While the system was very different to that employed in other car factories it was in fact entirely logical, with raw materials entering the factory on the ground floor before being sent to the separate areas that were responsible for constructing sub-assemblies such as chassis, body, engines and transmission. Each of these areas was effectively self-contained, sending completed assemblies onwards to upper floors where further assembly took place. 

By the time the top floor was reached you’d have found two engine lines – one for four-cylinder units, one for sixes – and two final assembly lines from which finished cars rolled, all ready for a test drive on the banked, 3,000ft long rooftop track. 

Ramps within the main factory allowed for the movement of vehicles to the next level during construction, as well as their delivery back to the ground floor once testing was complete. 

And while it’s that main building and track that are best remembered, the Lingotto site actually consisted of a number of smaller buildings and workshops that surrounded the production area, including a separate office building that was known as the palazzina (little palace). The latter had been completed in 1926, around the same time that two spiral ramps were also completed; connecting the test track to the ground floor, they’d been required to ease movement within an ever-busier factory.