Lilli Bertone, the strongly minded widow of the late Nuccio Bertone, is reportedly the only owner of the Stile Bertone design think tank as of July 28^th. After the Turin Court ruled that Mrs. Bertone has the right to a minimal majority stake in the company, with the remaining 49.9periodical in the hands of her two sisters, the Bertone matriarch has succeeded in buying them out and ensure herself 100% of the stakes into Stile Bertone.

The changes in the company management took place the same day, when the new board has been appointed and Marie Jeanne Bertone and her Managing Director, Mr. Gaudio left the company.

Lilli Bertone is the new president and chairman and Mr. Marco Filippa is the new managing director. Reportedly, Lilli Bertone controls Stile Bertone via Bertone Cento.

Jason Castriota, who has a contract as a consultant is still with the company and might stay.

According to a source close to Bertonecento (and indeed Stile Bertone) director Michael Robinson,

Stile Bertone would have no problems working with “such a good designer as Jason” and it will probably be up to Jason to decide if he wants to stay, probably in a different role. Here it will be up to Lilli to create the right conditions for the two talents to from a winning team.

LILLI BERTONE’S   BERTONE CENTO GET THE BRAND NAME AND THE HERITAGE.

Mrs. Lilli Bertone is reportedly the only bidder for the “Bertone” brand name. Or, at least this is what it clearly appeared after the deadline set for the offer. In this case, the three government appointees who are running the rescue-show of the coachbuilding manufacturing Carrozzeria Bertone would have no doubt about the purchaser and the selling price.

According to well placed sources Mrs. Bertone has offered to pay some € 4 million for all rights to the Bertone name and all  its logos and the company Archive.

These assets were considered part of the Carrozzeria Bertone.

The formalities should be completed in few days. As soon as Lilli Bertone is again the owner of the Bertone brand name, Fiat who has only acquired the premises and facilities of Carrozzeria Bertone will remove all Bertone names and symbols from the factory.

STILE BERTONE CORVETTE ZR1 MANTIDE SOLD FOR € 1.5m.

The project launched by Stile Bertone under the management of Marie Jeanne Bertone and Teresio Gaudio for a very special one-off of the Chevrolet ZR1 has been successfully completed. The project was proposed and has been implemented by consulting designer Jason Castriota who conceived, design and directed the entire development of the one-off Corvette ZR1 called Mantide and presented almost simultaneously at the Shanghai Motor Show and the Concorso d’Eleganza di Villa d’Este last April.

The Stile Bertone Mantide has promptly been sold to a wealthy gentleman driver based in the U.S.A. That is the British Dan Watkins who has already driven the car at Goodwood and is now taking his very fast beauty to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

The Stile Bertone Mantide has been test at high speeds on the Nardò ring and has topped 330 kph with its engine in standard setting. That is 20 kph faster than a regular ZR1. According to Jason Castriota, once the engine is set free to rev to the limit in top speed, the Mantide has all it takes to set a new class record at the Nürburgring, sometime next year. Dan Watkins is indeed an amateur racing driver and it is likely that he will hardly resist the temptation.

According to some reports, Stile Bertone has stated that it plans to accept up to ten orders for their Corvette ZR1 Mantide “one off”, each carrying a price tage of 2 million dollars. That is some 1.6 million euros, just 0.1m euros higher than the price Jason Castriota mentioned when I talked to him at the Villa d’Este Concorso a couple of weeks ago. The add-on is probably the price of the full-optional ZR1 serving as the starting point for their job.

Yet, I wonder if the two million dollars price is right? In my opinion, it would right price for a one off, even if I know a lot of people in the Turin area that can build a completely original one-off for a third (or little more).
Two million dollars that is what the conversion of A Ferrari Enzo into THE (one and only) Ferrari Pininfarina P4/5 cost. The third million dollars spent by the owner, paid for the original car.

 If these figures, the only ones published so far, are right, something is not quite right with the price of the Mantide, if it is built in a limited series of 10. This means that the car is ten times less exclusive and even if two of them are sold in each of the five continents any buyer risk to cross into the other car, which is embarassing when you have spent this sort of money. If Stile Bertone succeed in building, homologating (this is where the extra cost might be) and selling them, one can only congratulate them. It wil prove that the design is absolutely right (perfectly fulfilling its  mission) and that Stile Bertone has excellent business men. If they do not succeed the story will have to be updated and re-written.

I wonder how can the Spadas sell their ZR1 Codatronca as such a bargain price of “only” € 260,000 despite their similar production volume.

By the end of the day? Which of these Special ZR1 is the most attractive as far as design and look go? Send me your comments, or vote, as soon as the Poll is online.

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With the simple title of “Streamlining” the exhibition presented by the Prototype Museum in Hamburg shows the development of car with extreme streamlined bodywork designed to minimize air resistance and maximize performance (and fuel consumption in relation to performance).

To that aim, engineers and designers also seeked for maximum weight reduction and to get the best of the small engines powering their cars.

