- Olga Kokorina
- Translated by Olga Apetenok
- Ru Fr He
Bertone. 110 years of art
Bertone is a world-famous body shop founded in 1912. The trendsetter of the Italian (and not only) automotive design of the 20th century. The Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Lancia, Maserati, Ferrari, EMG, BMW, Jaguar, Ford and even Volvo cars styled by Bertone have become synonymous for impeccable taste all over the world. For 110 years of art, the studio has given the world many amazing cars produced under foreign brands. But it also has its own projects, the latest of which is the GB110, a 1,100-horsepower hypercar that runs on fuel made from waste plastic. It is named after the founder of the company, Giovanni Bertone. By the way, Bertone himself did not draw cars, but he had a delicate taste and business sense, which helped the maestro attract the most talented artists and influence automotive fashion.
From wagons to hypercars
The world-famous body shop was founded by Giovanni Bertone as Carrozzeria G. Bertone in Turin. The major activities included repairing wagons and carriages, as well as bodies of rare cars. Bertone’s son Giuseppe, better known as Nuccio, born July 4, 1914, saw his father build an aircraft-like body for the SPA 23S in 1921. When Nuccio grew up, he abandoned his studies and joined the team of his father’s workshop in 1929. In 1947, he even made his own model, the Fiat 500 Barchetta, which turned out to be, to put it mildly, strange. Then the future head of the world-famous studio realized that drawing was not for him… and hired 30-year-old Franco Scaglione, a talented mechanic and designer who created a concept car for the 1952 Turin Motor Show and other beautiful models for his time.
Carrozzeria Bertone was founded over a hundred years ago in Turin by Giuseppe Bertone, the son of Giovanni Bertone
Scaglione worked for Bertone from 1951 to 1959, building about forty bodies, such as the famous Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint (1954) and Giulietta Sprint Speciale (1957), which still remain incredibly beautiful. The first car was produced for 13 years and sold 36,000 units.
Another glorious name associated with Bertone is Giorgetto Giugiaro. The young man studied at the technical drawing school and just wanted to earn money for skiing. Nuccio Bertone entrusted the student to draw a car, then to make more detailed sketches, and… the guy took the position of chief designer. Giugiaro worked for the Bertone body shop from 1960 to 1965, creating the first projects on the British chassis, the Aston Martin DB/4 Jet (1961), and on the American chassis, the Corvair Testudo (1963).
Marcello Gandini made cartoons, although he dreamed of cars. The dream came true when the artist joined the Bertone body shop. His first work was the Lamborghini Miura, a unique car without a long hood featuring a V-shaped 12-cylinder engine mounted transversely in the rear. The next beauties were the Lancia Stratos HF (1971) and the Fiat X1/9 (1972). The first was homologated for the rally, while the second has a record number of units for a sports car: 160,000 units. One of Gandini’s most famous works for Bertone was the Lamborghini Countach (1973). No one has surpassed the great Marcello…
‘The only protection and strength of body builders lies in the constant creative activity, in the constant striving for renewal and the heights of fantasy, overcoming all the difficulties of our era’
In 1979, the artist went freelance, but kept on collaborating with the company that formed him as an auto designer. In 1992, Gandini took part in the creation of a tiny 2-seater Blitz roadster with two electric motors and seats located in a narrow body one slightly behind the other. The front face of the small car was inspired by Formula 1 cars, and it accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 6 seconds, like a Ferrari of that time! Even then, it had a driving range of 100-130 km!
Maestro Bertone passed away on February 25, 1997. The company he brought to the world level was almost 90 years old by that time. Further it was headed by Nuccio’s widow, Lilly, and his associates. Those were hard times… In 2014, Stile Bertone went bankrupt. At first, the brand was bought out by former employees of the body shop, but it didn’t get any better. And finally, only at the very end of 2022, the brothers Mauro and Jean-Francois Ricci, Italian entrepreneurs with extensive experience in the automotive industry, bought the studio in 2020. Their goal was to revive the company in a new way, turning it into a hypercar manufacturer.
Bertone GB110
In memory of the great Nuccio, the manufacturer presented the Bertone GB110 at the end of 2022. There is still little information about it, but it is known that the car will be able to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.79 seconds, to 200 km/h in 6.79 seconds, while the maximum speed will be 380 km/h. It is based on the Lamborghini Huracan powertrains, but Bertone’s hypercar is expected to be faster. In total, 33 GB110 units will be released. They are expected to appear on the market in 2024. The price has not yet been announced.
