Bertone
Encyclopedia
Gruppo Bertone is an Italian
automobile
company, which has specialized in car styling, coachbuilding
and manufacturing. Bertone styling is distinctive, with most cars having a strong "family resemblance" even if badged by different manufacturers. Bertone has styled cars for Abarth
, Alfa Romeo
, Citroën
, Ferrari
, Fiat
, Iso Rivolta
, Lancia
, Lamborghini
, Mercedes Benz, Opel
and Volvo Cars
among others. In addition the Bertone studio were responsible for two of the later designs of the Lambretta Italian motorscooter. In the late 1980s, Bertone styled the K20 motorcycle helmet for Swiss bicycle and motorcycle helmet manufacturer Kiwi.
The company is based in Grugliasco
. It was founded as Carrozzeria Bertone in 1912 by Giovanni Bertone
. Designer Nuccio Bertone
took charge after World War II
. The company was divided into two units: Carrozzeria for manufacturing and Stile Bertone for styling. The company is currently headed by Lilli Bertone, widow of Nuccio.
started a carriage manufacturing business. Three workers help him to build horse-drawn vehicles.
In these first decades of the 20th century, cars were very rare. The road traffic was dominated by horse-drawn carriages. The coaches built by the young Bertone were particularly regarded for their excellent accuracy, quality and solidity.
In 1914 Giuseppe Bertone, nicknamed Nuccio, second son of Giovanni, was born. This nickname later becomes known worldwide as the signature of one of the greatest Italian style masters in the world.
The outbreak of the first world war triggers a major crisis of the young Italian industrial sector. The crisis heavily affects Giovanni Bertone
who is forced to close his shop.
Twenty people were on the payroll. One year later, the first important contract was signed: a torpedo
styled body based on the SPA 23S chassis. Then the FIAT "501 Sport Siluro Corsa", first of a family of models that would characterize the brand in the years to come, is designed. With that, the high performance sport car was born.
During the Twenties Turin came to represent one of the worldwide centers of excellence of the car industry. Bertone was sitting on the hub of it and formed partnerships with almost all the manufacturers of the day. Giovanni Bertone began doing bodywork on Fast, Chiribiri, Aurea, SCAT and Diatto chassis. The most important and long lasting relationships were those with the two biggest Turin manufacturers: FIAT and Lancia.
Vincenzo Lancia
realised straight away that Giovanni Bertone was an outstanding skilled craftsman with a great future ahead of him. Affectionately nicknaming him 'Bertunot', he commissioned Bertone to create complete car bodies, above all for the limited series that the companies of the day were not always equipped to manufacture. This was Bertone's first opportunity to carry out limited production of special cars on standard mechanical bases, and was the beginning of a great industrial experience.
These are very exciting years for Bertone himself, and also for the evolution of industrial style and design: car body shapes are slowly but continuously changing, angular shapes begin to fade, wings start to be joined together.
Giovanni Bertone produced torpedo and saloon bodies for FIAT
and Lancia
, and also for Itala, Diatto
and SPA
. He also worked on commissions for private customers eager for exclusivity. Alongside sports models like the 1928 Ansaldo 6BS, Giovanni Bertone also designed luxury cars like the FIAT 505 limousine and the Itala 51S, both in 1924, and the Lancia Lambda VIII Series in 1928.
. The following year, 1933, a corner stone event for the Carrozzeria Bertone occurred: Nuccio, then 19, officially began working in his father's company.
In the same period Bertone began working on commercial vehicles, and as the business grew, new premises were needed. The company moved to Corso Peschiera 225. There were now 50 people on the staff.
In 1934 Bertone created the extraordinary Fiat 527S Ardita 2500, a real turning point in car design, with some incredible new details such as the stunning front headlights with fairing along the bonnet. With the Ardita a new kind of style was created, destined to take off towards the end of the decade, with FIAT and Lancia models astounding for their day. Examples were the 'six window' FIAT 1500 Aerodinamica, the opulent Lancia Aprilia Cabriolet and the novel Fiat 1500 Torpedo, with structural features that had never been seen before, such as the fold-away hood which stowed away entirely inside the car.
With his bold innovations and elegant creations, Bertone is highly appreciated by car experts and fans.
It was a hard time. The demand was scarce. Raw materials and labor was lacking. Military orders where difficult to fulfill. But production did not stop in the Corso Peschiera plant, some luxurious Lancia Aprilia are manufactured as well as the extremely elegant long chassis Fiat 2800 cabriolet, the only one of its kind, built on commission for race driver and motoring journalist Giovanni Lurani Cernuschi.
After the war, as the long slow process of reconstruction began in Europe, the big industrial companies gradually scaled up their production levels, and the bodyworks got back to work. During these difficult years Nuccio Bertone created cars like the Lancia Aprilia Cabriolet and the Fiat 1100 Stanguellini racing car, which were precursors to some of the design trends of the following decade.
At the end of the Forties, Nuccio Bertone turned to racing, at the wheel of a number of different cars, including a Fiat 500 Barchetta he built for himself. At the end of the decade the meeting with Vittorio Stanguellini led to the creation of a coupé with a Fiat 1100 chassis which got a great public appreciation..
The relationship between Bertone and Alfa Romeo reached its creative peak with the Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica (BAT) concept cars which pushed back the boundaries of car design and aerodynamics: the BAT 5 (1953), the BAT 7 (1954), and the BAT 9 (1955). Research into aerodynamics culminated in the production of the Abarth 750 Record in 1956, built on a Fiat 600 chassis and tested on the high speed track at Monza. This Abarth set an impressive ten world records, including doing 4,000 km at an average of 156.36 km/h and covering 10,125.26 km in 72 hours.
1957 saw the company expanding to start the production of the NSU Sport Prinz. The factory in Corso Peschiera could not cope with the forecasted production volumes. Construction work began in Grugliasco on the outskirts of Turin for a new plant which became operative in 1959, with a workforce of 550.
At the end of the Fifties Bertone came up with some sports berlinetta which were to make history, such as the Giulietta Sprint Special, the Aston Martin DB2/4
and the Maserati 3500 GT.
' after the commissioning client, and the other for the his personal use, the Aston Martin DB4 GT 'Jet' and the Maserati 5000 GT
.
At the same time two new industrial partnerships were getting under way, with the work on the SIMCA 1000 Coupé and the BMW 3200 CS
limited series, as was the important but unfortunate ASA 1000, better known as the 'Ferrarina', or 'little Ferrari' (as the project originated with Enzo Ferrari), which, despite the high expectations of the public, never made it to the market.
The Iso-Rivolta GT 300 and GT 340 and the Iso Grifo were also created in this period. Nuccio Bertone also designed a prototype cabriolet of the latter and a racing version known as the A3C. The Grifo years were also the years of the Corvair Testudo, driven personally by Nuccio Bertone to the Geneva Motor Show in 1963. The following year saw the Alfa Romeo Canguro, followed in 1965 by the Alfa Romeo Giulia GT, rightful heir of the Giulietta Sprint.
