Wifredo Pelayo Ricart Medina (15 May 1897 – 19 August 1974)[1] was a Spanish engineer, designer and executive manager in the automotive industry, who spent his professional career in Spain and Italy."With sleek, oiled hair and smart clothes that he wore with a somewhat levantine elegance,' Ferrari wrote afterwards, 'he affected jackets with sleeves that came far down below his wrists, and shoes with enormously thick rubber soles.'By 1940 he was working on a 4-bank 28 cylinder radial aero-engine, and the following year designed a unitary construction road car for postwar production with all independent suspension, a twin-cam 2 litre engine, and a gearbox integral with the final drive — a radical layout not unlike that eventually adopted for the Alfetta Coupe of 1974.In the early fifties, the results of Ricart's efforts were visible: In October 1951, in the Paris Motor Show a newcomer attracted all the looks; it was an incredible sophisticated sports car, the Pegaso Z-102.But in this respect, Ricart had too every reason to feel proud: the Pegaso Diesel and Z-207 trucks, the Z-403 and Z-404 coaches or the Z-501 trolleybus, and last but not least the new from scratch Enasa plant in Barajas (Madrid) were not only technical successes, but situated Spanish automotive industry in the best starting point to cope with the impressive economic development Spain undertook in the 60s and 70s.
