Mr G.

[Chris]

Giorgio Giugiaro





Thought someone be interested in some homework?

Interested in writing an Article for the APC about Mr G.?

What cars he designed, his life, is he dead yet??

Etc..

[Chris]

hmm i searched through the net couldnt find any info if hes still alive or not.. he must be in his late 70s now if he would be still alive..

Wouldnt mind chasing him up and see if I could squezze a telephone interview out of him..

Does anyone know?

[117Coupe]

AFAIK definitely still alive.

[Chris]

AFAIK? Translation...

[117Coupe]

AFAIK? Translation...

As Far As I Know.

Mr G is on record as saying that the Piazza was one of his favourite designs!

[Chris]

I thought the Elan was? Hmm bet he was pretty pissed when he saw what GMs done to the performance and handling and reading the reviews..

I heard somewhere hes only working on Nikon camera designs since a few years..

Oh well, does itally have an online phone book like yellowpages.com.au?

[117Coupe]

This is one of his more recent designs.

http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/future/volta.html

[Bugle]

He's gota website
http://www.giugiaro.it/
not working for me at the moment though

[117Coupe]

Or this one;

http://www.italdesign.com

[GeminiCoupe]

Just because i was bored and this forum seems to be pretty uneventful..

Mr Giorgio Giugaro, or Mr G as he is more commonly known, has designed some of the more interesting cars over the last 30 years or so, many of which were popular production models. As a designer, he prefers to concentrate on the exterior of the vehicle, leaving little details to other employees.

Mr Giugaro has been know to start design trends in the motoring industry, including the "folded paper" designs of the 70's, which included cars like the Volkswagen Golf Mk I and Lotus Espirit. These cars featured sharp edges in place of smooth, flowing curves from the early 60's.

As a child, Giorgio spent most of his time with his grandfather and a paint brush, painting church frescos. At age 14, he was sent to Turin for art school where he discovered Technical Drawing classes. At the tender age of 17, he was snapped up by Mr Dante Giacosa, the man responsible for running FIAT at the time. You would think that such a break in a large firm would be a great start for the youngster, however it proved to be frustrating.

His stay at FIAT was only 4 years long, and during that period of time none of his drawings made it to production cars. However, it provided Mr Giugaro with invalueable experience. In 1959 he asked a friend who worked for design firm Bertone to pull some strings and introduce him to the big shots in the Automotive industry. Bertone invited him to bring along some drawings. A few days later, they replied.

The head of Bertone was astounded by the work produced by Mr G. He replied it simply could not be his - a child [he was in his early 20's] could not be capable of producing such drawings. So, after some intense discussion, Mr G was given an assignment by Bertone - to draw up a technical layout of the Alfa Romeo 2000 Sprint. This later became the basis of the Testudo project, and because of this he was hired instantly.

After working on a small british sports car called the Gordon Keeble GT, and along with further progress on the Alfa 2000 Sprint, he was drafted into the military. Nuccio Bertone, the owner of the design firm, did everything possible to have Giugiaro drafted to Bra, close enough to Turin so Mr G could continue his design work. They even hired a hotel room for him and furnished it with enough drawing equiptment to allow him to continue work.

It was in the hotel room that Giugiaro developed two of his most successful [in the early period of his design work] - the Ferarri 250GT and Alfa Romeo Guila. Alfa bought the project and put it straight into production without any changes to the design. 14 years on, and 120,000 units were produced - testament to Giugiaro's design work.

After alot of success at Bertone, he moved on to Ghia in November 1965, where he became director of the Styling Department. It was here where he designed the beautiful Isuzu 117 Coupe - a car which remained in production for 13years since 1968. In his short time at Ghia, he also produced the Fiat 850 Vanessa, Maserati Ghibli, De Tomaso Pampera and Mangusta. However, after a falling out with Mr De Tomaso, he left Ghia and began his own firm.