In the same year Carrozzeria Bertone experienced a major turning-point, with the launch of the Fiat 850 Spider. The commercial success of this model led Nuccio Bertone to increase the company's production capacity to 120 units per day (between 1965 and 1972 nearly 140,000 were produced, the great majority was sold in the US). With the 850 Spider the company took a giant leap forward in terms of production volumes, from the 13,000 bodies produced in 1966 to nearly 30,000 in 1968, an increase of 40 percent.
The end of the Sixties saw the beginning of the partnership with Ferruccio Lamborghini that was destined to make history in the car world. The first vehicle to come out of this was the revolutionary Miura
, presented at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show, which reinvented the high performance coupé design concept. The Miura was followed by the Marzal (1967) and the Espada (1968). In the same period two other coupés appeared: the Alfa Romeo Montreal and the Fiat Dino Coupé, both out in 1967.
Astounding, ground-breaking cars, inventing their own language for the design of the future: these were Nuccio Bertone's trademarks.
At the Paris Motor Show of 1968 he presented the Carabo concept car, based on an Alfa 33 chassis.
and the Urraco. With the astounding Stratos Zero prototype, built on a Lancia Fulvia 1.6 HF base, Bertone came to represent a new point of reference in modern art, as well as on the international car design scene. The Stratos Zero, which was presented at the 1970 Turin Motor Show, went beyond mere questions of style to create a timeless blend of architecture, sculpture and industrial design.
The following year, with some of the Zero's styling cues as a starting point, Bertone created the Lancia Stratos Stradale, a compact coupè destined mainly for the racing circuit, and which in fact went on to bring home numerous victories in various rally world championships.
In 1972, at the age of 88, Giovanni Bertone passed away.
In the same year, as a kind of tacit tribute to the company's founder, the Maserati Khamsin
and the Fiat X1/9
came out. The latter, foreshadowed by the Runabout concept car, was the heir of the 850 Spider, and went on to enjoy the same runaway commercial success. Based on the Fiat 128 chassis, but with a mid-rear engine, the X1/9 went into production in 1972 and 160,000 units had been manufactured by the time production stopped in 1988.
Meanwhile Nuccio Bertone's prolific drawing board saw a succession of supercars, runabouts and provocative style concepts: the Lamborghini Countach
and the DinoFerrari 308 GT4 (1973), the Audi 50 and Innocenti Mini 90 (1974), the Fiat 131 Abarth Rally (1975) and the prototype Alfa Romeo Navajo (1976).
In the same year, the company began working for Volvo, on the 264 TE. The Volvo262 C, which was presented at the 1977 Geneva Motor Show, was entirely manufactured by Bertone, from the assembly of the basic body to the fitting of the mechanical components and the road trials.
This procedural turning point had a big hand in transforming the company, which was now all set to become a car manufacturer in its own right.
In 1982 Nuccio Bertone turned out another important design, the Citroen BX
. After entering into a joint-venture with Volvo in 1985 the company began production of the 780
, an elegant two-door saloon entirely created by Nuccio Bertone, from the formal design of the model to the full production cycle.
A new commercial agreement drawn up with General Motors Europe in 1987 saw production of the Kadett Cabrio handed over to Bertone. The partnership with Opel continued with the first generation of the Astra Cabrio, and with the Astra Coupé and AstraCabriolet.
The end of the eighties saw the Citroen XM
, and the Freeclimber off-roader with mechanical components by Daihatsu and BMW engines.
Capturing the attention of public and experts alike at the 1992 Turin Motor Show was the aggressively futuristic Blitz barchetta, a showcar which featured an electric engine and avant-garde construction solutions: a tubular chassis in special steel integrated with sandwich-structuredfiber glass panels, bodywork in composite materials and carbon interiors.
In 1993 the Opel Astra Cabrio
and the Fiat Punto Cabrio went into production, with the entire production cycle for both cars at the Grugliasco factory: assembly of the bodywork, mechanical components integration, paintwork and fittings. A complete production cycle, ending with the final testing process, which is carried out according to the procedures and standards of the commissioning companies.
Continuing its research into low environmental-impact vehicles, in 1994 Bertone presented the ZER
(Zero Emission Record), a futuristic reinterpretation of the unforgettable Abarth 750 Record. Expressly conceived and created to yield the highest performance levels in the electric car sector, the ZER (which boasts a Cx of 0.11) set the world one hour long distance record (199.822 km), and broke the 300 km/h barrier, setting the new world speed record for electric cars (with a top speed of 303.977 km/h).
In 1994, Carrozzeria Bertone became the first manufacturer in Italy to be awarded the ISO 9001 quality certification. Meanwhile Nuccio Bertone did not turn his back on a past dedicated to bodywork and continued to design working prototypes: the Karisma (1994), a four-seater berlinetta on a Porsche base, the Kayak
(1995), a coupé on a Lancia K base, the Slalom 'coupé de chasse' on an Opel Calibra base, and the Enduro 4x4, a SUV on a Fiat Brava floorpan.
In 2009, the Grugliasco plant with its manufacturing activities was taken over by FIAT. Bertone undergoes a major restructuring and becomes a Fully integrated service company in the automotive, transportation and industrial design sectors. Its major competitive advantage is the unique ability to respond in a flexible and extremely fast way to the demand and needs of its customers.
Bertone has a workforce of about 300, mainly engineers and designers, 300 thousand engineering hours per year capacity, can manage up to four prototype projects per year, starting with the first style drafts to the effective manufacturing of the prototype. The Bertone “Atelier” continues its traditional work in designing and manufacturing one of a kind cars, upon customers specific requests. The history of the past feeds the innovation of the future.
Bertone today, almost a hundred years old, is expanding its expertise and capabilities in key sectors in nowadays continuously changing global economy, like ICT and sustainable transportation systems. Bertone is an integrated industrial group, based on a set of operational divisions: Engineering, Style, ICT, Energy and Glass.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
company, which has specialized in car styling, coachbuilding
Coachbuilder
A coachbuilder is a manufacturer of bodies for carriages or automobiles.The trade dates back several centuries. Rippon was active in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Barker founded in 1710 by an officer in Queen Anne's Guards, Brewster a relative newcomer , formed in 1810. Others in Britain included...
and manufacturing. Bertone styling is distinctive, with most cars having a strong "family resemblance" even if badged by different manufacturers. Bertone has styled cars for Abarth
Abarth
Abarth is an Italian racing car maker founded by Austrian-Italian Carlo Abarth and Italian Armando Scagliarini in Turin in 1949. Its logo depicts a stylized scorpion on a red and yellow background.- History :...
, Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...
