GT4 in the making

I discovered this photo of a 1:1 scale maquette of the Dino GT4 in a book recently, and was quite excited, as I had never seen this photo before.  It's interesting to note the more flamboyant treatments of the air intakes and outlets when compared to the more restrained final design.  Gandini also did well by adding the additional character line along the flank of the final car to break up the vertical mass of the body. That line is absent on this early study. The elegant and subtle hood creases on the final car are also not yet defined on the unadorned nose area.

The production rear end treatment and bumpers are also far more delightful and nuanced than this maquette, meaning, I would assume, that this is one of the earliest full scale models made. Note that the maquette is described as a clay model, but I believe that Bertone and the other Italian design houses worked primarily in plaster models at the time, with clay being more prevalent in Detroit.

38 years on, the Khamsin is sexier than ever.

Marcello Gandini's Maserati Khamsin is, in my opinion, possibly the most beautiful car Italy produced in the 1970s.  Part of the reason I bought my Dino GT4 is that it shares many of the same themes in terms of surface treatment and design detailing, yet at a more attainable pricepoint and with better performance. Click the photos below to see the entire original sales catalogue in all its retro-fantastic glory.

For your consideration: Bertone Rainbow Prototype

The same year my Dino's body was built in the Bertone factory, Marcello Gandini and his team were creating this wedge-like design study also based on the Ferrari 308 mechanicals.  Clearly, these themes never made it into any production Ferrari. But you can see many elements here that would find their way into several small sports cars of the 80s, particularly from Japan.  At this time, Japanese automakers had yet to emerge, butterfly-like from their mimetic, unimaginative cocoons.  But collaborations between Italian styling houses and Japanese automakers began to bear fruit. Radical Italian ideas of the mid 70s became the new Japanese look of the 80s, and the wedge went from avante garde to mainstream.

Stratos Zero Moment of Zen

I love the Lancia Stratos Zero Prototipo. Designed by Marcello Gandini at Bertone, it's still probably one of the most futuristic cars ever designed. Here's a great abstract view of it that you don't see very often.

Lancia Stratos Prototipo by Stile Bertone: Where is the future we were promised??

I don't think car design ever really surpassed the extremes to which the styling houses of Italy went in the early 70s with their space-age wedge designs. And perhaps the most extreme example of that archetype was the Lancia Stratos Zero by Marcello Gandini, which actually did lead to the renowned Stratos production car.  This clip is really cool because I had never seen any footage of this earth-bound spacecraft in motion before-- and the synth music just makes it even better! Those of you know me personally know that this video is so right up my alley!