In February 1967, Ital Styling was born. This was Mr Giugiaros own company, and he continued to do work for our beloved Isuzu. He also continued to carry out work for Ghia, despite Mr De Tomaso's best efforts to prevent it. Soon however, Mr Giugiaro was faced with a distinct problem. To move further along, the company needed engineering capabilities. This was when he met Mr Aldo Mantovani, and the two joined forces to become ItalDesign.

Come the 1970's, and one of Mr Giugiaro's greatest success stories was born - the Mark I VW Golf. This was quickly followed by the Lotus Espirit and Maserati Boomerang, however the oil crisis hit the Automotive industry hard and ItalDesign also suffered. It took until 1978 and the BMW M1 to bring the firm back on its feet. From here on, it has been smooth sailing with ItalDesign churning out some of the most reknown production and concept cars. Below is a list, the asterix denoting a car that made it to production.

At Bertone

1960

Alfa Romeo 2000/2600 Sprint*
Ferrari 250 GT Bertone
Gordon Keeble GT*

1961

ASA 1000 Coup?*
Aston Martin DB4 GT Jet
BMW 3200 CS*
Maserati 5000 GT Bertone

1962

Alfa Romeo 2000 Spring
Ferrari 250 GT Bertone
Iso Rivolta 330/340 GT*
Simca 1000/1200 S Coup?*

1963

Alfa Romeo 2600 HS
Alfa Romeo Giulia GT*
Chevrolet Corvair Testudo
Iso Grifo*
Mazda Luce 1000/1500

1964

Alfa Romeo Giulia Sport Special
ASA 1000 Spider
Bizzarrini GT Strada*
Innocenti 186 GT
Iso Grifo Spider

1965

Fiat 850 Spider*
Fiat Abarth 1000 OTR
Ford Mustang Automobile Quarterly
Mazda Luce 1500/1800*
At Ghia

1966

Fiat 850 Vanessa
Isuzu 117 Coup?*
Maserati Ghibli*
De Tomaso 2000 Competizione
De Tomaso Pampero
De Tomaso Mangusta*

1967

Fiat Dino*
Iso Rivolta Fidia
Oldsmobile Tornado Thor
Rowan Elettrica

1968

Maserati Ghibli Spider*
De Tomaso Mangusta Spider

At ItalDesign

Bizzarrini Manta

1969

Abarth 1600 Coup?
Alfa Romeo 33/2 Iguana
Suzuki Carry L40/L40V*
Suzuki Microutilitaria

1970

Volkswagen-Porsche Tapiro

1971

Alfa Romeo Alfasud* (pictured)
Alfa Romeo Alfasud Caimano
Maserati Bora*
Volkswagen Karmann Cheetah

1972

Lotus Esprit*
Maserati Boomerang
Maserati Merak*

1973

Audi Karmann Asso di Picche
Volkswagen Passat*

1974

Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT/GTV*
Hyundai Pony*
Hyundai Pony Coup?
Maserati Coup? 2+2
Medici I
Volkswagen Golf/Rabbit*
Volkswagen Scirocco*

1976

Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint*
Alfa Romeo New York Taxi
BMW Karmann Asso di Quadri
Maserati Quattroporte*
Medici II

1978

Audi 80/4000*
BMW M1*
Lancia Megagamma
M8

1979

Isuzu Asso di Fiori (later 1981 Isuzu Piazza*)
Lancia Delta* (pictured)

1980

Fiat Panda*
Fiat Panda Offroader
Fiat Panda 4x4 Strip
Morris Ital*
Medusa

1981

De Lorean DMC 12*
Isuzu Piazza*

1982

Capsula
Lamborghini Marco Polo
Lancia Orca
Lancia Prisma*
1983 Fiat Uno*
Hyundai Stellar*
Renault Gabbiano

1984

Isuzu/Holden Gemini/Chevrolet Spectrum*
Isuzu Gemini Coup?
Lancia Thema*
Lotus Etna
Marlin
Maya
Saab 9000*
Seat Ibiza*
Together

1985

Fiat Croma*
Fiat Duna/Premio*
Fiat Duna Weekend*
Hyundai Pony Excel*
Hyundai Presto*
Maya II ES
Maya II EM
Seat Malaga*

