bertone news story ccw 26 march
1
6 | CLASSIC CAR WEEKLY | Wednesday 26 March 2014 NEWS DAVID SIMISTER NEWS EDITOR The closure of Italian specialist Bertone would be a black day for car design, say some of the world’s top automotive stylists. The Turin-based company counts the Lancia Stratos and Lamborghini Miura among its creations, but ongoing financial woes have forced it to enter bankruptcy proceedings. Peter Stevens, who helped shape the Lotus M100 Elan, McLaren F1 and MG SV, said the firm was a huge inspiration. He told CCW: “Its closure would be a n ALFA ROMEO MONTREAL I nearly bought one, back in the days when tatty examples were £10,000. Gandini and Bertone hit that sweet spot where lantern-jawed good looks meet Italian flourish. But the fragile V8 put me off. JOHN WESTLAKE n LAMBORGHINI ESPADA This sleek four-seater GT looked outrageous, with discordant lines that shouldn’t work but somehow do. It’s not conventionally beautiful but boy is it imposing, flamboyant and unmistakable. RICHARD GUNN n FIAT X1/9 A wedge shape fit for any 1970s supercar in a small and affordable sports car package – it’s no wonder the X1/9 stood the test of time. In fact, it proved such a success that Bertone took over its production in 1982. DAVID SIMISTER n CITROËN XM The wedgy profile of the big Citroën is Bertone at their best. Sharp-suited, inimitable and out of this world. Imagine a cubist executive SM; you have an XM – and what’s not to love about that? Make mine a Series 1 Turbo. SAM SKELTON n LAMBORGHINI MIURA Few cars are genuinely bite-the-back-of-your-hand beautiful, but the Lamborghini Miura, styled by Gandini (at Bertone), is one. It’s telling that Giugiaro and Nuccio Bertone himself tried to claim some design credit. MIKE LE CAPLAIN He said: “It seemed that every important automotive company had something going on in Torino. Bertone was one of these key design companies that contributed to the legend along with Ghia, Pininfarina, Michelotti. “Lily Bertone made a great effort to ensure that the company would continue it as great tradition, however the times have changed for everyone including other great names such as Ital Design Giugiaro, Ghia, Vignale and other lesser known companies that faded away. Strangely, these companies have been replaced by “shadow” design centres that mostly work for China. “The only company left from the past glory of Torino design is Pininfarina.” David Browne, who worked as a designer at British Leyland before becoming the course director of Automotive Design at Coventry, told CCW that Bertone added a richness to the motoring tapestry and was not constrained by the conventions of manufacturer’s in-house design CLASSIC CAR WEEKLY’S FAVOURITE BERTONE CREATIONS Car designers around the world react in horror as Bertone enters bankruptcy proceedings One of Bertone’s most striking designs – the original concept version of the Lamborghini Countach – was shown off on the styling house’s stand at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show “Bertone’s closure would be a tragedy” departments. “Bertone is one of those names which – throughout my formative years and beyond – has always had a degree of ‘mystique’ mixed with Italian style,” he said. “It conjured up images of extraordinary, exotic automotive sculpture far removed from the predictable and ‘sensible’ norm.” Former chief Land Rover designer Alan Mobberley, now working on a new classic-inspired sports car for David Brown Automotive, said: “It will be a sad loss to the automotive design industry – Bertone is synonymous with style and innovation. If you wanted style you went to Bertone or Pininfarina; now things are designed rather than styled, and they’re far more commercial.” tragedy. For me, as a designer, I always looked first at what new show cars Bertone was introducing. That was because Bertone, as a design house, was always the brave one. It was never conservative, often challenging and always thought-provoking. The spectacular Bertone Alfa Romeo Carabo was the car that convinced me that design was what I wanted to do.” Stevens said that Bertone’s production cars such as Alfa Romeo’s GTV, Sprint Speciale and Montreal were all outstandingly good pieces of work. “The Giulietta Sprint, for example, was a fantastically refined little coupé. And as for the ‘BAT’ cars, they look brilliant now in 2014, but they looked like objects from another universe when they were first shown in the early 1950s.” De Tomaso Pantera stylist Tom Tjaarda told CCW that his favourite Bertones were the Alfa Romeo-based BAT creations of the 1950s, and added that it was sad that almost all of Turin’s design houses had disappeared. Nuccio Bertone (black jacket) and his team work on the 1976 Ferrari 308 GT Rainbow show car Designers Tom Tjaarda (left) and Peter Stevens were both heavily influenced by Bertone
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Transcript of bertone news story ccw 26 march
6 | ClassiC Car Weekly | Wednesday 26 March 2014
NeWs
DaViD siMisTer NEWS EDITOR
The closure of Italian specialist Bertone would be a black day for car design, say some of the world’s top automotive stylists. The Turin-based company counts the Lancia Stratos and Lamborghini Miura among its creations, but ongoing financial woes have forced it to enter bankruptcy proceedings.