Here, and in the following posts, I like to report about the exhibition in general and of the very special, and often history making, cars on exhibit at Villa Erba.

Streamlining is the general term applied to the design of aerodynamically optimised car bodies. It goes back to what was considered to be the ideal shape as represented by the body of an airship. It is for good reason that Tom Wolfe entitled his famous 1965 collection of articles “Kandy-kolored Tangerine-flake Streamlined Baby” (http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780553380583&view=excerpt),  referring to the US cars of the 1950s and 60s as designed by Raymond Loewy and others. The range of cars in this special exhibition, though, should persuade you that the phrase “aerodynamics of the motor vehicle”, coined in Germany by Reinhard Koenig-Fachsenfeld, more closely hits the mark of streamlining and that the cradle of the aerodynamic car was to be found in Germany.
For streamlining not only involves reducing air drag to a minimum, it also embraces the phenomena of lift and down-force, which come into play in our everyday cars as much as in motor racing – where they are, of course, infinitely more significant by dint of determining victory or defeat. The Cd figure, or drag coefficient, cited in every test report – and in sales brochures – is the reference parameter which, multiplied by the frontal area of a body, gives you the vehicle’s aerodynamic drag.

The exclusive and very interesting examples of streamlined cars on display were:

KAMM K3 – BASED ON MERCEDES 170 V (1938);

PORSCHE TYPE 64 – BERLIN-ROME CAR (1939);

BMW 328 Wendler (1939);

DELFOSSE DVD (1947);

PETERMAX MÜLLER WORLD RECORD CAR (1948);

TATRA TYPE 87 (1949)  http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/classic-cars/tatra-type-87-562192.html

PORSCHE 356 COUPE (1950).

The Roadster 328 developed in 1935/36 is one of the legends of automobile history. Although it was developed with modest means, the visually attractive sports car quickly developed into a phenomenon that dominated the two-litre class across Europe. Modified motor sport versions won in the Le mans and the Mille Miglia

courtesy of 90ft’s photostream

 Nevertheless, this car was not only attractive to sports-car drivers. Apart from standard roadsters, the plant was also marketing bare chassis. Customers could then design their own personal vehicle made by a coachbuilder of their choice. Convertible bodies were particularly popular and they turned the BMW 328 into a comfortable touring car. At the time, the streamline shape was regarded as highly innovative.

The teardrop cars were styled with an avant-garde design that demanded entirely new perspectives. While the average person had little affinity with this design, some particularly bold costumer commissioned such a body for their car. The Rosenheim manufacturer  Hans Klepper ordered delivery of a chassis from the Munich BMW dealer Automag on 1st June 1937 and commissioned the coachbuilder Wendler in Reutlingen to build a special body with a streamline shape.

The technical design was created by the German streamline pioneer Baron Reinhard Koenig-Fachsen. He designed the coupe based on the principles developed by Paul Jaray. Helmut Schwandner, Wendler’s in-house designer, looked after the implementation of the design and created the “cheese-grater”‘ grille characteristic of Wendler.

These openings in the body not originally incorporated into the design increased the drag, although the car still achieved an outstanding coefficient at 0.38. The light-weight, aerodynamically contoured  body could be taken to a top speed in excess of 175 km/h

 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.

Two other rare visions were the 1964 Prince Skyline Sport and the BMW GINA. The Prince is one of the many cars styled by the great Giovanni Michelotti and a two door luxury car called coupé built by coachbuilder Allemano.

BMW Gina is too famous to need further description. What was new is the fact that we saw it outdoor and in motion.

There were also irrelevant cars that I shall leave to you to detect identify and some lovely example of romantic and passionate design of the past, beatiful examples of simple and yet outstanding design that will also speak of natural elegance in contrast with cars (of past and today) that are simply overdone.

I have many stories to tell from the past week-end to share with you: about the Design Talk which failed to give a convincing and to the point answer to the question if “Modesty is the new Luxury” simply because modesty is an attitudine and luxury is a rather undefined opinion.

An interesting exhibition of wind cheating and record breaking “streamlined” cars of past times. The story of several concept cars, with Mindset being one of the most controversial and interesting. Unfortuately a dear friend of our family has passed away today and my wife and I have to fly to Torino for the last farewell. This means that I will not be back to my desk for few days and fast enough withmy reports. In the meantime I can offer you a preview of many pictures I produced and collected for you.

To see them click on the images for the related photo galleries. (work in progress)

Now I am in a hurry to catch a flight out of town but I can try to post a quick reply. Difficult question. Here the first answers. Considering this is a Concorso D’Eleganza and not a competition about the most attractive (for overall qualities such as rarety, power, brand, performance, style, etc.) among the classics my first choice would probably be the 1954 Aston Martin DB 2/4 built by Bertone.

Second choice would be the 1952 Lancia Aurelia B52 built by Vignale.

Among the “concept” I would say that none win my points for elegance but if I have to choose one among them as the most interesting I would say the Mindset (with its very elegant interior)

and the Stile Bertone Mantide for its dynamic proportions and style.

I shall come back to this in a week time, though.