Combining creativity with complete know-how and modern technology.

I would like to share with you this report recently published in Japan by Car Styling magazine. A special issue dedicated to the Italian Designers and “Carrozzeria”.

Within the territories of one-man-design-show, resisting in and around Torino, Paolo Martin keeps his creativity and design work running in many directions. As usual.  His hairs are whiter than ever but his genius is evergreen, just as it is the case for secluded Marcelo Gandini and public-persona Giorgetto Giugiaro.

He is one of the very few talents left that has a complete understanding of car design and body construction. One of the few men who can tackle any aspect of the process. As such he is a very precious heritage of the traditional art of coach building.

It is for this reason that he regrets that he receives less commission from the car, yacht and motorcycle industry these days of decline. He still has plenty of good ideas that could be turned into a successful project. Even more relevant he regrets he has few chances of passing over to the young generations his past experience, just as Maestro Giovanni Michelotti did with him when he was 16 years old.

On the other side, he is happy to take commissions from private investors and enthusiasts. He loves the human relations with them and the exchange of cultural input, be it from the Arabian Peninsula, the Far East or the Americas.

On the projects he develops for private customers he must keep the secret, unless authorized by his patron.

Recently, he was allowed to release some interesting design works he developed in the past couple of years.

Three projects he had a lot of fun to work with.

One for a multifunctional “Desert Running Suite” that combines a carry-on tent of some 100 square meters blossoming from a sort of very large 6×6 all-road heavy-duty vehicle carrying a small living room with all comfort and all the most sophisticated equipment that tycoons, VIP, government officials may want or need to take with them in the desert for a mission, a week-end excursion or a party.

One derivative also considers a sort of moving “ceremony hall on wheels for the desert”.

A sophisticated mechanism develops the huge tent in minutes and displays solar cell panels providing plenty of energy for the satellite communication centre and other amenities. The execution of the vehicle has been put on hold after the recent turmoil in Nord Africa.

The second project is a typical “coachbuilder” sportcar that is clearly inspired to the popular De Tomaso mid-engined V8 two-seater that the new “De Tomaso” company is to unveil at the Los Angeles auto show later this year. His project has not been commissioned by the company but by a private collector who was eager to see what could done at this time to revive the myth of the affordable supercar and have one built for himself.

The layout, dimensions and proportions are very modern and yet there is the de Tomaso DNA in this car.

This second project shows how Paolo Martin has kept up with the CAD and virtual modelling technologies and indeed he has developed the “2 Posti Sportiva 2012” in few weeks on his PC with all the technicalities integrated into the project and the basic data for quick and economical milling.

Probably Paolo Martin is the only star designer who emerged in the great old times (the 60ies and 70ies) of Italian coachbuilding and has developed his skill to confirm and visualize his design ideas through contemeporary virtual technology.

See his renderings for self-speaking evidence. Obviously we need not to comment on his own, very elegant and dynamic design for a modern mid-engined sport car.

We would simply add that we would love to see it in the real world.

We can show also a third project that Paolo Martin has developed on his own after the instigation of a journalist who asked him how he would design the Modulo of the third millennium.

In no time Martin penned what he calls the “Modulo Enzo”. A design that is absolutely up to the mythical name of “Modulo” and of Ferrari. Again, the project is not just a beautiful rendering created on a PC but a realistic vision (though futuristic, like he Modulo) of a super Ferrari. The car is feasible, with few concessions, and recently a famous connoisseur and collector has shown interest in having one built for himself.

That would certainly be a dream of millions enthusiasts coming true and a fantastic promotional vehicle for a high-tech company.

End of this report by Giancarlo Perini ©.

According to Turin and Detroit insiders, the famous Italian coachbuilder Zagato has just completed the new (and rather unusual) Alfa Romeo TZ 3 “Stradale” that was expected to be unveiled in May this year at the Concorso d’Eleganza di Villa d’Este but instead it will be seen in public for the first time at Pebble Beach in August. And that is for a good reason and a good cause, as we shall see in a moment.

Last year at Villa d’Este Zagato exhibited the Alfa Romeo TZ3 Corsa as a celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the Italian carmaker and won the Design Award of the event.

On that occasion, Andrea Zagato promised a TZ 3 Stradale as a completion of the Alfa Romeo celebrations.

What is indeed surprising today is that the new Alfa Romeo branded “fuoriserie” has actually been built on the bones and mechanics of an existing Dodge Viper ACR. Not the one that Dodge designers are finalising for regular production next year, but one of the old generation, which production was stopped last year, after 18 years in the supercar market. There are some unsold Vipers at the Dodge’s dealers and they could well be dress-up to become fuoriserie by Zagato, according to a long lasting tradition.

Now, the iteration of the thinking behind this Viper/Alfa Romeo TZ 3 Stradale follows a step-by-step logic that is hardly convincing but a convenient fantasy. Viper is a Dodge creature and part of its recent heritage. Dodge is about to share platforms with Alfa Romeo for new cars in the C and D segment, such as the Giulia due to follow late in 2012. Dodge and Alfa Romeo have certainly a common future.

