Thirty years marks a generation. For most of us, that's how long it takes just to grow up, tame our wild oats, settle down and start doing something productive. Few of us make much of a mark in so little time. Giorgio Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani, on the other hand, have made an indelible mark on our automotive generation--first separately, then together as Italdesign, all in the 33 years since the company was born in 1968.
Most car guys--especially with Italian sympathies--are familiar with Giugiaro. Mantovani, working in the background, has been less visible. Italdesign's name is descriptive, but unlike Pininfarina and Bertone, their logo almost never appears on automobiles. Their functions are broader than that: Design is important and, of course, Giugiaro's original foundation, but Italdesign is far more.
Today, Italdesign employs over 850 people at its 453,000 sq ft headquarters south of Turin, Italy. They've produced more than 100 designs that became 30 million production vehicles built by the world's leading car manufacturers.
Four-hundred-fifty CAD/CAS/CAE/CAM workstations, 16 NC milling machines, six laser cutting robots and 15 digitizing machines help build 150 prototypes a year. In the six management sectors with over 30 operating divisions, tasks fall into four major categories: styling, engineering, prototypes, and program management, all from a service bureau capable of providing turn-key production and feasibility studies as well as craft and mechanical workshops that transform these abstract entities into physical reality.
This huge undertaking has always been under the firm control of its two founders, Giorgio Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani. Giugiaro's story actually begins almost a decade before the founding of Italdesign, when the 17-year-old "Giorgetto" was discovered by the man who directed much of the giant Italian automaker FIAT's fate--Dante Giacosa. Giorgetto spent his youth with a paint brush in his hand at his grandfather's side, painting church frescos. He went off to art school in Turin at the age of 14, and soon signed up for night classes in technical drawing. When Giacosa saw his work at the art school's end-of-the-year show, he immediately offered Giorgetto a position in Fiat's Special Cars Styling Study Department under Fabio Luigi Rapi.
It was not an easy place to work for the headstrong youth. Giugiaro stayed four years. "I never once had the satisfaction of seeing a drawing of mine transformed into a model," he said later of his early frustration, but he learned a great deal about industrial design. In 1959, he asked a friend who worked at Bertone to introduce him to the great carrozziere at the Turin Auto Show. Bertone was gracious and invited Giorgetto to bring over some drawings.
A few days later, Bertone's reaction stung Giugiaro to the quick. "These can't possibly be yours," he said of the drawings. "They could never have been done by a boy." Giugiaro protested, saying "If you don't believe that I did them, give me something specific to do and I'll do it." His assignment was a "technical layout" of the Alfa Romeo 2000 Sprint. Bertone was so taken with the drawings--which later formed the basis of the Testudo prototype--that he hired Giorgetto on the spot.
Giugiaro barely had time to design a small British GT car called a Gordon-Keeble, and to keep up with the Alfa 2000 project, before the government drafted him into military service. "Nuccio Bertone moved heaven and earth," Giugiaro said, "to have me transferred to Bra," close enough to Turin to continue working. Bertone rented him a small hotel room and furnished it with a drawing board and all the tools Giugiaro would need. Here he developed two of his early successes--the Ferrari 250 GT and the Alfa Giulia GT. For the Giulia, Giugiaro had constructed the scale model himself in his small room. "I'll never forget that horrible journey from Bra to Turin in the broken-down Renault Dauphine that belonged to a fellow soldier. I held the precious model of the Giulia GT in my lap. And even though I held it tight in my hands, it got there in such a sorry state, I had to do three hours' work to restore it."
Alfa bought the project and put it into production right away, with no changes to the original design. The car debuted at the 1963 Geneva Show and 120,000 units left the lines in the next 14 years. While the Alfa Giulia counts as Giugiaro's biggest commercial success of his five years with Bertone, the car he remembers most fondly from the period is the Iso Grifo. Like the Corvair-powered Testudo ("the first prototype with which I had been given a free hand"), the Grifo benefitted from a powerful American engine. Both cars appeared in 1963 (the Testudo in Geneva, the Grifo in Turin). Unlike the Alfa, which was clearly to be a production car, Giotto Bizzarini's two-seater coupe was originally intended to be a one-off. Instead, Iso eventually produced 411 Iso Grifo coupes, as well as targa and spider versions. "It is hard to say which was better, there were so many important cars," Giugiaro told me in a 1998 interview, "but the Grifo was different, a departure from the norm, so sporty with that big American motor. It was a very prestigious car."
