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84-year-old Giorgio “Giorgetto” Giugiaro is no longer the youngest. First of all, he has reached an age when others stop working for a long time. But the Italian designer is busy as always. And cars in the past that he hadn’t designed yet: After establishing his own design office Italdesign in 1968, the automotive world lined up to get designs from him.
There were not only Italian brands such as Alfa Romeo (Alfasud, 156, Brera), Fiat (Panda, Uno, Croma) or Lancia (Delta, Thema), but also German manufacturers: BMW designed the M1, here Audi. For the ’80s and VW, Giugiaro was like the supplier of the court in the 1970s: Golf, Passat and Scirocco, for example, are creations of Italians from a family of artists. More than 100 production cars go into his account – Giugiaro was and was one of the most influential car designers of the 1970s and 1980s.
Wedge shape as a trademark
But for small series producers, the creations made him a legend. For example, the breathtaking Maserati Ghibli from 1966, the super-flat Lotus Esprit, or the DeLorean DMC, the automotive superstar from the movie “Back to the Future.” The wedge shape was trump with Giugiaro.
Despite his great reputation, Giugiaro was never afraid to share his expertise with others. He is still seen as social, creative and open to criticism in the industry. He also did not hesitate to work for companies that are little known even from Asia and design butter and bread carts.
New studio with son
After selling his design office to the VW Group nearly ten years ago and leaving again due to differences of opinion and Germanic ways of thinking, he now runs his own creative office again. It’s called GFG because the next generation is on board with his son Fabrizio (57). Customers primarily include Chinese companies that want to enjoy the splendor of Italian design in their homes.
Here are ten of the most legendary Giugiaro designs.
Maserati Ghibli (1966)
Before starting his own design studio, Giugiaro created his most beautiful car to date, the first Maserati Ghibli. In just three months, he completed the design of the two-seater with a 4.7-liter V8. Only 1250 units were built in eight years – about ten percent of them as open spiders.
Maserati Boomerang (1971)
Just a concept car – but what a car: Founded in 1968, Giugiaro’s design office was still considered a startup when it started taking orders from Maserati. With the Boomerang at the Turin Motor Show, he took his philosophy to the extreme: the glass-door wedge, just 1.07 meters high, was the thinnest coupé of all time. A V8 with a displacement of 4.7 liters and 314 hp (231 kW) was not available until it was shown at the Geneva Motor Show a year later.
Volkswagen Golf (1974)
Do you have to introduce him? The first VW Golf appeared 49 years ago, has been a bestseller for decades, and is still considered a typical Volkswagen, with over 35 million units produced. The basis for the successor to the Beetle was front-wheel drive technology from the newly acquired subsidiary Audi. The rest is legendary, especially when it comes to the popular 110 hp (81 kW) sports car Golf GTI (pictured).
VW Scirocco (1974)
Golf was all right for him. But Giugiaro also wanted a sports coupe based on the same technology – essentially unimaginable for the sluggish VW Group at the time, which cost almost its existence by sticking with the old-fashioned Beetle. But in a reform frenzy, the VW board agreed. The first Scirocco with the corner was produced until 1981 with engines between 50 (37 kW) and 110 hp (81 kW).
Lotus Spirit (1976)
The transmission contributed to Maserati’s mother, Citroën. But other than that, everything in Esprit was designed by Lotus – lightweight, thanks to the tubular space frame. However, the first generation of the 150 hp/110 kW angular mount was anything but a super sports car. The performance values specified by the factory are purely fictitious. The makers of the 1977 James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me didn’t mind – they let 007 dive in with Esprit.
BMW M1 (1978)
This wedge stood at the head of today’s BMW sports department called M GmbH. Because Motorsport GmbH was established specifically for the production and sale of the 3.5-liter six-cylinder and 277 horsepower (204 kW) M1, which is also great in terms of driving dynamics. For once, Giugiaro restrained himself and painted the concept car’s gull-wing doors for the production version.
Audi 80 (1978)
Star designers can also deal with boredom: Back then, Audi was far from today’s high standards and was a more conservative brand for men in hats. However, the third generation of the Audi 80 brought the brand above all technically above the level of its competitors in the middle class – even the all-wheel drive Quattro could be ordered from 1982.
Fiat Panda (1980)
Star designers are also good at everyday cars: The first generation of the cheap Fiat car was more like a wedge circular saw, with solid technology, a stark interior where nothing was broken and even all-wheel drive still had its fan. fundamental to this day.
DeLorean DMC-12 (1981)
It made it less than a car, because as a movie star Career: The DeLorean DMC-12 became a time machine using a flow stabilizer in the blockbuster 1984’s “Back to the Future.” Otherwise, its story was pretty tragic. Developed by Lotus, the cool wedge suffered from its mediocre 132 hp (97 kW) performance, underground quality, and the megalomania of its inventor, John DeLorean (1925-2005), who was trying to bail out his sick company with drug deals. There has even been an attempt to revive it recently.
Hyundai Pony (2023)
This year, Giugiaro celebrated 50 years of design with a faithful remake of the original: Since the original is no longer available, it recently delivered another concept car for Hyundai to fit the classic event at Villa d’Este: The Pony, its past counterpart with the current production year. identical to the smallest detail. In 1973 he would design a modern sports car for Hyundai with a length of four meters and a 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine with 82 hp/60 kW.
Only a year after the contract was signed, the production-ready vehicle made its debut at the 1974 Turin Motor Show. But nothing came of mass production: Hyundai, which was almost exclusively in the domestic market at the time, needed popular cars for Korea and no Giugiaro’s cool wedges. With a remake 50 years later, it’s tough: With today’s manufacturing methods, the car would be much more precise than its role model – which is why the 2023 model Hyundai Pony is made from handmade sheet metal.
Source: Blick
I’m Ella Sammie, author specializing in the Technology sector. I have been writing for 24 Instatnt News since 2020, and am passionate about staying up to date with the latest developments in this ever-changing industry.