, Citroën
Citroën
Citroën is a major French automobile manufacturer, part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group.Founded in 1919 by French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën , Citroën was the first mass-production car company outside the USA and pioneered the modern concept of creating a sales and services network that...
, Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...
, Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
, Iso Rivolta
Iso Rivolta
Iso Rivolta was an automobile and motorbike manufacturer in Italy, predominantly active from the late 1940s through the early 1970s. They are known for the iconic Isetta 'bubble car' of the 1950s, and for a number of powerful performance cars in the 60s and early 70s.-History:Iso Rivolta was...
, Lancia
Lancia
Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and which became part of the Fiat Group in 1969. The company has a long history of producing distinctive cars and also has a strong rally heritage. Some modern Lancias are seen as presenting a more...
, Lamborghini
Lamborghini
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini , is an Italian car manufacturer. The company was founded by manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963, with the objective of producing a refined grand touring car to compete with established offerings from marques like...
, Mercedes Benz, Opel
Opel
Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...
and Volvo Cars
Volvo Cars
Volvo Car Corporation, or Volvo Personvagnar AB, is a Swedish automobile manufacturer founded in 1927, in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Volvo was originally formed as a subsidiary company to the ball bearing maker SKF. When Volvo AB was introduced on the Swedish...
among others. In addition the Bertone studio were responsible for two of the later designs of the Lambretta Italian motorscooter. In the late 1980s, Bertone styled the K20 motorcycle helmet for Swiss bicycle and motorcycle helmet manufacturer Kiwi.
The company is based in Grugliasco
Grugliasco
Grugliasco is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 9 km west of Turin.Grugliasco borders the following municipalities: Turin, Collegno, and Rivoli.-External links:*...
. It was founded as Carrozzeria Bertone in 1912 by Giovanni Bertone
Giovanni Bertone
Giovanni Bertone was an Italian automobile designer, known for establishing the Carrozzeria Bertone business.-Life and career:Bertone was the sixth of the seven sons from a farming family...
. Designer Nuccio Bertone
Nuccio Bertone
Giuseppe Bertone, called "Nuccio", was a famed automobile designer and constructor...
took charge after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The company was divided into two units: Carrozzeria for manufacturing and Stile Bertone for styling. The company is currently headed by Lilli Bertone, widow of Nuccio.
History of Bertone
The Bertone company was founded in November 1912. In Turin at age 28, Giovanni BertoneGiovanni Bertone
Giovanni Bertone was an Italian automobile designer, known for establishing the Carrozzeria Bertone business.-Life and career:Bertone was the sixth of the seven sons from a farming family...
started a carriage manufacturing business. Three workers help him to build horse-drawn vehicles.
In these first decades of the 20th century, cars were very rare. The road traffic was dominated by horse-drawn carriages. The coaches built by the young Bertone were particularly regarded for their excellent accuracy, quality and solidity.
In 1914 Giuseppe Bertone, nicknamed Nuccio, second son of Giovanni, was born. This nickname later becomes known worldwide as the signature of one of the greatest Italian style masters in the world.
The outbreak of the first world war triggers a major crisis of the young Italian industrial sector. The crisis heavily affects Giovanni Bertone
Giovanni Bertone
Giovanni Bertone was an Italian automobile designer, known for establishing the Carrozzeria Bertone business.-Life and career:Bertone was the sixth of the seven sons from a farming family...
who is forced to close his shop.
1920s
With the end of the war, Bertone's business re-started and expanded its activities focusing on the automotive sector. In 1920 a new plant was opened in via Monginevro 119, in Turin.Twenty people were on the payroll. One year later, the first important contract was signed: a torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
styled body based on the SPA 23S chassis. Then the FIAT "501 Sport Siluro Corsa", first of a family of models that would characterize the brand in the years to come, is designed. With that, the high performance sport car was born.
During the Twenties Turin came to represent one of the worldwide centers of excellence of the car industry. Bertone was sitting on the hub of it and formed partnerships with almost all the manufacturers of the day. Giovanni Bertone began doing bodywork on Fast, Chiribiri, Aurea, SCAT and Diatto chassis. The most important and long lasting relationships were those with the two biggest Turin manufacturers: FIAT and Lancia.
Vincenzo Lancia
Vincenzo Lancia
Vincenzo Lancia was an Italian pilot, engineer and founder of Lancia.Vincenzo Lancia was born in the small village of Fobello on 24 August 1881, close to Turin...
realised straight away that Giovanni Bertone was an outstanding skilled craftsman with a great future ahead of him. Affectionately nicknaming him 'Bertunot', he commissioned Bertone to create complete car bodies, above all for the limited series that the companies of the day were not always equipped to manufacture. This was Bertone's first opportunity to carry out limited production of special cars on standard mechanical bases, and was the beginning of a great industrial experience.
These are very exciting years for Bertone himself, and also for the evolution of industrial style and design: car body shapes are slowly but continuously changing, angular shapes begin to fade, wings start to be joined together.
Giovanni Bertone produced torpedo and saloon bodies for FIAT
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
and Lancia
Lancia
Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and which became part of the Fiat Group in 1969. The company has a long history of producing distinctive cars and also has a strong rally heritage. Some modern Lancias are seen as presenting a more...
, and also for Itala, Diatto
Diatto
Diatto was an Italian car maker founded in 1905 in Turin but its history started 175 years ago.1835-The year the company is founded.- In 1835, in Turin, on the banks of the river Po, Guglielmo Diatto founds a workshop for the construction of carriages for nobility.- The Diatto “Manifattura di...
and SPA
SPA
SPA can refer to:* SPA , a 1990s British band-As an abbreviation:* Saddle point approximation, a term used in quantum field theory* Sales and Purchase Agreement, a legal term for selling a company...
. He also worked on commissions for private customers eager for exclusivity. Alongside sports models like the 1928 Ansaldo 6BS, Giovanni Bertone also designed luxury cars like the FIAT 505 limousine and the Itala 51S, both in 1924, and the Lancia Lambda VIII Series in 1928.
1930s
Despite the fact that the great depression of 1929 had brought many Turin carmakers to their knees, Giovanni Bertone's shrewd management allowed his company to carry on creating cars with great appeal. In 1932 he designed the imposingly elegant Lancia ArtenaLancia Artena
The Lancia Artena was produced between 1931 and 1936 by the Italian automanufacturer Lancia. The car was powered by a 2 litre Lancia V4 engine....
. The following year, 1933, a corner stone event for the Carrozzeria Bertone occurred: Nuccio, then 19, officially began working in his father's company.
In the same period Bertone began working on commercial vehicles, and as the business grew, new premises were needed. The company moved to Corso Peschiera 225. There were now 50 people on the staff.