The Iso Grifo also offered Giugiaro his first meeting with Aldo Mantovani, the man who would one day be his partner. Mantovani's engineering firm, UTIV, had been responsible for the bodywork plans.
Giugiaro's years at Bertone were amazingly productive: Along with the Testudo, Grifo and Alfa Giulia, there was the Alfa Canguro, two Ferrari 250 GTs, Maserati 5000 GT, Aston Martin DB4, Fiat 850 Spider, BMW 3200CS, Iso Rivolta, Mazda Luce and a preliminary layout for the Fiat Dino Coupe.
But, in November 1965, he left Bertone for Ghia. Some writers claim Giugiaro was chafing for more personal recognition. Giugiaro himself says he was happy at Bertone, but Giacomo Gaspardo Moro of Ghia enticed him with a managerial position--director of the Styling and Design Center. His time there was short but productive--an Isuzu 117 (mass produced for 13 years from 1968 on), Fiat 850 Vanessa, Maserati Ghibli, De Tomaso Pampero and Mangusta. Though the 1966 Mangusta is considered by many to be a masterpiece and to mark the turning point of automotive design--from the softer shapes of the '60s to the "folded paper" or wedge designs of the '70s--it was De Tomaso who brought an end to Giugiaro's short stay at Ghia: "De Tomaso told me in no uncertain terms that as soon as he could do without me, he would throw me out on my ear."
Giugiaro obliged him in February 1967, founding his own firm under the name Ital Styling. In this first year on his own, Giugiaro continued his work with Isuzu and, despite De Tomaso, fulfilled several commissioned studies for Ghia. The need to bring engineering in-house and expand his company's capabilities brought him together with Aldo Mantovani in February 1968.
Mr. Mantovani's grandparents had been well-respected caradori, or carriage-builders, and even though they'd long since left Ferrara and moved to the industrial center of Turin, the boy grew up loving "the feel of the thing, curiosity as to how it was made, the desire to build with my own hands." Hired at age 16 by FIAT, in the midst of World War II--it was 1944--he worked in the aero engine department. "Who knows how long I might have stayed there if the factory hadn't been bombed to the ground. That's how I started with the automobile, and I soon discovered that I prefered working on cars than developing airplanes."
As with Giugiaro, Dante Giacosa made an impression. Mantovani stayed with FIAT for 19 years, working with Giacosa and Antonio Fessia throughout the '50s on the sedans that crowded Italy's streets. But the desire for more autonomony led him to leave in 1963, when he formed UTIV with two other ex-Fiat engineers. After their first meeting over the Iso Grifo, Mantovani met Giugiaro again to work on the Iso Rivolta, Fiat 850 Coupe, Fiat Dino Coupe and the Isuzu 117. When they joined to create Italdesign, they each brought unique and essential attributes.
"There is no way to involve Giorgetto Giugiaro in down-to-earth economic additions and subtractions," wrote Grazia Prini in a recent profile of Aldo. "Mantovani has known this for a long time, and the idea makes him smile with affectionate complicity because 'Giugiaro's just the way he is, without being saddled with problems that could interfere with his creative mentality.'"
Though Mantovani's work has therefore always been fundamental to Italdesign's success, the company's history is apparent in the evolution of finished automobiles, both production and prototype, designed by Giugiaro. The first success came again--as it had with the Giulia--from Alfa Romeo, now under the direction of the famous Austrian engineer, Rudolf Hruska. The project was not just a car but a complete facility, including the new manufacturing plant, the car and its engine--the Alfasud.