There is more: the Viper itself will share major components “made in Italy” and here is the point. Just like the limited production Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, the 2010 Zagato TZ 3 Corsa fuoriserie is powered by a V8 Maserati engine of some 420 HP and share several more components sourced from Modena. As such it seems that the TZ 3 Stradale can well establish a spiritual bridge between the past and the future Viper to be exclusively “designed in Detroit” but possibly built in Italy and be for sale around the world. Will it also generate a successor to the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione? Please ask Ralph Gilles the question the first time you meet him.

It may well be that he, and his talented designers, has had some fun actually designing one.

Paolo Martin, famous world-wide for just some of his many mythical designs of supercars, yachts, bikes and more has accepted to talk to young design in the “West meets East” Design Conference in Zagreb this week-end.

Martin is the designer who performer several one-man-show when creating stunning cars such as the Pininfarina F1 Sigma Grand Prix and the Pininfarina Ferrari Modulo and a number of Dino concept cars, including the yellow “Berllinetta” (actually named Dino Competizione) now owned by the famous enthusiast James Glickenhaus in New York.

For additional information about the Zagreb Automotive Design Conference go to: http://www.automotivedesignconference.com/

Martin will recall how he built the full scale Modulo during the summer holidays and how his project had to compete with the alternative proposal of Filippo Sapino for the Ferrari 512 S. Both show cars were eventually approved by Sergio Pininfarina and his broche in law, Renzo Carli. Both were outstanting successes.

Martin will also present his Modulo II design, based on the Ferrari Enzo and will be open to questions from the audience.

Over more than fifty years, Martin has worked for Michelotti, Bertone, Pininfarina, De Tomaso, Fiat, Nissan, BMW, Subaru, Piaggio, Gilera, Ferretti and Dassault Aviation.

Are you bored of your Fiat 500? Is not enought agressive?

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In the era we live in where the design is a important item on every car, even the smallest,  you can ensure that the level of customizing a car is such that you can significantly alter the character and the final appearance of  your vehicle.

In a jungle of body kits that range from exhaust to ugly spoilers , check out a kit with a strong  and sporty taste, capable of radically transforming the look of the most common of modern cars, Kit “500 Marcia Corta” .

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Got Enough ? no !

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Bertone plans to show two design works on the Jaguar theme at the Geneva Motor Show. In addition to the Jaguar B 99, already unveiled in the past few days by friendly magazines, there will be also a “racing” derivative in GT2 style. Mike Robinson, director of design and brand manager, is indeed putting the final touches to a second show-model that will be on the company stage at the Show. That is the Jaguar B99 GT.

The B99 GT is indeed a design evolution presented as a full scale model. The approach is similar to the one taken in the past by Italdesign when they used the full scale model built to create the show-car to present a additional “design” through upgrading, tuning and graphic work.

Clearly the B99 label has a precise meaning, it marks the 99^th anniversary of the Bertone (B) company. The Jaguar B99 is the fifth Jaguar design produced by Bertone in its 99 years old history. The previous ones were the  1957 Bertone Jaguar XK 150, the Jaguar FT (1966),  the Jaguar Pirana (1967) e Jaguar Ascot (1977).

The 2011 show-car will also suggest a new Hybrid powertrain developed by Bertone daughter company Bertone Energia.

By completing the project and the two design pieces in just 100 days Bertone believes to have established a new record. This might be quite true for recent times. In the past the could build a new show car in a month or little more. Marcello Gandini joined Bertone late in November and in the following three months the Bertone shops created as many as three superlative dream-cars: the Porsche 911 Roadster, the Jaguar FT and … the Lamborghini Miura, for the 1966 Geneva Motor Show.

According to unofficial sources, Italdesign is set to unveil two show cars at the forthcoming Geneva Motor Show early next March. They will be the first ones to be designed by Maestro Giorgetto Giugiaro after the company, he established in 1968, has been acquired by the Volkswagen Group, last May.

A glimpse at one of the two “product concepts” is said to be previewed, very discreetly, by the company with the Christmas memento sent to a limited number of friends, clients and journalists. This is indeed the reproduction of a sketch penned by the Maestro that shows the exterior design of an attractive two-doors, four-seater coupé that could well be regarded as the 2011 Scirocco by Giugiaro. The difference here is that the “new coupe” bear the emblem of Seat.

The Spanish brand is currently the weakest member of the VW family and as such the one that needs the greatest and most urgent attention by the Group. It only makes sense that Giugiaro talent and attention goes to Seat.

Some years ago, VW’s supremo Ferdinand Piëch said that Seat’s mission was to challenge and beat Alfa Romeo on its own ground. The mission is far to be accomplished despite its success in the World Touring Car Championship .Now, while Fiat is keeping Volkswagen “on hold” for the acquisition of Alfa Romeo, the German group wants to look again at the potential of the Seat brand and see what can be done, should the Alfa Romeo deal take too long a time. As such it is also a discreet message to Sergio Marchionne.

The second show-car from Giorgetto Giugiaro to be seen in Geneva is rumoured to be a new hatchback that could well be  the “2011 vision of a Golf” by Giugiaro.