In 1934 Bertone created the extraordinary Fiat 527S Ardita 2500, a real turning point in car design, with some incredible new details such as the stunning front headlights with fairing along the bonnet. With the Ardita a new kind of style was created, destined to take off towards the end of the decade, with FIAT and Lancia models astounding for their day. Examples were the 'six window' FIAT 1500 Aerodinamica, the opulent Lancia Aprilia Cabriolet and the novel Fiat 1500 Torpedo, with structural features that had never been seen before, such as the fold-away hood which stowed away entirely inside the car.
With his bold innovations and elegant creations, Bertone is highly appreciated by car experts and fans.
1940s
With the outbreak of World War II, the car market experienced a sudden, drastic downturn. Almost all the bodywork manufacturers, including Bertone, reacted to the crisis by turning to military vehicles of various kinds (such as the Bertone ambulance on Lancia Artena base).It was a hard time. The demand was scarce. Raw materials and labor was lacking. Military orders where difficult to fulfill. But production did not stop in the Corso Peschiera plant, some luxurious Lancia Aprilia are manufactured as well as the extremely elegant long chassis Fiat 2800 cabriolet, the only one of its kind, built on commission for race driver and motoring journalist Giovanni Lurani Cernuschi.
After the war, as the long slow process of reconstruction began in Europe, the big industrial companies gradually scaled up their production levels, and the bodyworks got back to work. During these difficult years Nuccio Bertone created cars like the Lancia Aprilia Cabriolet and the Fiat 1100 Stanguellini racing car, which were precursors to some of the design trends of the following decade.
At the end of the Forties, Nuccio Bertone turned to racing, at the wheel of a number of different cars, including a Fiat 500 Barchetta he built for himself. At the end of the decade the meeting with Vittorio Stanguellini led to the creation of a coupé with a Fiat 1100 chassis which got a great public appreciation..
1950s
The Fifties brought in the first orders from abroad, in particular from MG and Bristol in1952. The following year Nuccio Bertone designed the prototype for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint, which was presented at the 1954 Turin Motor Show. A production of 1000 was originally planned, but in the end nearly 40,000 vehicles were made between 1954 and 1965.The relationship between Bertone and Alfa Romeo reached its creative peak with the Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica (BAT) concept cars which pushed back the boundaries of car design and aerodynamics: the BAT 5 (1953), the BAT 7 (1954), and the BAT 9 (1955). Research into aerodynamics culminated in the production of the Abarth 750 Record in 1956, built on a Fiat 600 chassis and tested on the high speed track at Monza. This Abarth set an impressive ten world records, including doing 4,000 km at an average of 156.36 km/h and covering 10,125.26 km in 72 hours.
1957 saw the company expanding to start the production of the NSU Sport Prinz. The factory in Corso Peschiera could not cope with the forecasted production volumes. Construction work began in Grugliasco on the outskirts of Turin for a new plant which became operative in 1959, with a workforce of 550.
At the end of the Fifties Bertone came up with some sports berlinetta which were to make history, such as the Giulietta Sprint Special, the Aston Martin DB2/4
Aston Martin DB2/4
The DB2/4 is a grand tourer sold by Aston Martin from 1953 through 1957. It was based on the DB2 it replaced, available as a Drophead coupe and 2+2 hatchback well ahead of the times. Other changes included a wraparound windscreen, larger bumpers, and repositioned headlights...
and the Maserati 3500 GT.
1960s
The Sixties were the years of the Italian-style GT. Nuccio Bertone came up with five variations on the theme which would always be dear to his heart, in the shape of five extremely racy GT models: the Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint, in coupé and cabriolet versions, two Ferrari 250 GT, one named 'WaxWax
thumb|right|[[Cetyl palmitate]], a typical wax ester.Wax refers to a class of chemical compounds that are plastic near ambient temperatures. Characteristically, they melt above 45 °C to give a low viscosity liquid. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble in organic, nonpolar solvents...
' after the commissioning client, and the other for the his personal use, the Aston Martin DB4 GT 'Jet' and the Maserati 5000 GT
Maserati 5000 GT
Maserati 5000 GT were thirty-four 2-door coupé automobiles, made by Maserati of Italy.The first car in the Tipo 103 series, was the Shah of Persia, delivered to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had been impressed by the Maserati 3500...
.
At the same time two new industrial partnerships were getting under way, with the work on the SIMCA 1000 Coupé and the BMW 3200 CS
BMW 3200 CS
The BMW 3200 CS was a sports touring car manufactured by BMW between January 1962 and September 1965. It was designed by Bertone and was introduced at the 1961 Frankfurt Motor Show. More than five hundred were built....
limited series, as was the important but unfortunate ASA 1000, better known as the 'Ferrarina', or 'little Ferrari' (as the project originated with Enzo Ferrari), which, despite the high expectations of the public, never made it to the market.
The Iso-Rivolta GT 300 and GT 340 and the Iso Grifo were also created in this period. Nuccio Bertone also designed a prototype cabriolet of the latter and a racing version known as the A3C. The Grifo years were also the years of the Corvair Testudo, driven personally by Nuccio Bertone to the Geneva Motor Show in 1963. The following year saw the Alfa Romeo Canguro, followed in 1965 by the Alfa Romeo Giulia GT, rightful heir of the Giulietta Sprint.
In the same year Carrozzeria Bertone experienced a major turning-point, with the launch of the Fiat 850 Spider. The commercial success of this model led Nuccio Bertone to increase the company's production capacity to 120 units per day (between 1965 and 1972 nearly 140,000 were produced, the great majority was sold in the US). With the 850 Spider the company took a giant leap forward in terms of production volumes, from the 13,000 bodies produced in 1966 to nearly 30,000 in 1968, an increase of 40 percent.
The end of the Sixties saw the beginning of the partnership with Ferruccio Lamborghini that was destined to make history in the car world. The first vehicle to come out of this was the revolutionary Miura
Miura
-Places:*Miura, Kanagawa*Miurakaigan Station*Miura District, Kanagawa*Miura Peninsula*Ganadería Miura, the home of the Miura fighting bull line-People:*Miura clan - Japanese descended clan of the Taira*Miura Anjin, honorific title of William Adams...
, presented at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show, which reinvented the high performance coupé design concept. The Miura was followed by the Marzal (1967) and the Espada (1968). In the same period two other coupés appeared: the Alfa Romeo Montreal and the Fiat Dino Coupé, both out in 1967.
Astounding, ground-breaking cars, inventing their own language for the design of the future: these were Nuccio Bertone's trademarks.
At the Paris Motor Show of 1968 he presented the Carabo concept car, based on an Alfa 33 chassis.
1970s
By 1970 Bertone had a workforce of 1500 and the Grugliasco factory covered an area of 267,000 sq.m. The partnership with Lamborghini led to the development of the JaramaJarama
Jarama is a river in central Spain. It flows north to south, and passes east of Madrid when El Atazar Dam is built on a tributary, the Lozoya River. It flows into the river Tagus in Aranjuez...
and the Urraco. With the astounding Stratos Zero prototype, built on a Lancia Fulvia 1.6 HF base, Bertone came to represent a new point of reference in modern art, as well as on the international car design scene. The Stratos Zero, which was presented at the 1970 Turin Motor Show, went beyond mere questions of style to create a timeless blend of architecture, sculpture and industrial design.
