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Though a number of designers started to pen wedge-shaped cars at roughly the same time through the late ’60s and early ’70s, none of them used the form as regularly as Giorgetto Giugiaro, who was able to apply the design principles of a wedge’d supercar to a five-door hatchback.
Here are our five favorites from Italdesign Giugiaro’s back catalogue.
Yes, Marcello Gandini of Bertone (and the Alfa Romeo Carabo) introduced the first wedge’d supercar concept at Salon de l’Automobile in 1968, while Giugiaro’s Bizzarini Manta waited until later in the year at Turin for its debut. Why? Giugiaro had only founded the company in February of that year! Designed and built in forty days around an Iso Grifo chassis and powered by a Chevrolet V8, it still moves under its own power.
While not a wedge in the most strict sense, it signaled the start of his long affair with modifying a wedge to suit the design job. (The Alfa Romeo Iguana by Italdesign is the ‘missing link’ in many respects between the Manta and our next selection…)
Those of you with a Porsche 914 already know about this car, and very likely wish that this body was what the car left the factory with—but, of course, imagine how much more the car would have cost in period!
One of our favorite “what ifs”, the one and only Tapiro was severely damaged in a fire, but we can just imagine a production version of the car rubbing shoulders with the (Ferrari) Dino 206 GT and 246 GT at auction. For what it’s worth, Italdesign refers to the car as its first “official” wedge-shaped car.
Shown three years after the Tapiro, by 1970, the famously hard-working Giugiaro had already shown a number of wedges after the Tapiro but the 1973 Boomerang was his next evolution of the theme: an extreme take on an angular supercar.
Based on the Maserati Bora and powered by a 310 horsepower V8 engine and “capable of” 186 mph (300 km/h), the Boomerang used just about every design trick in the book to make its extreme 13º windshield angle (two degrees less than on the Manta) work—but, of course it did.
One of the world’s first production wedge-shaped cars, it arrived two years after the Lancia Stratos but is a design more dedicated to a wholly angular shape. Fitting perfectly with Colin Chapman and Lotus F1’s on-track successes, the small displacement 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder powered road-going Esprit was every bit an equal to many higher-powered ’70s sports cars.
Windshield angle? Eighteen degrees, about the same as the Manta—and that means it took less than a decade for Giugiaro’s wedge shapes to enter production.
Responding to a challenge by MoMa’s open challenge to design a taxi of tomorrow, Italdesign’s approach was to take its sexy wedge lines and create one of the few Alfa Romeos with sliding doors that we’d actually want to drive. Built around the company’s F12 van platform, it was given an interior makeover that used a steeply raked windshield and barely-there hood to maximize passenger space. In other words, it took less than a decade for Giugiaro to make the wedge wheelchair accessible.
Image Source: italdesign.it
Many ‘journalists’ try to impress us, readers, with their knowledge and opinions. But we aren’t interested in your opinion, we have our own. I love to see the Tapiro in this list, but without the M1 this list is meaningless. BTW The Tapiro is being restored, if not finished already. I wrote an article about that car many years ago, when there wasn’t many information about it on the internet. I just love that car, it’s design and those weird luggage windows in the back. Did you forget the Alfa Romeo Iguana, or don’t you just know that concept car? It’s drop dead gorgeous! It was his first design as he started his own business. The Maserati Bora was it’s follow-up, sort off and is still a very comfy mid-engined sports car. You can see some of the Tapiro design elements as well. The Lotus Esprit is better well known, but the Bora has al these design features that Giuguaro put in his concept cars. Design features the Esprit lacks. Despite the fact I just love the Esprit, it’s not in my top 5 list of Giugiaro’s best designs. And the DeLorean was actually the same design he made 10 years earlier, but didn’t ‘sell’ then, because he had to adjust it before it became a Lotus Esprit. Not one of his best designs, so it’s good it’s not in this list, but the Alfa Iguana and underrated Maserati Bora have to be in this list along with the M1 and Tapiro. Can we do a Gandini list as well? 🙂
The Lotus Esprit. Even though it was launched in 1976 it is still beautiful and striking. The final incarnations were also as beautiful as the original, especially with the V8. James May even demonstrated how rugged it was though, against the prevailing view, though unable to resist a good beating from stroppy Argies.
But errr … how pray tell did the BMW M1 not make it onto this list ?
For shame gentlemen . For shame !
As to the Lotus Esprit .. though its a personal favorite and to this day one of GG’s most iconic designs [ after the M1 ] the sad fact was and is the Esprit in all its iterations never quite lived up to e the promise it held , its design or its Lotus heritage especially in comparison to its direct competitors . Fact is if you owned/own an Esprit you pretty much have to resign yourself that you’ll be coming up with the short end of the stick should you ever go head to head with one of its contemporaries . Hmmm .. kind of like the Isuzu Piazza/Impulse . Tons of promise . Beautiful body by GG . Lotus suspension and engineering . Yet the sum never quite living up to the total no matter how you added it all up .