Thirty luxurious cars for fifty years of automotive history: Italdesign celebrates its 50th Anniversary at 2018 Turin Auto Show Parco Valentino

 

The fourth edition of Turin Auto Show Parco Valentino (6 to 10 June 2018, Torino, Italy) celebrates Italdesign’s fiftieth anniversary with thirty prototypes and production models that have marked the history of Italdesign and, in many cases, also that of mobility.

Italdesign’s latest creations will be displayed, in a national preview, from 6 June and throughout the event, inside the stand located along Corso Massimo D’Azeglio in Turin.

Pop.Up Next is the next stage of the Pop.Up project: an integrated and modular solution for sustainable mobility in the cities of the near future. It’s the outcome of Italdesign Development of Integrated Mobility Solutions Department, developed in collaboration with Airbus and Audi, it combines a passenger capsule, a ground module and an air module “to offer a seamless travel experience able to alleviate the problems of city traffic congestion.” Pop.Up Next adopts an Artificial Intelligence system and level 5 autonomous driving standards, is fully battery-powered and has electric propulsion.

Thirty cars for fifty years of history: De Lorean DMC 12, Bizzarrini Manta, Alfa Romeo Brera, Golf GTI, and Fiat Panda 4×4 Strip concept among the exhibited models

Thirty prototypes and production models will be on show inside the courtyard of Castello del Valentino, throughout the automotive event. Visitors to the Show will therefore be able to see close up and first-hand authentic legends like the De Lorean DMC 12, immortalised for ever on the large screen by the Back to the future trilogy, the Golf GTI which, between the Seventies and the Eighties was the dream of generations of newly qualified drivers, or the Fiat Panda, here in the “safari” version in the 4×4 Strip concept.

In addition, visitors will be presented some prototypes that in the Eighties and Nineties offered solutions to the already pressing traffic problems in city centres: the Biga (1992) was designed for car sharing long before the term was invented, the Megagamma (1978) was actually the first one-box in the history of the car, whilst the Capsula(1984) proposed a revolutionary idea, whereby the same chassis could be kept and the vehicle transformed with just a few operations from a car to a tow truck, ambulance or minibus by changing its bodywork.

There will also be the first prototype wholly developed by Italdesign, the Bizzarrini Manta,which was built in just forty days so that it could take part in the 1968 Turin Motor Show, which was held just three months after the company was founded.

2018 Mostra dei prototipi (Prototypes Show) at 2018 Turin Auto Show Parco Valentino

Within “Mostra dei prototipi”, Italdesign will display the 1:1 scale styling model of the Alfa Romeo Brera prototype, elegant yet essential coupe that in 2002 was awarded the Compasso d’oro,and the Volkswagen W12 styling model; W12 was a concept car built in several units and developed between 1997 and 2002 which helds the 24 hours speed world record: in 2001 it signed an impressive average speed of 322.891 km/h.

Italdesign50: the history in an app

The Show has also been the occasion for developing Italdesign50, an app for mobile devices, both Android and iOS, which gives the history of each of the models exhibited inside the courtyard.

Visitors will be able to download the app free of charge from the relevant stores and view a fact sheet for all the models displayed inside Castello del Valentino directly on their smartphones. A fact sheet will give a brief account in Italian and English of each car’s history, technical specifications, curious “behind-the-scenes” facts, as well as images, preparatory drawings and exclusive videos kept in Italdesign’s archives.

The models exhibited and featured in the app are: Italdesign Aztec, BMW Nazca C2, Italdesign Biga, Bugatti EB 112, Lamborghini Calà,Italdesign Structura, Bugatti 18/3 Chiron, Maserati Buran, Aston Martin Twenty Twenty, Volkswagen W12, Alfa Romeo Brera (prototype), Chevrolet Corvette Moray, Ferrari GG50, Ford
Mustang Concept, Italdesign Quaranta, Italdesign Brivido, Italdesign GTZero, Zerouno, Duerta and Pop.Up Next, Bizzarrini Manta, Golf GTI, Lancia Megagamma, BMW M1, Fiat Panda 4×4 Strip, Italdesign Machimoto, De Lorean DMC 12, and Italdesign Capsula.

June 9: ItalDesign Fan Club day.

Saturday 9 June is Fan Club day: from 9 in the morning, fans of the Fiat Panda, Alfa Romeo Brera, Maserati 3200 GT, VW Golf, Audi TT and BMW Mini will meet in the Murazzi area. Italdesign was responsible for the engineering development of the last two models.

According to Italdesign, about three hundred people and a hundred and fifty cars are expected from all over Europe. The crews will depart at 10 and, after a parade through the city streets, will reach the Castello del Valentino courtyard. Duerta represents the second chapter of the Automobili Speciali brand, dedicated to theproduction of exclusive ultra-low series cars will lead the rally.

Duerta — which in Piedmontese dialect means ‘open’ – is the targa-top version of the Zerouno project, a super-sports car with a carbon fibre bodywork, naturally aspirated 5.2-litre engine with 610 HP that takes the car to a top speed of more than 300 km/h. Production will be capped at just five cars, as was the case with the Zerouno Coupé. Duerta will also take part to the Supercar Night Parade, on June 6, starting at 9pm.