The following year, with some of the Zero's styling cues as a starting point, Bertone created the Lancia Stratos Stradale, a compact coupè destined mainly for the racing circuit, and which in fact went on to bring home numerous victories in various rally world championships.
In 1972, at the age of 88, Giovanni Bertone passed away.
In the same year, as a kind of tacit tribute to the company's founder, the Maserati Khamsin
Maserati Khamsin
The Maserati Khamsin was a sports car introduced as a Bertone prototype in 1972 at the Turin Auto Show. In 1973 it was put on display at the Paris Motor Show, where it was badged as a Maserati...
and the Fiat X1/9
Fiat X1/9
The Fiat X1/9 is a two-seater mid-engined sports car designed by Bertone and manufactured by Fiat from 1972-1982 and subsequently by Bertone from 1982-1989....
came out. The latter, foreshadowed by the Runabout concept car, was the heir of the 850 Spider, and went on to enjoy the same runaway commercial success. Based on the Fiat 128 chassis, but with a mid-rear engine, the X1/9 went into production in 1972 and 160,000 units had been manufactured by the time production stopped in 1988.
Meanwhile Nuccio Bertone's prolific drawing board saw a succession of supercars, runabouts and provocative style concepts: the Lamborghini Countach
Lamborghini Countach
The Lamborghini Countach is a mid-engined supercar that was produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini from 1974 to 1990. Its design both pioneered and popularized the wedge-shaped, sharply angled look popular in many high performance sports cars...
and the DinoFerrari 308 GT4 (1973), the Audi 50 and Innocenti Mini 90 (1974), the Fiat 131 Abarth Rally (1975) and the prototype Alfa Romeo Navajo (1976).
In the same year, the company began working for Volvo, on the 264 TE. The Volvo262 C, which was presented at the 1977 Geneva Motor Show, was entirely manufactured by Bertone, from the assembly of the basic body to the fitting of the mechanical components and the road trials.
This procedural turning point had a big hand in transforming the company, which was now all set to become a car manufacturer in its own right.
1980s
From the beginning of the Eighties the Ritmo Cabrio and the X1/9 were produced and sold directly under the Bertone brand, meaning that the company was now responsible not only for production but also for the sales network and after-sales assistance for the two models.In 1982 Nuccio Bertone turned out another important design, the Citroen BX
Citroën BX
The Citroën BX is a large family car that was produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1982 to 1994. In total, 2,315,739 BXs were built during its 12-year history. The hatchback was discontinued in 1993 with the arrival of the Xantia, but the estate continued for another year.-History:The...
. After entering into a joint-venture with Volvo in 1985 the company began production of the 780
780
Year 780 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 780 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Byzantine Empire :* Constantine VI becomes Byzantine...
, an elegant two-door saloon entirely created by Nuccio Bertone, from the formal design of the model to the full production cycle.
A new commercial agreement drawn up with General Motors Europe in 1987 saw production of the Kadett Cabrio handed over to Bertone. The partnership with Opel continued with the first generation of the Astra Cabrio, and with the Astra Coupé and AstraCabriolet.
The end of the eighties saw the Citroen XM
Citroën XM
The Citroën XM is an executive car that was produced by the French automaker Citroën between 1989 and 2000. Citroën sold 333,775 XMs during the model's 11 years of production...
, and the Freeclimber off-roader with mechanical components by Daihatsu and BMW engines.
1990s
Without abandoning its commitment to exploring the new languages of car design, Bertone entered the last decade of the century with its focus very much on technological innovations.Capturing the attention of public and experts alike at the 1992 Turin Motor Show was the aggressively futuristic Blitz barchetta, a showcar which featured an electric engine and avant-garde construction solutions: a tubular chassis in special steel integrated with sandwich-structuredfiber glass panels, bodywork in composite materials and carbon interiors.
In 1993 the Opel Astra Cabrio
Opel Astra Cabrio
The Opel Astra Cabrio was a cabriolet designed by Opel and built from 2001 to 2006 by Italian coachbuilder Bertone. The Astra Cabrio was badged as an Opel in Europe, Vauxhall in the United Kingdom, and Holden in Australia. The Cabrio was built by Bertone for Opel alongside its Coupé variant...
and the Fiat Punto Cabrio went into production, with the entire production cycle for both cars at the Grugliasco factory: assembly of the bodywork, mechanical components integration, paintwork and fittings. A complete production cycle, ending with the final testing process, which is carried out according to the procedures and standards of the commissioning companies.
Continuing its research into low environmental-impact vehicles, in 1994 Bertone presented the ZER
ZER
ZER may refer to:* Schuylkill County Airport, the IATA code for the airport in the United States* Zero Airport, the IATA code for the airport in India...
(Zero Emission Record), a futuristic reinterpretation of the unforgettable Abarth 750 Record. Expressly conceived and created to yield the highest performance levels in the electric car sector, the ZER (which boasts a Cx of 0.11) set the world one hour long distance record (199.822 km), and broke the 300 km/h barrier, setting the new world speed record for electric cars (with a top speed of 303.977 km/h).
In 1994, Carrozzeria Bertone became the first manufacturer in Italy to be awarded the ISO 9001 quality certification. Meanwhile Nuccio Bertone did not turn his back on a past dedicated to bodywork and continued to design working prototypes: the Karisma (1994), a four-seater berlinetta on a Porsche base, the Kayak
Kayak
A kayak is a small, relatively narrow, human-powered boat primarily designed to be manually propelled by means of a double blade paddle.The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler...
(1995), a coupé on a Lancia K base, the Slalom 'coupé de chasse' on an Opel Calibra base, and the Enduro 4x4, a SUV on a Fiat Brava floorpan.
Bertone after Bertone
On 26 February 1997, on the eve of the Geneva Motor Show, Nuccio Bertone passed away, leaving the world to grieve 'one of the greatest coachbuilders of the century, and international Maestro of Italian style' in the touching words of Fulvio Cinti, motoring journalist and car historian.In 2009, the Grugliasco plant with its manufacturing activities was taken over by FIAT. Bertone undergoes a major restructuring and becomes a Fully integrated service company in the automotive, transportation and industrial design sectors. Its major competitive advantage is the unique ability to respond in a flexible and extremely fast way to the demand and needs of its customers.
Bertone has a workforce of about 300, mainly engineers and designers, 300 thousand engineering hours per year capacity, can manage up to four prototype projects per year, starting with the first style drafts to the effective manufacturing of the prototype. The Bertone “Atelier” continues its traditional work in designing and manufacturing one of a kind cars, upon customers specific requests. The history of the past feeds the innovation of the future.
