Bertone

Rédaction : Albert Lallement

One of Italy’s greatest designers

Like other designers such as Pininfarina and Zagato, Bertone is an integral part of Italy's automotive heritage. For Lancia, he designed some of the world's most memorable bodyworks, including the Stratos.

Along with Pininfarina, Zagato, Touring and Ghia, Bertone was one of the masters of Italian coachbuilding who made their mark in the 1930s and dazzled international car manufacturing during the Thirty Glorious Years. Bertone became famous during this Golden Age of automotive style thanks to the collaboration with three outstanding designers, Giorgetto Giugiano, Franco Scaglione and Marcello Gandini, responsible for designing some of the most beautiful Alfa Romeos and Lamborghinis of their time.

Bertone raised design to the level of a major art form, the cars that passed through his Turin workshops consistently influenced the automotive style of the second half of the 20th century. All the models entrusted to Carrozzeria Bertone by the world's leading manufacturers are now synonymous to bold design, constantly reinvented shapes and impeccable finish. Some of Bertone's creations are recognised as true works of art. Like the Lamborghini Miura, which was exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MoMA) in 1966, or the Alfa Romeo Montreal, presented as ‘The Dream Car’ at the Montreal World's Fair the following year.

The Alfa Romeo Carabo concept car was designed by Gandini in 1968 based on an Alfa 33 Stradale. Its lines are particularly representative of the Bertone style at the time. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Lancia D.R.

GIOVANNI, THE FOUNDER

The history of Carrozzeria Bertone, more than a century old, is one of laurels. It all began in November 1912, when Giovanni Bertone (1884 -1972) started a workshop for building and repairing horse-drawn carriages in Turin. From 1921 onwards, he shifted his focus to the fast-growing car industry and moved to a new location at 119 Via Monginevro, still in Turin. The first major orders came from manufacturers such as SPA, Fiat, Itala and Lancia. Vincenzo Lancia soon entrusted Bertone with the assembly of the Lambda self-supporting bodies, followed by the Astura and Augusta. Bertone became a benchmark for Italian bodywork, and despite the crisis, some of its cars made their mark, like the 1934 Fiat 527 Ardita and the 1937 Fiat 1500 cabriolet. Giovanni's son Giuseppe joined the family business in 1934 and made a name for himself with the Fiat 1500 Super Aerodinamica presented at the Milan Motor Show. ‘In 1946, “Nuccio” Bertone was appointed head of the company and focused on giving it a more industrial character, enabling it to take on larger orders from manufacturers.

THE GLORIOUS POST-WAR YEARS

Giuseppe Bertone proved to be a good manager who also surrounded himself with the best designers of the moment, expanding the scope of his collaborations beyond the Italian borders with creations for Aston Martin, Bentley, Dodge and Jaguar. At the same time, Arnolt, the American importer of the British brand MG, commissioned him to produce a small series of coupés. A major step was taken when Alfa Romeo awarded him the contract for the series production of the Giulietta Sprint in 1954. The number of collaborations grew steadily: the NSU Sport Prinz coupé in 1958, the Alfa Romeo 2000 Sprint coupé in 1960, the BMW 3200 CS coupé in 1961, and the Simca 1000 coupé in 1962.

At the same time, Bertone produced a number of more confidential projects for Iso Rivolta and Bizzarrini, while the American giants Chevrolet and Ford asked him to design special bodies for the Corvair and Mustang. At the end of the 1960s, with the arrival of stylist Gandini, Bertone was at the height of its powers, developing legendary models such as the Lamborghini Miura. This trend continued in the following decade, culminating in the Lancia Stratos.. In addition to prestigious sports cars, Bertone diversified into popular models such as the Volkswagen Polo, the Innocenti Mini and the Alfa Romeo Alfetta.

The company also collaborated with most manufacturers of cars, two-wheelers and heavy goods vehicles, giving its characteristic personal touch to hundreds of projects. But the number of orders for prototypes was decreasing, Most manufacturers now had their own in-house design departments. Debts mounted, and after selling its factories to Fiat in 2009, the company went into bankruptcy on 4 June 2014. Finally, the remaining Bertone Design business was acquired by the AKKA technologies group in 2016, and in December 2022, to mark Bertone's 110th anniversary, a top-of-the-range GB110 prototype was presented.

When Fiat removed the Ritmo Cabriolet from its catalogue in 1982, Bertone took over production under the name Bertone Supercabrio. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Lancia D.R.

Marcello Gandini

Born on 26 August 1938 in Turin, Marcello Gandini is undoubtedly the most talented of the designers who have worked with Carrozzeria Bertone. Entirely autodidact, Gandini's passion for mechanics led him to start working for the racing car manufacturer O.S.C.A. in 1959. Four years later, he was approached by Nuccio Bertone and in December 1965 he was hired as Chief Designer, replacing Giorgetto Giugiaro who had left for Ghia.

He designed models that were considered to be Bertone's major works, including the Lamborghini Miura (1966), Marzal (1967) and Espada (1968), the De Tomaso Pantera (1971) and the Alfa Romeo Montreal (1970). With the prototype of the Lancia Stratos Zero, he established the principle of what was to become known as ‘Wedge Design’, a very angular style with sweeping lines that he shared with Giugiaro and whose most remarkable examples are the Lamborghini Countach and the Lancia Stratos. He left Bertone at the end of 1979 to establish his own design studio.

Among his first projects as a self-employed designer were the Renault 5 Turbo and the interior of the R25. He also developed a process for robotizing assembly lines to reduce the surface area of factories, a process he sold exclusively to Régie Renault. Among his most recent creations are the Lamborghini Diablo and the Bugatti EB110. In January 2024, he was awarded an Honoris Causa diploma by the Turin Polytechnic for his entire range of creations.

BERTONE MANUFACTURER

At the beginning of the 1970s, Carrozzeria Bertone regularly carried out construction contracts in its vast Turin workshops. Already working with Fiat and Volvo, Bertone signed a contract with Citroën for its new BX in 1982. At that time, manufacturers were developing niche models such as convertibles, station wagons, coupes and MPVs. Their production lines were not always suited to small-scale production therefor they subcontracted these marginal productions to coachbuilders such as Bertone, who then used the opportunity to expand their existing premises or build new ones.

Bertone already had experience as a builder, having produced the Bertone 'Racer Team' in 1968 under his own name, and this was a Fiat 850 Spider with a hardtop roof. He later took over the production of models that had been removed from manufacturers' catalogues, such as the Fiat Ritmo cabriolet in 1982 and the Fiat X1/9 in 1982. In 1989, he offered a luxury version of the Japanese 4x4 Daithatsu Rocky, equipped with a BMW 6-cylinder engine and renamed Bertone Freeclimber, of which more than 6,000 units were sold.