Amédée Gordini had been tuning cars and competing in motor races since the 1930s. His results attracted the attention of Simca, the French assembler of Fiat vehicles, which hired him to run its motorsport programme and develop performance road cars. Their association continued after World War II.
In 1946 Gordini introduced the first cars to carry his name: Fiat-engined single-seaters raced by him and José Scaron. These cars achieved several victories, establishing the brand's identity as a low-budget constructor capable of punching above its weight. In the late 1940s the company opened a workshop on the Boulevard Victor in Paris, from which it entered both sports car and Grand Prix racing.
The relationship with Simca began to deteriorate in 1951 due to political conflicts, and the two organisations eventually parted ways, leaving Gordini to operate independently.
Gordini competed in the FIA World Championship from 1950 to 1956, returning briefly in 1957 with an eight-cylinder engine. Although the company never won a World Championship Grand Prix, it achieved a significant success in Formula Two during this period, where smaller budgets and lighter cars allowed it to compete on more equal terms. The Gordini cars were typically underfunded compared with the factory efforts from Ferrari and Maserati, yet they remained a fixture on European circuits.
The Formula One programme ended after 1956, with Gordini turning its attention toward a new partnership.
Following the closure of the Grand Prix programme, Gordini shifted to working as an engine tuner and development partner for Renault. Renault-Gordini cars competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans between 1962 and 1969. Gordini-tuned engines also powered Alpine, a rival sports car manufacturer that was likewise associated with Renault.
The first road car collaboration between Gordini and Renault was the Dauphine Gordini of 1957, a modified version of the standard Renault Dauphine that proved commercially successful. Gordini-tuned Renault cars also achieved victories in various rallies during the 1950s and 1960s.
At the end of 1968, Amédée Gordini retired and sold a 70 percent majority stake in his firm to Renault. The operation was relocated to Viry-Châtillon in 1969 and became a performance division of Renault. In 1976 it merged with Alpine to form Renault Sport, with the Gordini name becoming wholly owned by Renault in 1977. René Vuaillat became director of Gordini on 1 January 1976.
Under the Renault umbrella the Gordini name appeared on performance versions of multiple production models: the Renault 5, Renault 8, Renault 12, and Renault 17 all received Gordini variants. The characteristic colour scheme — bleu de France with white stripes, referencing the French national motor racing colour — became closely associated with these models.
In November 2009 Renault announced a revival of the Gordini name for an exclusive line of performance models, in a similar fashion to Fiat's concurrent revival of its Abarth brand. Modern cars to carry the Gordini name have included the Renault Twingo Gordini, Clio Gordini RS, and Wind Gordini.
Amédée Gordini's ability to build competitive racing cars on minimal resources made him one of the most admired independent constructors of his era. The Gordini name persisted in performance motoring for more than seven decades after his first racing cars appeared, a span that encompassed Formula One, Le Mans, rally victories, and successive generations of road cars. The nickname "Le Sorcier" remains the most enduring tribute to his engineering resourcefulness.