Page 9 - Lancia Stratos Zero Sample pages

CARROZZERIA BERTONE _ A FABULOUS HISTORY
ON WATSON FINE BOOK
45
DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS
ABOVE: A prosperous and proud Nuccio Bertone poses with a
couple of scale models and several renderings of the cars that the
design house had developed until then.
LEFT: Several of the one-off concept cars and some of the more
photograph.
© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS
important models designed and coachbuilt by Bertone are on
display in front of the separate studio that Nuccio Bertone set
up in Caprie. The building, used for the design, prototyping and
development of the cars, also housed the Bertone Museum, with all
the cars on display (as well as several others) until the liquidation
of Stile Bertone around 2014. It may be interesting to note that
the subject of this book is missing from the lot on display for this
BOTH IMAGES ARCHIVIO CENTRALE DELLO STATO/STILE BERTONE
square foot) factory at Grugliasco in preparation of sub-
assemblies in 1970.
Though business was good for Bertone, the changing
political and industrial scenario by the late 1960s,
and into the early 1970s, was taking a toll on the
coachbuilder. Business had grown several fold, yet
profitability and efficiency had taken a beating thanks to
increasing industrial action and violence. Thus, in 1969,
models.
© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOK
Nuccio Bertone separated the design activities from
manufacturing and relocated the design center far away
from the factory which was prone to interruption from
the trade unions. Several times the workers had stormed
into the design center disrupting work and destroying
Bertone’s new Centro Stile (or Style Center) was just
24 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Grugliasco, at the
foothills of the Italian Alps, in the Susa Valley. Built in typical
1970s-style architecture, with bright orange ceilings
(Nuccio’s favorite color), surrounded by vast rolling green
zones, it was a perfect hideaway that provided excellent
security and secrecy. It was reassuring to the international
manufacturers, who were not too comfortable with
projects at Grugliasco, and the proximity to Turin, Fiat’s
headquarters, also being a deterrent.
DALTON WATSO