Bertone today, almost a hundred years old, is expanding its expertise and capabilities in key sectors in nowadays continuously changing global economy, like ICT and sustainable transportation systems. Bertone is an integrated industrial group, based on a set of operational divisions: Engineering, Style, ICT, Energy and Glass.
Cars and scooters styled by Bertone
- 1952 Fiat Abarth 1500 Coupé
- 1953 Arnolt-MG Convertible and Coupe
- 1953 Alfa Romeo BAT-5Alfa Romeo BATThe Alfa Romeo BAT is an Italian concept car. The car originated in a joint collaboration project between Alfa Romeo and the Italian design house; Bertone that began in 1953...
- 1953 Fiat 1100 TVFiat 1100The Fiat 1100 is a compact automobile produced from 1937 to 1969, by the Italian car maker Fiat.- Fiat 508C Nuova Balilla 1100 :The Fiat 1100 was first introduced in 1937 as an updated version of the 508 "Balilla" with a look similar to the 1936 Fiat 500 "Topolino" and the larger 1500, with the...
- 1953 Fiat 8V SpiderFiat 8VThe Fiat 8V is a sports car produced by the Italian automaker Fiat from 1952 to 1954. The car was introduced at the 1952 Geneva Motor Show. The name 8V was chosen because they thought that Ford had trademarked the name "V8". They weren't a commercial success, but did well in racing...
- 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900 Sport SpiderAlfa Romeo 1900The Alfa Romeo 1900 is a sports sedan designed by Orazio Satta for the Alfa Romeo company in 1950. It was Alfa Romeo's first car built entirely on a production line and was also Alfa's first production car without separate chassis and first Alfa offered with left-hand drive...
- 1954 Alfa Romeo 2000 SportivaAlfa Romeo 2000 SportivaThe Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva is 2 litre sports car developed in the early 1950s. It was designed by Franco Scaglione from Bertone, two coupes and two roadsters were made....
- 1954 Alfa Romeo BAT-7Alfa Romeo BATThe Alfa Romeo BAT is an Italian concept car. The car originated in a joint collaboration project between Alfa Romeo and the Italian design house; Bertone that began in 1953...
- 1954 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint
- 1954 Arnolt Aston Martin DB2/4 SpiderAston Martin DB2/4The DB2/4 is a grand tourer sold by Aston Martin from 1953 through 1957. It was based on the DB2 it replaced, available as a Drophead coupe and 2+2 hatchback well ahead of the times. Other changes included a wraparound windscreen, larger bumpers, and repositioned headlights...
- 1955 Alfa Romeo BAT-9Alfa Romeo BATThe Alfa Romeo BAT is an Italian concept car. The car originated in a joint collaboration project between Alfa Romeo and the Italian design house; Bertone that began in 1953...
- 1955 Arnolt-Bristol Spider and Coupe
- 1955 Citroen DS 19
- 1958 Abarth 1000 GT CoupéAbarth 1000 GT CoupéAbarth 1000 GT Coupé is a car model made by the Italian car producer Abarth, and designed by Bertone. The model was launched in 1958, and was fitted with a 1.0-litre straight engine with double overhead camshafts from Alfa Romeo, which had the effect of 90 horse power. Despite the modest motor, the...
- 1959 NSU Sport Prinz
- 1960 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint SpecialeAlfa Romeo GiuliettaThe Alfa Romeo Giulietta was a subcompact automobile manufactured by the Italian car maker Alfa Romeo from 1954 to 1965. The Giulietta was introduced at the Turin Motor Show in 1954 and almost 132,000 were built in the Portello factory in Milan.The first Giulietta model was a coupé, the Giulietta...
- 1960 Gordon-KeebleGordon-KeebleGordon-Keeble was a British car marque, made first in Slough, then Eastleigh, and finally in Southampton , between 1963 and 1967. The marque's badge was unusual in featuring a tortoise — a pet tortoise walked into the frame of an inaugural photo-shoot, taken in the grounds of the makers...
- 1960 NSU Wankel Spider
- 1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT JetAston Martin DB4The DB4 is a sports car sold by Aston Martin from 1958 until 1963. It was an entirely different car from the DB Mark III it replaced, though the 3.7 L engine was externally visually related to the 2.9 L unit found in that car....
- 1962 Alfa Romeo 2600 SprintAlfa Romeo 2600The Alfa Romeo 2600 was Alfa Romeo´s six-cylinder flagship produced from 1961 to 1968. It was the successor to the Alfa Romeo 2000. It has become historically significant as the last Alfa Romeo to have been fitted with an inline six-cylinder engine having twin overhead camshafts...
- 1962 Alfa Romeo Giulia SprintAlfa Romeo GiuliaThe Alfa Romeo Giulia is an Alfa Romeo automobile. Alfa was one of the first manufacturers to put a powerful engine in a light-weight car for mainstream production. The Giulia weighed about . The car was equipped with a light alloy twin overhead camshaft four-cylinder engine, similar to that of...
- 1962 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint SpecialeAlfa Romeo Sprint GT (Veloce)The Alfa Romeo 105/115 series Coupés were a range of cars made by the Italian manufacturer Alfa Romeo from 1963 until 1977. They were the successors to the celebrated Giulietta Sprint coupé and used a shortened floorpan from the Giulia Berlina car....
- 1962 Alfa Romeo GTAAlfa Romeo GTAThe GTA 1300 Junior had a 1300 cc engine that was based on the 1600 engine but with a short stroke crankshaft. The GTA Junior in stradale form did not have many of the light weight features of the 1600 GTA, such as the plastic windows, magnesium engine components and alloy wheels. At start...
- 1962 ASA 1200 G.T. Coupé BertoneASA (automobile)The ASA was an Italian automobile created by Giotto Bizzarrini and manufactured by the Bizzarrini company in Milan from 1964 to 1969...
- 1962 BMW 3200 CSBMW 3200 CSThe BMW 3200 CS was a sports touring car manufactured by BMW between January 1962 and September 1965. It was designed by Bertone and was introduced at the 1961 Frankfurt Motor Show. More than five hundred were built....
- 1962 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta LussoFerrari 250The Ferrari 250 is a sports car built by Ferrari from 1953 to 1964. The company's most successful early line, the 250 series included several variants. It was replaced by the 275 and the 330.-Similarities:...
- 1962 Iso RivoltaIso RivoltaIso Rivolta was an automobile and motorbike manufacturer in Italy, predominantly active from the late 1940s through the early 1970s. They are known for the iconic Isetta 'bubble car' of the 1950s, and for a number of powerful performance cars in the 60s and early 70s.-History:Iso Rivolta was...
- 1962 Simca 1000Simca 1000The Simca 1000 was a small, rear-engined, four-door saloon manufactured by the French automaker Simca from 1961 to 1978.-The launch:The car was inexpensive and, at the time of launch, quite modern, with a brand-new inline-4 watercooled engine of 944cc...
