The Lingotto Building
When it opened in 1923, Fiat’s Lingotto Building was the largest car factory in the world. It featured an entirely unique design where raw materials entered on the ground floor, and the cars were constructed on an assembly line which climbed through the building. Eventually, the finished cars emerged onto the roof - directly onto a rooftop test track!
The factory sadly closed in 1982, and has since become a multi-use complex featuring a theatre, concert halls, and a Meridien hotel.
You can read more about the wonderful Lingotto Building at Wikipedia.
Thanks to Oliver Dueck and A.
Alex, very sloppy! you need to add another category, “Movie locations”. This is the hugely famous test track featuring in the Italian Job getaway sequence
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/yyy/0itkolpoiuih.jpg
That’s pretty sweet, I had no idea there was stuff like that. I’m assuming there’s a ramp back down to the ground level, on the outside of the building?
I assume this ties in with the release today of the new cinquecento - the new 500? May end up being as ubiquetous as the nwew mini, but I have my doubts. Please, no rust jokes, Fiat actually solved that one many years ago. The new 500 is built in Poland, of course.
http://www.infomotori.com/a_ITA_4762_5.html
the ramp is on the inside and you can walk up it - its part of the mall.
The inside shopping mall is called Gallery http://www.8gallery.it/
Also it is a fair/convention/exhibition center, where there is a book fair http://www.fieralibro.it/ , a food fair “salone del gusto” http://www.slowfood.it/ and many others.
it was the venue for speed skating during the winter olympics in 2006