Auto Design

A commentary.

In the mid-sixties, the Milanese Inter foot-club was dominating the scene in Europe, under the leadership of coach Helenio Herrera and the ownership of Angelo Moratti. Herrera had a lot of talent and a simple, pragmatic strategy: buy all the best players, even if he could not use all of them. Read the rest of this entry »

The Concorso d’Eleganza di Villa d’Este this years has been as good as the weather. That is to say that half of it was very good, with peaks of excellence, and the remaining half was bad, raining and boring, with touches of ugliness.

 By the end of the elegant week-end on the Lake of Como, one would say it was not one the best edition ever but still offered enough interesting cars to look at, people to greet and talk to, and subjects to discuss.

As such it was one not to be missed. Those who did not attend it missed the extremely rare chance of hearing the sibilo and smelling the pollution of its turbine engine, not to mention seeing this extraordinary visualisation of the dreams about the cars of the future they were dreaming in the fifties and sixties.

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Not to be missed.

Never before I have seen so many dream and concept cars in the same place ad the same time. This unique opportunity is offered by Torino 2008 World Design Capital and you must visit it before it closes on November 23.

For all details and a comprehensive introduction, go to http://www.torinoworlddesigncapital.it/portale/en/content_1.php?sezioneID=291&testoCompleto=1

Beware and please do not shoot the messenger: strangely enough, the exhibition closes at 6.20 p.m.

You also should not miss to get a copy of the Exhibition Catalogue currently on sale only in Italian but soon to be available also in English. Read the rest of this entry »

 ”Gandini is fantastic. Unbeatable when it comes to creating way-out sportcar with overpowering aggression: some of his coupes seem to bite the ground even when they are standing still. With the Renault Superfive he gave a demonstration of detail work, the refinement of an existing concept. An impeccable job worthy of a miniaturist: the little Renault rings with class”.
This words were written in 1989 and are not from a critic or a friend but from his thoughest rival and competitor: Giorgetto Giugiaro, the most acclaimed car designer in the world for the past two decades. At that time Giugiaro had already seen the Gandini’s Cizeta V16T but not the Lamborghini Diablo yet. Read the rest of this entry »

A Great History to Honour.
Lancia, a famous brand with a bright future behind its shoulders, has unveiled to the motoring press from half of this world its New Lancia Delta; framed in the stunning setting of Reggia Sabauda in Venaria Reale, a stone throw away from Turin. Anyone interested in car design should know, or be aware of, the extraordinary story of the first affordable “premium car” in history, The story of the car company established in Torino by Vincenzo Lancia. Established in 1906, the company became a world-famous innovator when it introduced the mythical Lancia Lambda, simply a catalogue of extraordinary innovations. From that moment Lancia continue to produce milestones and inventions for the Lancia Dilambda, Artena, Asturia and Aprilia. If one looks at the after the war years, he will see trend-setting and innovators such as the Lancia Aurelia and Appia and extraordinary cars such as the Flaminia, Fulvia, the Lancia Stratos (of Marcello Gandini for Bertone) and the first Lancia Delta designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italdesign launched in 1979 and immediately voted “Car of the Year” for 1980.

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