Out And About In A Concept Car

Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Italdesign was the most influential car-design bureau in the world in the 1970s. The Alfa Romeo Alfasud and Volkswagen Golf put a Giugiaro original into the hands of even the humblest motorist.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

The decade saw Italdesign present a seemingly never-ending parade of concept cars that kept its name at the cutting edge of design trends. Cars such as this Maserati-based Medici II, a dart-shaped executive saloon, drew huge motor-show crowds for its novel features, such as its glass roof panels. Mechanically based on the Maserati Quattroporte, with its race-proven, 4.9-liter V8 engine, it was a super-luxurious model with four wide, sumptuous seats—the car, painted a shimmering silver, was just under 6ft (2m) wide. And yet Italdesign’s coach-building traditions were merely the latest in Italy’s creative heritage. Perhaps that is why the contrasting textures of ancient sites, such as the stunning cathedral square in Milan, were often chosen as locations for publicity shoots that captured the fashionable Zeitgeist of the times.

The historic aura of Milan’s Piazza Del Duomo is here enjoyed through the open roof of Italdesign’s Maserati Medici II, in 1974.

 

It is a quote. The Classic Car Book – The Definitive Visual History 2016