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Two classic Giugiaro designs

5K views 27 replies 19 participants last post by  75evo 
#1 ·
...in my driveway today. My 1979 Alfetta GT, and my teenage son's first car: a 103k mile 1988 Mark II Golf GTI 16v purchased last year from the original owner. Two hot hatches, baby.
 

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#4 ·
Da Fetta is Betta!! Know a VW collector who gives me crap about my Alfa's until the day I told him the the designer of both the car we collect were concieved by the same engineer!
 
#7 ·
He was actually lead designer from 1972 to 1993, and upon his retirement, the biggest newspaper in Frankfurt said his cars were successful because they were "reliable, robust and boring". They also said he changed the German cityscapes more than any architect could ever hope to do.

Sounds pretty dull, but Volkswagen dethroned Opel as the biggest German car manufacturer in his period. He must have done something right, despite VAGs less than exciting car models.

And yet, very few car enthusiasts knows his name.
 
#12 ·
Astonishing!!!

Giugiaro's FIRST series produced car was for Alfa when as a young man he first joined Bertone. There he designed, yes, would you believe, the Two liter Alfa Sprint which was the forerunner to the long line of 1600 Giulia GT, the 1300 Gt Jr, the 2000 GtV, The GTA series. He says so in his own book "Design by Giugiaro": "The Alfa Romeo is a marque that made a strong impression on my designer career. The first series produced car I designed was the Alfa 2000 Sprint Bertone. Italdesign itself was created to give life to the Alfasud project. Over now what must be almost a career span of fifty years, I found myself designing cars on more than one occasion for Alfa, sometimes by way of contract, and sometimes in sheer freedom."

And he has really done some wild ones: The Alfa Romeo Iguana, the Alfa Romeo Caimano, the Alfa Romeo Scighera. the Alfa Romeo Brera, the Alfa Romeo NY Taxi, and in 2004 (last one mentioned in his book) the Alfa Romeo Visconti. Of course he also provided some car designs for other auto manufactures such as Ferrari, BMW, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Aston Martin, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mitsubishi, Renault, Lexus, Maserati, Fiat, Jaguar, Ford, Oldsmobile, Daewoo, Lancia, and even Volkswagen.
 
#13 ·
I kick myself to this day for not buying the original GTI. 1984 I think. I drove several but never pulled the trigger. bought a 79 Scirocco which the ex used to drive into an illegally parked house. Ciao, chris
 
#19 ·
Zinhead here you go...first shot is my son and I awaiting our turn on the track at Barber Motorsports Park, second shot is from a local Euro car show. There's a shady character lurking in the background in the second shot.

Didn't you hand carry the bumpers through an international airport?
Frank, yes 'ndeed. Bought the front bumper from Monza motors in Bayswater Victoria near Melbourne, Australia whilst on Holiday there with the family a few years back. I was introduced to Hugh Harrison and crew at Monza through an enjoyable Alfa visit with Paul (Gully 116 here on the board), who hosted my son and I one day there. Wonderful time. Too expensive to send the bumper all the way home via Post, so it came back with us as checked luggage, with my teenage son doing most of the toting. We received some curious looks and questions from airport workers along the way.
The rear bumper I found on EBay Italia.

Thanks jc96 for a good story!
 

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#18 ·
Might ramble but you asked

Scene, 1st duty assignment near Hannover Germany, 1984ish. Perps...1979 VW Scirocco, Kamei treatment, fresh wax, full tank of gas of course. Dippy ex. One illegally parked house off to side of road in rural German village.

Little background: VW was a hoot. German spec 1.8 carb fast as fast can be, simple and just an enjoyable ride. Ex? US spec, too fast for me it turned out but an enjoyable ride nonetheless, well built (think bricks and outhouses). House? well built as well, concrete, large patio surrounded by hedging.

Coming up the narrowish 2 lane at an excessive rate of speed, still flush from an encounter with Lord knows who, ex is hammering the car I'm told. An elderly folk turns onto opposing direction just after the VW zipped past just clipping, I mean just clipping the VW enuff to cause it to swerve a wee bit. Ex was short and methinks her bricks got tangled up in the steering wheel. Anyway she wound up off the road, hanging on @ this point, plowed thru 20 feet of hedge, launched over a stone wall and onto the patio of a house full of Germans wedged against their rear wall. Quite the scene. VW totaled, house, not so damaged. Ex? Ironically, killed in a traffic accident in L.A. years ago. She was a 6 month thing but as Granfather used to say. No matter how much something sux, if you learn from it, it was valuable. ciao, chris
 
#23 ·
Terrific car. Reliable, fast. This was my third and last Maserati.
Why it had to go? 1) not a fan of F1 transmission and attendant clutch issues 2) maybe a bit too flashy for me
 
#24 ·
That is a superb Alfetta, nice color too! The Golf is nice as well, utilitarian, take me from point A-B sort of thing.

It's pretty clear that from an engineering and design standpoint, the VW Golf is just an exercise in packaging. Much like the original Mini Cooper (which at least had some character). The 80's were a time of wedges. Just look at TVR, the aformentioned Scirocco, even Ferrari (albeit with some curvature). Even our Milano. The Alfetta/GTV6 was heading in that direction I suppose, but retained so much nuanced styling cues like the Giulia Sprint had.

I had a chance to drive an '89 Jetta Wolfsburg edition (after losing my '89 Verde to rear-end collision in the 90's), and it felt like a tank. Was slow and cumbersome in comparison.

It is interesting to see how styling fads come and go. Many did not care for the Milano charcoal side trim. But I see side body creases doing the same thing on so many makes these days! I wonder if we'll ever see big fins come back?:clown:
 
#25 · (Edited)
Best car I ever owned. 1989 1.8L 16V GTI. Bullet proof, awesome hatch with great style. Super fast and handling is amazing. 1991 GTI 2.0L 16V as well. The 89' was better!!

Yet I own another Giugiaro designed car that I am selling now.
 

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