Peter Stevens, who helped shape the Lotus M100 Elan, McLaren F1 and MG SV, said the firm was a huge inspiration. He told CCW: “Its closure would be a
n alfa roMeo MoNTreal I nearly bought one, back in the days when tatty examples were £10,000. Gandini and Bertone hit that sweet spot where lantern-jawed good looks meet Italian flourish. But the fragile V8 put me off. JOHN WESTLAKE
n laMborghiNi espaDa This sleek four-seater GT looked outrageous, with discordant lines that shouldn’t work but somehow do. It’s not conventionally beautiful but boy is it imposing, flamboyant and unmistakable. RICHARD GUNN
n fiaT X1/9 A wedge shape fit for any 1970s supercar in a small and affordable sports car package – it’s no wonder the X1/9 stood the test of time. In fact, it proved such a success that Bertone took over its production in 1982. DAVID SIMISTER
n CiTroËN XM The wedgy profile of the big Citroën is Bertone at their best. Sharp-suited, inimitable and out of this world. Imagine a cubist executive SM; you have an XM – and what’s not to love about that? Make mine a Series 1 Turbo. SAM SKELTON
n laMborghiNi Miura Few cars are genuinely bite-the-back-of-your-hand beautiful, but the Lamborghini Miura, styled by Gandini (at Bertone), is one. It’s telling that Giugiaro and Nuccio Bertone himself tried to claim some design credit. MIKE LE CAPLAIN
He said: “It seemed that every important automotive company had something going on in Torino. Bertone was one of these key design companies that contributed to the legend along with Ghia, Pininfarina, Michelotti.
“Lily Bertone made a great effort to ensure that the company would continue it as great tradition, however the times have changed for everyone including other great names such as Ital Design Giugiaro, Ghia, Vignale and other lesser known companies that faded away. Strangely, these companies have been replaced by “shadow” design centres that mostly work for China.
“The only company left from the past glory of Torino design is Pininfarina.”
David Browne, who worked as a designer at British Leyland before becoming the course director of Automotive Design at Coventry, told CCW that Bertone added a richness to the motoring tapestry and was not constrained by the conventions of manufacturer’s in-house design
ClassiC Car weekly’s favourite Bertone Creations
Car designers around the world react in horror as Bertone enters bankruptcy proceedings
One of Bertone’s most striking designs – the original concept version of the Lamborghini Countach – was shown off on the styling house’s stand at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show
“Bertone’s closure would be a tragedy”
departments. “Bertone is one of those names which – throughout my formative years and beyond – has always had a degree of ‘mystique’ mixed with Italian style,” he said. “It conjured up images of extraordinary, exotic automotive sculpture far removed from the predictable and ‘sensible’ norm.”
Former chief Land Rover designer
Alan Mobberley, now working on a new classic-inspired sports car for David Brown Automotive, said: “It will be a sad loss to the automotive design industry – Bertone is synonymous with style and innovation. If you wanted style you went to Bertone or Pininfarina; now things are designed rather than styled, and they’re far more commercial.”
tragedy. For me, as a designer, I always looked first at what new show cars Bertone was introducing. That was because Bertone, as a design house, was always the brave one. It was never conservative, often challenging and always thought-provoking. The spectacular Bertone Alfa Romeo Carabo was the car that convinced me that design was what I wanted to do.”
Stevens said that Bertone’s production cars such as Alfa Romeo’s GTV, Sprint Speciale and Montreal were all outstandingly good pieces of work.
“The Giulietta Sprint, for example, was a fantastically refined little coupé. And as for the ‘BAT’ cars, they look brilliant now in 2014, but they looked like objects from another universe when they were first shown in the early 1950s.”
De Tomaso Pantera stylist Tom Tjaarda told CCW that his favourite Bertones were the Alfa Romeo-based BAT creations of the 1950s, and added that it was sad that almost all of Turin’s design houses had disappeared.
Nuccio Bertone (black jacket) and his team work on the 1976 Ferrari 308 GT Rainbow show car
Designers Tom Tjaarda (left) and Peter Stevens were both heavily influenced by Bertone
