In 1953, when this Stanguellini* Fiat 1100TV appeared, there weren't many car designs featuring parabolic arcs. Franco Scaglione, chief designer for Nuccio Bertone's coach building house, loved them. They appear in the car's side elevation and the shape of its delicate tail, and are echoed in the shape of the rear wheel cutouts...
...and again in the plan view of the roof, as well as the plan view of the large, divided rear window. The expansive rear hatch was a novelty in 1953; Aston Martin would offer a smaller version that year, and Jaguar's E-Type would emulate the side-opening feature in 1961. Another feature which would find echoes in future designs from the house of Bertone was the side glazing, which was curved in plan to follow the teardrop plan of the passenger compartment.
Headlights were usually separate from grilles and air intakes in the early 50s, but Scaglione integrated these separate elements into a coherent arrow shape, pointing downward to the road. According to Nuccio Bertone, his financially challenged firm built around 10 of these coupes, and at least 3 of these included power-enhancing modifications which extracted up to 70 hp from the inline 4, which featured pushrod-operated valves, unlike the twin-cam Stanguellini racing engines.
When Alfa Romeo released the first production version of its groundbreaking twin-cam, aluminum-engined Giulietta at the Turin show in 1954, its sheer, undecorated flanks, tapered roofline, and vaguely parabolic rear window bore the fingerprints of Scaglione. Unlike the Stanguellini coupe, it moved Bertone into the category of mass production, and the firm would produce thousands of copies over a decade of production...
Before the Giulietta started production, however, Franco Scaglione plunged into what seemed a frenzy of creative activity, releasing the first of the wild Berlina Aerodynamica Technica coupes on the Alfa 1900 chassis, and then proposing a more practical 2000 Sportiva coupe based on the 1900. The BAT series would be completed in 1955, and would comprise the trio of BATs 5, 7 and 9...
While the BAT coupes reflected aircraft practice in their approach to reducing wind resistance, their organically-curved surfaces recalled sea creatures. The more subdued forms of the 2000 Sportiva shown below reflect the same concerns with air flow, and similar parabolic arcs in plan, elevation and section. But in adapting these ideas to a car suited to practical series production, Scaglione anticipated the trend away from spartan open roadsters to the smooth, sophisticated closed GT cars of the 1960s and 70s.
While addressing the parameters for the design of a practical road car, Scaglione also created a coherent and distinctive visual expression of the Alfa Romeo theme of engineering for performance. Unlike some of the designs from competing coach builders, the Sportiva could not be mistaken for any other make of car. Perhaps owing to Alfa's preoccupation with producing the new Giulietta, only 4 copies of the Sportiva were produced; 2 coupes and 2 spiders.
During Bertone's breakthrough year of 1953, Scaglione also designed an Aston Martin roadster for Chicago dealer S.H. Arnolt*. When Aston Martin management discouraged Arnolt from continuing the project, Scaglione adapted the design for the Arnolt Bristol, and this car attained a production of 142 units. Most of the cars were open roadsters, but there were half a dozen coupes which added a smoothly curved roofline and concealed headlights to clever features present also on the roadsters. These include exuberantly curved and peaked fenders, which, along with the peaked hood with air scoop, serve to conceal the tall engine bay resulting from the long-stroke Bristol (BMW-designed) six.
By 1957 Alfa's Giulietta was available in sedan and Pininfarina spider form as well as the Bertone Sprint, and Scaglione designed a special low-drag coupe as a performance variant.This was accepted for production, and early versions featured the "low nose" grille and fender profile shown on the car below. This early prototype lacks the traditional Alfa grille shape and the bumpers which appeared on later versions. But it shows Scaglione's skill at repeating sculptural themes and echoing these themes in details like the parabolic arc of the roof and the plan shape of the roof, with side windows curved in plan to match the teardrop cabin plan.
The rear view shows the smooth integration of fenders and roof forms, and an early version of the chopped, Kamm-inspired tail with inset panel, which would become common on 1960s GT cars. This Sprint Speciale became a successful offering in the Alfa line, with production continuing from 1959 to 1966. Total production of Giulietta (1300 cc) and Giulia (1600 cc) versions attained 2,766 units.
Sadly, this kind of commercial success did not greet Franco Scaglione's final project for Alfa Romeo, the Stradale based on the mid-engined Type 33 race car. Designed after Scaglione left Bertone, the 4-cam 2 liter V8 coupe was bodied by Marazzi, a small firm which also built bodies for the Lamborghini Islero. Only 18 chassis were completed, and most estimates say that only 10 of them had this body style, a masterpiece of integrated curves with Scaglione's trademark parabolic windshield and teardrop roof. This view also shows off the butterfly doors with windows curving into the roof. The first prototype is shown in black and white below...
Later cars featured more cooling vents in the alloy bodywork, as well as sliding windows for cockpit ventilation...And like nearly all of Franco Scaglione's work, the Stradale is prized by collectors today.
*Footnotes: For more on the Stanguellini marque, see our post for March 21, 2016, entitled Chasing a Mirage, the Last Stanguellini. The Bertone-bodied Astons (and MGs too) are shown in Forgotten Classics---The Other Arnolts from October 15, 2016. And the Arnolt Bristol story is reviewed in Forgotten Classics: Muddling Through with Bristol from September 22, 2016.
More Design Notes: Evidence suggests that Scaglione designed with scale models rather than laying his cars out in full-scale plan and elevations like Malcolm Sayer at Jaguar, or beginning with elevation studies, like Giorgetto Giugiaro. This is intriguing because so many Scaglione designs are especially striking in overhead view; it seems that we are then seeing them the way he conceived them, looking down while he held them in his hands. Surfaces flow into each other, so that it becomes difficult to say where side ends and top begins.
Photo Credits
Top & 3rd from top: the author
2nd from top: pinterest.com
4th, 6th & 7th: Alfa Romeo S.p.A.
5th: wikimedia
8th & 9th: Carrozzeria Bertone
10th & 12th: wikimedia
11th: Alfa Romeo S.p.A.
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