Dick Burzi facts for kids

Ricardo Burzi (born around 1900 – died unknown) was a talented car designer from Argentina. He is best known for his important work with the Austin Motor Company in Birmingham, England.

Early Life and Moving to Europe

Ricardo Burzi was born around 1900 in Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina. His mother was French. By 1929, Burzi was working in Italy for a car company called Lancia.

However, he had to leave Italy. He had drawn some cartoons about a political leader, Benito Mussolini, which were published in newspapers. This caused problems, so Lancia first moved him to their car body-building firm in Paris, France.

Joining Austin Motor Company

In 1929, a very important person named Lord Austin, who founded the Austin Motor Company, hired Burzi. Lord Austin had met Vincenzo Lancia, the head of Lancia, on a ship called the Queen Mary. Lancia recommended Burzi to Lord Austin.

Burzi arrived at the Austin factory in Longbridge, Birmingham, England, without knowing any English. But he quickly became known to everyone as "Dick."

Designing Cars and Wartime

At first, some of Burzi's designs were thought to be too modern for British tastes by Lord Austin. But in 1938, a new manager named Leonard Lord made Burzi the head of car styling. This meant Burzi was in charge of how Austin cars would look.

When World War II began and Italy joined the war, Burzi was held on the Isle of Man because of his Italian background. This was a common practice during wartime for people from enemy countries. He was released in 1943 and immediately started working on designing the Austin A40 car.

Famous Austin Car Designs

After the war, Ricardo Burzi designed many well-known cars for Austin. These included:

• The Austin A30
• The Austin A40
• The Austin A70
• The Austin A90

These cars became popular and helped shape the look of Austin vehicles for many years.