing partner Finotto. And that year, Lancia sold Finotto one of their brand new
Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo the factory had been running in the World Championship Group 5, together Facetti and Finotto were able to add points the marque's total. For the 1981, they came up with idea of trying the challenge Porsche with a Ferrari. With
Maranello, only interested in
Formula One, Facetti and Finotto decided to take on all-conquering Porsche 935s, even though their facilities at Archille Motors was hardly equal to Porsches. They chose the 3.0 liter
Ferrari 308 GTB as their base model. As Group 5 was a Silhouette formula, Facetti know he could change a lot of things provided the car looked like the standard road version. This car they called Carma FF {CARlo Facetti and Martino Finotto and the FF for Facetti and Finotto}. 1983 saw the introduction of a new category into World Sportscars,
Group C Junior. As Facetti and Finotto knew they could not complete on level terms with the might of Porsche, Finotto commissioned Stirano to build a car to these new regulations, while Facetti designed and built a 1.8 litre, four-cylinder turbocharged engine. Since power units had to be ascribed to a recognised manufacturer, the team became known as Giannini-Alba, then Carma FF from 1985. The first car, Alba AR2 was a regular class winner with Facetti and Finotto at the helm in 1983, helping Alba to win the Group C Junior Cup. By 1984, this pairing were winless but still assisted Alba to win the Group C2 Prototype FIA Cup. The Alba AR6 continued to use Facetti's engine for the 1985 season, the team lost reliability with it, trying to keep up with pace-setter
Gordon Spice, Finotto turned his attention to the
IMSA Camel Lights category in America for 1986. Finotto and Facetti, who prepared the overhead camshaft Ferrari engines, joined forces with Gaston Andrey Racing and enrolled fellow Italian,
Ruggero Melgrati, who proved to be pace-setter in the Lights division. The team rarely enjoyed reliability to match, but Melgrati and Facetti shared success at Grand Prix of Palm Beach and Löwenbräu Classic. ==Racing record==