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Strangely, these companies have been
replaced by “shadow” design centres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
CardesignersaroundtheworldreactinhorrorasBertoneentersbankruptcyproceedings
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