Tag: carrozzeria

Beyond Drifting: Original Nissan Silvia – A Heartbreaking Work of Understated Genius

An aerial view of a Nissan Silvia

The first generation Nissan Silvia CSP311 is one of the pioneering Japanese sports coupés. That’s the journalistically balanced way of making a statement about this gorgeous little car. What I really think is as follows: The first generation Nissan Silvia CSP311 is the most beautiful car ever to be produced in Japan.  There. I’ve said […]

A Grand Touring heavyweight: 60 years of the Aston Martin DB4

Thanks to its association with an infamous secret agent, the name ‘Aston Martin’ and the initials ‘DB’ conjure up all sorts of British spy movie connotations. But while the DB5 may well be popular culture’s most famous David Brown creation, its numerically-named predecessor is just as significant. The DB5 may be James Bond, but the […]

Karmann Chameleons: The Ghia-Styled Volkswagen

The original Volkswagen Beetle’s silhouette is as distinctive as it is ubiquitous. Curvy yes, sporty, no. But then that wasn’t part of the Beetle’s brief.  Designed in 1938 to get the German masses moving, it took until 1945 for the bug-shaped car to fulfill its objective. Production was interrupted by World War II, brought on […]

Great Shakes: Bertone’s Beach Buggy

Bertone Shake

The 1960s: mini-skirts, moon landings, music and a Missile Crisis… And beach buggies. A broad bevvy of buggies, each with balloon-bloated tyres seemingly capable of taking on a lunar landscape. Lamborghinis Miura and Countach, Lancia Stratos, Fiat Abarth 131 Rally, the Alfa BAT cars and Giulietta Sprint – these are the cars associated with now […]

Chrysler Diablo Concept

‘fifties concepts didn’t come any more practical the the Ghia designed Chrysler Diablo

The Importance of Being Nuccio Bertone

We’ve mentioned the House Bertone before, latterly lamenting the sad demise of one of car building’s great collaborators. It’s instructive that the Noble house never had any financial problems while its long time patriarch Nuccio was alive and at the helm. It was he that was the true great collaborator, bristling with a host of […]