Fabio Buzzi was born in Lecco in 1943, and is descendent from a family tied for centuries to the art of building and design. His powerboat competition career started in 1960 and he graduated in mechanical engineering in 1971 from the Polytechnical University of Turin where he took a degree in engineering with a thesis on a self-constructed vehicle. Fabio Buzzi founded his industrial activity in the boating sector under the FB Design trademark.
Fabio Buzzi began to compete in offshore racing in 1978, when he won the Italian and European Class 3 Championships. The following year he set the world speed record for diesel boats using a VM engine at a top speed of 191.58 km/h.
In 1986 he designed the Seatek engine, founding this company to produce diesel engines with a very high performance. With this engine in 1988 he became Italian, European and World Champion of the Open class.
FB Design boats have won a total of 52 World Championships, the Harmsworth Trophy 4 times (1993, 1994, 1995 and 2004) and have set 56 world speed records. Buzzi himself has won 10 World Championships.
In 1992, using a Seatek-powered boat he again succeeded in beating the diesel record at the speed of 252 Km/h.
In 2004 Fabio Buzzi is again world champion of P classes in Key West, wins the Harmsworth Trophy, set two long distance records (Venice-Montecarlo and Tampa-Miami) and wins the Pavia-Venezia race at an average speed of 198 km/h with a hydroplane powered by a gas turbine, at the respectable age of 61! |