The success of this project proved that Italdesign's innovative combination of project planning, engineering and design worked, but the partners still wanted their presence to be felt in the traditional forum of the auto shows. So, at the 1968 Turin Show they put forth the Bizzarrini Manta, the first body designed by Giugiaro "without the constraint of client specifications."
The following year Turin witnessed Italdesign's own stand. Honoring the long Italian tradition, Alfa Romeo had entrusted a 33/2 chassis to Bertone, Pininfarina and the newcomer, Italdesign. On press day before the show opened to the public, Bertone's Carabo generated quite a stir while the Italdesign stand remained empty. Journalists from around the world lingered, waiting to see what might appear. Many gave up, but some stayed for the food and drink left by show organizers. When Italdesign's "Iguana" was finished at 2:30 in the morning (a special new paint process to get the right "metallized" effect took much longer than anticipated), no truck could be found to transport it, so it had to be driven. When the driver pulled into the hall, he expected it to be empty. Instead, he found a gaggle of chatting journalists and carrozzieri. He drove as slowly as he could to the stand, but just before shutting off the car accidently tapped the accelerator, causing a roar that "shook the walls." As he scrambled out of the car, the gathered crowd was already abuzz about the car.
This last minute, roaring entrance was only the first of what became an Italdesign trademark. Giugiaro's unparalleled perfectionism is held to be responsible. "As soon as they start to take it away I see something that I must check again," he explained.
The 1970s brought Italdesign's greatest commercial success, and the one best known here in the States. The Volkswagen Golf marked Volkswagen's post-Beetle rebirth and Italdesign's highest selling (over six million) production vehicle. The year 1972 brought the Maserati Boomerang prototype and the Lotus Esprit production car, but the mid '70s oil crisis hurt Italdesign as it did all automotive firms. Recovery began in 1978 with a deal to produce all 456 bodies for the limited edition BMW M1, the sporty two-seater Giugiaro had designed for the Bavarians.
Then, that old Italian giant, FIAT, assigned Italdesign the new "Y5"--the car that became the Lancia Delta. This racy, boxy coupe (winner of many rallies) was designated "European Car of the Year" in 1980. The Fiat Panda followed, almost two million of which were produced between 1979 and 1987. Another interesting Italdesign car of the early '80s was the DeLorean, that famous short-lived American car. Since then, Italdesign has worked with manufacturers from Japan, Korea and throughout Europe--almost everywhere but Detroit--to produce an astounding array of production cars. And prototypes continue to stun today's auto show crowds; the last decade brought examples for BMW (Nazcas from 1991), Bugatti (1993 EB112), Lexus (1994 Landau), Daewoo (1995 Bucrane), Lamborghini (1995 Cala), Alfa Romeo (1997 Scighera) and Volkswagen (the 1997 W12).
Just in time for the new millennium, on December 18, 1999, a panel of 120 journalists elected Giorgetto Giugiaro "Designer of the Century." The new century brought another change: Italdesign has broken its 23-year policy of remaining in the background by reintroducing its logo, a stylized "ID," on the new Maserati Spyder. The last car to sport Italdesign's logo was the 1978 BMW M1.
Italdesign's second generation, sons Fabrizio Giugiaro and Marco Mantovani, are now firmly in charge, though Giorgetto keeps his hand in by designing with his son Fabrizio--the body of the new Maserati Spyder is one of their joint efforts. Marco stands quietly in the background, as his father always has. Their fathers made Italdesign available to three-quarters of the globe, including China, where discussions have taken place regarding the role Italdesign might play in that country's blossoming automotive industry. All that's left are the stubborn automakers right here in Detroit, USA. Since the 1998 opening of ItalDesign California (IDC), in Oak Canyon near L.A., the company has offered increased development services to both domestic and Asian car manufacturers. Perhaps it won't be long before we have the pleasure of witnessing a Chevrolet-sponsored prototype, a supercar like the Scighera or W12, bringing Giugiaro and GM full circle back to the days of the Chevy-powered Testudo. With the Giugiaros' creative drive and the Mantovanis' pragmatic support, almost anything is possible.