- 1964 Alfa Romeo Canguro
- 1965 Abarth OT 1000 Spider
- 1965 Fiat 850 Spider
- 1965 Iso Grifo
- 1965 Mazda LuceMazda LuceMazda used the Luce name on its largest sedans in Japan from 1969 until 1990. These vehicles were exported under a variety of names, including RX-4, 929, and Cosmo. The Luce nameplate was replaced by the Mazda Sentia name in 1991...
- 1967 Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Junior
- 1967 Alfa Romeo MontrealAlfa Romeo MontrealThe Alfa Romeo Montreal is a 2+2 coupé automobile produced by the Italian manufacturer Alfa Romeo from 1970 to 1977.-Concept car:The Alfa Romeo Montreal was introduced as a concept car in 1967 at Expo 67, held in Montreal, Canada. Originally, the concept cars were displayed without any model name,...
- 1967 Fiat Dino CoupéFiat DinoThe Fiat Dino is an exotic front-engined, rear-drive sports car manufactured between 1966 and 1973. It was an intermediate step towards creating Ferrari's "Dino" and the two are often confused...
- 1967 Jaguar Pirana
- 1967 Lamborghini MarzalLamborghini MarzalThe Lamborghini Marzal was a prototype concept car presented by Lamborghini at the 1967 Geneva Motor Show.Designed by Marcello Gandini of Bertone, it was created to supply Ferruccio Lamborghini with a true four-seater car for his lineup which already included the 400GT 2+2 and the Miura. It was...
- 1967 Lamborghini MiuraLamborghini MiuraThe Lamborghini Miura was a sports car produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini between 1966 and 1972. The car is widely considered to have begun the trend of high performance, two-seater, mid-engined sports cars...
- 1967 Simca 1200S Coupé
- 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo
- 1968 Fiat 850 Sport Spider
- 1968 Lamborghini EspadaLamborghini EspadaThe Lamborghini Espada is a grand tourer which was built by Italian car manufacturer Lamborghini between 1968 and 1978.Based on the Marzal show car, displayed at the 1967 Geneva Auto Show, and the Bertone Pirana, a radically rebodied Jaguar E-type, it was to fill the spot of a true four seat car in...
- 1968 Lambretta Luna line: Lui, Vega & Cometa
- 1969 BMW Spicup
- 1969 Iso LeleIso LeleIso Lele was a sports coupé produced by the Italian automobile maker Iso Rivoltabetween 1969 and 1974. The Lele, being a 2+2-seater, filled the gap between the Grifo and the...
- 1969 Lambretta GP/DL Scooter
- 1970 Lancia Stratos ZeroLancia StratosThe Lancia Stratos HF, widely and more simply known as Lancia Stratos, is a car made by Italian car manufacturer Lancia. The HF stands for High Fidelity...
- 1970 Lamborghini UrracoLamborghini UrracoThe Lamborghini Urraco was a sports car manufactured by Italian automaker Lamborghini in the 1970s. It was introduced at the Turin auto show in 1970 but wasn't available to buyers until 1973....
- 1970 BMW Garmisch 2200Ti (led to BMW 5-series)
- 1971 Lamborghini CountachLamborghini CountachThe Lamborghini Countach is a mid-engined supercar that was produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini from 1974 to 1990. Its design both pioneered and popularized the wedge-shaped, sharply angled look popular in many high performance sports cars...
- 1972 Lancia StratosLancia StratosThe Lancia Stratos HF, widely and more simply known as Lancia Stratos, is a car made by Italian car manufacturer Lancia. The HF stands for High Fidelity...
- 1972 Fiat X1/9Fiat X1/9The Fiat X1/9 is a two-seater mid-engined sports car designed by Bertone and manufactured by Fiat from 1972-1982 and subsequently by Bertone from 1982-1989....
(also badged as a Bertone and built on Bertone's own line) - 1972 Citroen Camargue
- 1972 Maserati KhamsinMaserati KhamsinThe Maserati Khamsin was a sports car introduced as a Bertone prototype in 1972 at the Turin Auto Show. In 1973 it was put on display at the Paris Motor Show, where it was badged as a Maserati...
- 1973 NSU Trapeze
- 1974 Lamborghini BravoLamborghini BravoThe Lamborghini Bravo was a concept car designed by Bertone for Lamborghini. It was first presented in 1974 at the Turin Auto Show.The Bravo was designed to showcase ideas for a replacement to the Urraco. The completely working prototype featured a 3L V8 that powered the rear wheels, and underwent...
- 1974 Ferrari 208/308 GT4Ferrari GT4The Ferrari 308 GT4 and 208 GT4 were mid-engined V8-powered 2+2 cars built by Ferrari. The 308 GT4 was introduced in 1973, supplemented by the 208 GT4 in 1975, and replaced by the Mondial 8 in 1980 after a production run of 2,826 vehicles...
- 1974 Maserati Quattroporte II
- 1976 Alfa Romeo NavajoAlfa Romeo NavajoThe Alfa Romeo Navajo is concept car unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1976. The Navajo is based on 33 Stradale.Full fibreglass body saves a lot in weight.The car is equipped with 2 litre fuel injected V8 engine producing around at 8800 rpm....
- 1976 Ferrari Rainbow
- 1977 Volvo 262C
- 1977 Jaguar Ascot
- 1978 Fiat RitmoFiat RitmoThe Fiat Ritmo is an automobile from the Italian manufacturer Fiat, launched in 1978. Styled by Bertone of Italy, it was seen by some as the most distinctive looking small family car in Europe on its launch in 1978 Turin Motorshow. It was badged in Great Britain and North America as the Fiat Strada...
- 1978 Alfa Romeo AlfettaAlfa Romeo AlfettaAlfa Romeo GTV redirects here. For 916 series GTV see Alfa Romeo GTV & SpiderThe Alfa Romeo Alfetta is an Italian rear-wheel drive executive saloon car and fastback coupé produced from 1972 until 1987 by Alfa Romeo...
- 1978 Lancia SibiloLancia SibiloThe Lancia Sibilo is a 1978 concept car designed and built by Bertone, and based on the production Lancia Stratos, but four inches longer. The car's main characteristics were its sharp, aerodynamic lines and plastic windows which were merged seamlessly into the bodywork, creating a uniform...
- 1979 Volvo TundraVolvo TundraVolvo Tundra was a concept car built and designed by Bertone in 1979. It was based on the Volvo 343. It was rejected by Volvo and a very similar design was instead sold to Citroën where it was produced as Citroën BX....
- 1980 Alfa Romeo Alfetta 2000Alfa Romeo AlfettaAlfa Romeo GTV redirects here. For 916 series GTV see Alfa Romeo GTV & SpiderThe Alfa Romeo Alfetta is an Italian rear-wheel drive executive saloon car and fastback coupé produced from 1972 until 1987 by Alfa Romeo...