1986

Machimoto
Oldsmobile Incas
Orbit
Renault 21/Medallion*

1987

AMC/Eagle Premier/Dodge Monaco*
Yugo Florida*

1988

Asgard
Aspid
Aztec
Hyundai Sonata*
Renault 19*

1989

Seat Proto T

1990

Bugatti ID 90
Jaguar Kensington
Seat Proto C
Seat Proto TL

1991

Nazca C2
Nazca M12
Seat Toledo*
Subaru Alcyone/SVX* (pictured)

1992

Biga
Columbus
Fiat Cinquecento ItalDesign

1993

Bugatti EB 112
Fiat Cinquecento Lucciola
Fiat Punto*
Fiat Punto Cabriolet*
Lexus GS 300/Toyota Aristo*
Nazca C2 Spider
Seat Cordoba/Volkswagen Polo Classic*
Seat Ibiza II*

1994

Firepoint
Lexus Landau

1995

Daewoo Bucrane
Lamborghini Cal?

1997

Alfa Romeo Scighera
Daewoo Leganza (pictured)*

Of particular interest to us however, is Mr Giugiaro's relationship with Japanese firm Isuzu. He's first design for Isuzu came when he worked for Bertone, in the form of the beautiful Isuzu 117 Coupe pictured below.





The most notable, and one of the most acclaimed however, was the Ace of Clubs, which later became known as the Isuzu Piazza, a car, which even today, is recognized by motoring journolists as one of the best looking cars ever produced.

No wonder he was voted designer of the century.

References.

http://www.jyanet.com/cap/1998/0213fe3.htm
http://www.motormagazinesha.co.jp/media ... 70x305.jpg
http://kurobom.hp.infoseek.co.jp/car/is ... nd.r05.jpg
http://www.europeancarweb.com/features/ ... taldesign/

[Chris]

Thanks. This will go into the APC article section.

Great read!

[117Coupe]

Of particular interest to us however, is Mr Giugiaro's relationship with Japanese firm Isuzu. He's first design for Isuzu came when he worked for Bertone, in the form of the beautiful Isuzu 117 Coupe pictured below.

In the early 1960's Isuzu management decided they needed a flagship model to replace the CKD Hillman Minx. They wanted a unique model with emphasis on style and performance but were concerned that they didn't have the sheet metal technical knowledge or capability of producing such a model.

They approached a Mr. Giorgio Sargiotto who was working at Prince Motor Company. Mr. Sargiotto was an Italian who had worked at Carrozzeria and came to Japan in 1961 to assist Prince Motor Co with the Michelotti designed Skyline. (Prince Motor Co was later taken over by Nissan)

Mr. Sargiotto agreed to work for Isuzu and provide technical assistance and guidance. Mr. Sargiotto still maintained close contact with Carrozzeria-Ghia in Italy and suggested to Isuzu that they approach Giorgetto Giugiaro, a young new designer who had just joined Carrozzeria-Ghia.

Isuzu did this and the Giugiaro designed 'Ghia Isuzu 117 Sport' made its debut at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show, where it won "Best Car" of the show.

The 117 Coupe was released in Japan in December 1968 with a price of 1.72 million yen. Toyota's top model at the time, was the Crown Super Deluxe with a price of 1.12 million.

Due to the complex panel design, many 117 Coupe panels were handmade and the car was hand assembled under the guidance of Mr. Sargiotto at the rate of only 50 per month until 1972.

Mr. Giugiaro was very impressed with Isuzu's determination in successfully producing the 117 Coupe and was more than happy to help them out again in 1978 when they approached him to design a replacement for the 117 Coupe.

[Matt]

Gee nick you had a lot of spare time that day. Good read but.

Matt

[GeminiCoupe]

Hahaha yeah tell me about it. Thats what happens when i get bored i guess.

Carrozeria [my spelling is dodgy] means "chassis", which is why im guessing it was called Carrozeria-Ghia, Ghia being the design department and Mr Sargiotto being head of the chassis/body department.

Nick-