Franco Scaglione's 1953 BAT 5
Letter From The Editor: Who Thinks of These Things?
February 4, 2003
Historians and enthusiasts who trace the evolution of the Italian automobile are familiar with the show cars and rare one-offs that represent the high-water marks of their respective eras. Best remembered for iconic shapes like the Alfa Romeo BATs, DeTomaso Mangusta or Lamborghini Countach, this same industry’s most forward-thinking projects were sometimes the least glamorous. The Iso bubble car, subsequently sold to BMW by its progenitor Renzo Rivolta, was a brilliant answer to Europe’s need for public and commercial transportation following the war. Tiny Abarth racers cut a svelte profile every bit as captivating as their V-12 brethren, and Fiat’s ubiquitous Topolino (“little mouse”) populates Italy’s roadscapes even today. The best Italian designers have tackled humble projects with the same verve as their illustrious show cars.
Contemporary design culture recognizes little in the way of national boundaries, and there is indeed some irony in the fact that, today, one nation’s automobile is rarely clothed in a body designed by one of its citizens. Americans, Dutch, Germans and Japanese have more of a hand in the look of modern Italian cars than the Italians themselves, a situation unthinkable in the golden age of the carrozzeria. Whether some identity is lost in this multi- cultural mélange is open to debate. Is the Miura more a Lamborghini than the Murciélago, whose stylist Luc Donckerwolcke is Belgian, was raised in Peru, and works, ultimately, for parent company Audi? In a world encumbered by political correctness and Benetton billboards, it’s probably out of fashion to suggest that the rush to globalize has compromised a process as personal as design. Certainly, it’s not impossible that the world’s best risotto could be made in a Chinese restaurant. But there’s something about the Italians—especially their designers—that lets them imagine the wildest things.
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