- 1980 Lamborghini AthonLamborghini AthonThe Lamborghini Athon is a concept car designed by Bertone for Lamborghini. It was first displayed at the 1980 Turin Motor Show.Widely praised, the design was based on the Silhouette chassis, which was out of production at the time. It was a sleek topless roadster, with a finely detailed,...
- 1981 Mazda MX-81
- 1981 Mercedes Benz Limousine W126 Not available to the public since only three were built as Special Commissioned State Limousines and tagged with 500SEL emblem, built for heads of state.
- 1982 Citroën BXCitroën BXThe Citroën BX is a large family car that was produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1982 to 1994. In total, 2,315,739 BXs were built during its 12-year history. The hatchback was discontinued in 1993 with the arrival of the Xantia, but the estate continued for another year.-History:The...
- 1983 Alfa Romeo Delfino
- 1984 Chevrolet Ramarro
- 1984 Alfa Romeo 90Alfa Romeo 90The Alfa Romeo 90 is an executive car produced by the Italian automaker Alfa Romeo between 1984 and 1987.Designed by Bertone and introduced at the 1984 Turin Motor Show, the 90 was pitched between the Alfa Romeo Alfetta and the Alfa Romeo Alfa 6, both of which were soon discontinued after the 90's...
- 1985 Volvo 780
- 1986 Citroen ZabrusCitroën ZabrusThe Citroën Zabrus was a concept car of a Coupé 2+2 which was designed by the Italian company Bertone. It was based on the mechanics of the Citroën BX 4TC. It was presented in 1986 at the Turin Motor Show. The Citroën BX sedan itself was based on a Bertone design.Some unique features of the car...
- 1987 Škoda FavoritŠkoda FavoritThe Škoda Favorit 135 and Škoda Favorit 136 were a range of small family cars produced by Czech auto manufacturer Škoda Auto from 1987 to 1995. It was Škoda Auto's first car to follow the European trend of locating the engine at the front, mounted transversely, and was also their first car to use...
- 1988 Lamborghini Genesis
- 1989 Citroën XMCitroën XMThe Citroën XM is an executive car that was produced by the French automaker Citroën between 1989 and 2000. Citroën sold 333,775 XMs during the model's 11 years of production...
- 1989 Bertone Freeclimber
- 1990 Lamborghini DiabloLamborghini DiabloThe Lamborghini Diablo is a high-performance mid-engined sports car that was built by Italian automaker Lamborghini between 1990 and 2001. It was the first Lamborghini capable of attaining a top speed in excess of . After the end of its production run in 2001, the Diablo was replaced by the...
- 1990 Chevrolet Nivola
- 1990 Daewoo EsperoDaewoo EsperoThe Daewoo Espero is a mid-size car produced by the South Korean company Daewoo Motors from 1990 to 1997. It was technically based on the GM J platform and had the distinction of a body designed by Bertone. It bore more than a passing resemblance to the Citroën Xantia, itself also a Bertone design...
- 1991 Citroën ZXCitroën ZXThe Citroën ZX is a small family car produced by the French manufacturer Citroën between 1991 and 1998.During the 1990s, the ZX was Citroën's competitor in the class traditionally dominated in Europe by the Ford Escort and Vauxhall/Opel Astra, a market segment Citroën had moved away from when the...
- 1991 Cizeta-Moroder V16TCizeta-Moroder V16TThe Cizeta-Moroder V16T, now known as just the Cizeta V16T, is an Italian sports car created by automotive engineer Claudio Zampolli in a joint venture with music composer Giorgio Moroder and designed by the famed Marcello Gandini. It was the only product of the Cizeta company...
- 1992 Bertone BlitzBertone BlitzThe Bertone Blitz is an electric sports car produced in 1992 by the company Bertone, which worked under Ferrari. It is propelled from 0 to 60 mph in six seconds via two 36 horsepower DC motors applying a combined total of 95 Nm of torque...
- 1993 Citroën XantiaCitroën XantiaThe Citroën Xantia, pronounced 'Zan-tia' is a large family car produced by the French automaker Citroën. First seen at the end of 1992, the car was produced between 1993 and 2001, with a facelift in 1998. Citroën sold over 1.2 million Xantias during its 8 years of production...
- 1994 Opel Astra CabrioOpel Astra CabrioThe Opel Astra Cabrio was a cabriolet designed by Opel and built from 2001 to 2006 by Italian coachbuilder Bertone. The Astra Cabrio was badged as an Opel in Europe, Vauxhall in the United Kingdom, and Holden in Australia. The Cabrio was built by Bertone for Opel alongside its Coupé variant...
- 1995 Fiat Punto CabrioletFiat PuntoThe Fiat Punto is a supermini produced by the Italian manufacturer, Fiat, since 1993.-1st generation :Internally codenamed Project 176, the Punto was announced in September 1993 and launched in late 1993 as a replacement for the ageing Fiat Uno. The Fiat Punto was voted European Car of the Year...
- 1998 BMW Pickster
- 2001 Opel Astra Coupe/CabrioOpel AstraThe Opel Astra is a small family car engineered and manufactured by the German automaker Opel since 1991.It is branded as Vauxhall Astra in the United Kingdom, the Buick Excelle XT in China and the Chevrolet Astra/Vectra in Latin America...
- 2003 Alfa Romeo GTAlfa Romeo GTThe Alfa Romeo GT is a sports car produced by the Italian automaker Alfa Romeo between 2003 and 2010. A total of 80,832 units were produced. The GT was introduced in March 2003 Geneva Motor Show and it came for sale in Italian markets January 2004...
- 2003 Bertone BirusaBertone BirusaThe Bertone Birusa is a design study based on the BMW Z8. The Birusa had many new technological advances such as a glass sunroof that filters UV rays from the passengers of the car and a multilingual Voice control system that allows the driver to control many features. The Birusa features a...
- 2003 Changhe Ideal
- 2004 Bertone Aston Martin Jet 2
- 2005 Bertone Villa
- 2006 Bertone Suagnà
- 2006 BMW Younique (custom-built one-off)
- 2007 Bertone Fiat Barchetta
- 2008 Chery Kimo
- 2008 Alfa Romeo BAT-11Alfa Romeo BATThe Alfa Romeo BAT is an Italian concept car. The car originated in a joint collaboration project between Alfa Romeo and the Italian design house; Bertone that began in 1953...
- 2009 Bertone MantideBertone MantideThe Bertone Mantide is a design study based on the Corvette ZR1 first unveiled in 2009 over a series of YouTube videos known simply as Project M....
- 2009 Chevrolet Niva
- 2010 Alfa Romeo PandionAlfa Romeo PandionThe Alfa Romeo Pandion is a concept car which premiered at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. It was designed by Stile Bertone and the main responsibility was given to Mike Robinson...
- 2011 Jaguar B99 GT