Bertone

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Bertone SpA

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1912
resolution 2014
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Turin ( Italy )
management "Lilli" Bertone
Branch Car body and automobile manufacturing , automobile design

The Italian company Bertone , founded under the name Carrozzeria Bertone , was a manufacturer and designer of car bodies and model variants of various automobile brands . During its history, Bertone has worked for many companies in the automotive industry (including Fiat , Lamborghini , Citroën , Alfa Romeo , Volvo , Lancia , Opel , BMW ).

history

The Carrozzeria Bertone was founded by the wheelwright Giovanni Bertone (1884–1972) in 1912. However, it was not until 1921 that the body shop received the first order for SPA to build the body for the Torpedo model based on a SPA 23S . An increasingly industrial mode of production began to develop in automobile manufacturing, and the methods of body construction had to adapt to this development. The wooden bodies were now connected to the iron chassis using assembly line techniques . In addition, the bodies had to be significantly reinforced in line with the increasing speed of the vehicles. As a result, Bertone designed a number of hardtop- like roof structures to make cars like Vincenzo Lancia's Lambda more robust and safer sedans .

In the following decade, Bertone's company developed from a craft workshop into a real body shop.

Giovanni Bertone's son Giuseppe Bertone , nicknamed “Nuccio” (1914–1997), joined the family business in 1934, and three years later the company won the Turin styling competition with the streamlined body for the Fiat 1500 . As head of the company, Nuccio Bertone transformed the company into one of the world's leading design offices for automobiles.

Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint

In 1954, the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint was unveiled at the Turin Motor Show, and the body of this car, tailored by Bertone, became the epitome of post-war Italian design. In addition to the services for Alfa Romeo , Bertone also designed important body shapes for Fiat , Bristol , Aston Martin and NSU Motorenwerke AG in the 1950s . In the 1960s, Bertone developed models for Alfa Romeo, Fiat , BMW , Aston Martin and Ferrari and gained great recognition for the Lamborghini Miura , which was introduced in 1966. Two years later, Bertone's futuristic styling for the Alfa Romeo Carabo signaled the beginning of the new wedge trend, of which the Lancia Stratos became the most famous representative . This was also built at Bertone. In 1971, the first prototype of the Lamborghini Countach, drawn by Bertone, received a lot of praise when it was launched, but after the 1972 oil crisis , Bertone had to focus on everyday cars like the Volkswagen Polo (1975). The Fiat Ritmo convertible was produced under its own brand name as the Bertone convertible and from 1982 the Fiat X1 / 9 as the Bertone X1 / 9. The Daihatsu off-road vehicles Rocky and Feroza were built under license under the names Bertone Freeclimber and Freeclimber II, mainly for the Italian market. Opel had the Kadett-E- Cabriolet, the Astra-F -Cabriolet and the sporty Astra-G- Coupé (2000-2004) and the Astra-G-Cabriolet (2001-2005) manufactured by Bertone .

  • NSU Sports Prince

  • Simca 1500

  • Lamborghini Miura

  • Lancia Stratos in the Bertone Museum

  • Fiat X1 / 9

  • Citroën XM

Over the decades, six designers shaped the Bertone style. Chief designers were during this time

Even Giovanni Michelotti and Sergio Pininfarina worked temporarily in the "Stile Bertone".

The studio Bertone developed its own individual design language for such diverse vehicles such as the Ferrari Dino 308 GT 4 (1973), the Lancia Stratos (1973) and the Volvo 780 Coupe (1985).

Bertone repeatedly attracted special attention through extraordinary prototypes and concept studies that influenced automobile design, for example the Testudo from 1961. The BMW C1 scooter was also manufactured by Bertone. At the company's heyday, up to 70,000 units were being manufactured at Bertone each year. On the occasion of the 90th birthday of the company was founded in 2000 on the Geneva Motor Show , the study of Bertone Novanta ( dt. "Ninety") on 9-5 Saab presents basis.

Bertone's administration building in Turin

Due to the passenger car sales crisis in the mid-2000s, the Bertone group, like other European independent bodybuilders (e.g. Karmann ), ran into financial difficulties, went bankrupt and was broken up. Only the Stile Bertone design center in Caprie was independent until 2014 and was managed by Ermelinda Bertone , Nuccio's widow. The car body factory, Carozzeria Bertone SpA in Grugliasco , which was moved into in 1958 and in which 1300 to 1500 employees produced 14,000 to 15,000 cars annually, was last part of Fiat . Its future is uncertain, as no more vehicles have been manufactured there since 2007 and a 2010 investment of 600 million euros by Fiat has been called into question again.

On May 21, 2011, some of the famous styling studies from the Bertone Museum were auctioned, including the Lamborghini Marzal (for around 1.5 million euros) and the Lancia Stratos Zero (around 760,000 euros) in order to save at least the design studio. After this last branch of the company had to file for bankruptcy in March 2014 and no investor could be found by the end of April, the execution was announced in early May 2014.

Web links

Commons : Bertone  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.x1-9.de
  2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.alfavisione.net
  3. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from June 7th, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rmauctions.com
  4. ↑ Off for the cult designer - notification of bankruptcy in Autobild , May 9, 2014