Giugiaro Ends His Ties With Italdesign

I just saw this a few minutes ago and was saddened as I read it.
I can't say that I didn't think Giorgetto to go on forever, but it is always sobering when these things become reality.
Janet and I first met Mr. Giugiaro back in Feb of 1978 and have become friends ever since.
My guess is that he will turn more toward painting and his art now that he will have more time for "personal interest," as he put it.
I am truly gratified to have witnessed this golden era of the great automotive designers.
They were all our special guest at Concorso Italiano when Janet and I ran the show.
The list is to long to put here, but needless to say we all had a great time seeing them in person.
Now with Georgetto stepping down there are very few remaining. Bertone out of business and looking for a buyer. Pininfarina looking for a buyer and in deep financial trouble. Ghia, gone. Zagato remains very active and Leonardo Fioravanti is still cranking out the designs.
There are some new start ups in Turin but the old masters have over the years faded away.
Ciao,
FGM



Italy’s legendary design icon cuts ties with the company he founded
Italian automotive demi-god Giorgetto Giugiaro has cut all remaining ties with the ItalDesign-Giugiaro design house he founded.

The 76-year-old designer, who was the often-unsung pen behind some of the world’s best-loved cars, announced by email today that he and his 50-year-old son Fabrizio had resigned from the company’s board.

Giugiaro founded ItalDesign-Giugiaro in 1968, but tough market conditions for independent design and engineering houses convinced him to sell 90.1 per cent of the company to Audi in 2010.

The man named Designer of the Century in 2000 retained the remaining 9.9 per cent stake for himself and his son, but transferred the last shares to Audi on June 28.

In the last decade, all of Italy’s classic design houses have hit trouble, including Pininfarina, Bertone and Zagato, and Giugiaro sought a close tie to the Volkswagen Group to secure the future of the company he founded.

Giugiaro’s statement today said he would also resign from his position as honorary chairman and “dedicate more time to his personal interests”.

His company is responsible for the design of more than 100 production cars, but became a go-to resource in the 1970s and ‘80s for its ability to develop and engineer cars to turn-key levels before handing them to car companies to build.

The most famous cars to emerge from his pen include the original Volkswagen Golf Mark I, the first Fiat Panda and Maserati’s 3200 GT and 4200 GT. Other credits include the Maserati Kubang concept car, the Daewoo Matiz (which started life as an electric car-sharing proposal) and the Audi 80.

Car designers are usually judged by their sports car work, and Giugiaro has had plenty, including and the Lamborghini’s Gallardo, the De Tomaso Mangusta, the Lotus Esprit, the Ghibli and Bora from Maserati and the Alfetta GT and Brera (no, the good one) from Alfa Romeo.

He also designed the seminal DeLorean DMC-12, BMW’s M1 and the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT and the Alfasud.

His company turned out designs for every automotive continent, including working for American Motors, Ford, Cadillac and Buick in North America and for Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Bugatti, Ferrari, Fiat, FSO, Iso Rivolta, Lamborghini, Lancia, Lotus, Maserati, Porsche, Renault, Saab, Seat, Simca, Skoda and Volkswagen in Europe. It designed cars for Zastava in Russia, Hyundai, Ssangyong and Daewoo in Korea, Mazda, Subaru, Suzuki, Lexus, Toyota and Isuzu in Japan.

ItalDesign-Giugiaro didn’t stop at cars, though. It designed cameras for Nikon, including the classic F4, F5, F6, D3 and D4 models, plus the D800 as recently as 2012, as well as designing watches for Seiko and handguns, machine guns and shotguns for Beretta and motorbikes for Ducati and Suzuki.

In his 60-year design career, he worked with Bertone and Ghia before founding his own company in Torino. He was also one of just 13 inaugural inductees into the European Automotive Hall of Fame in 2001.

Audi has brought in an additional 250 people since it took its took the controlling share of the company, with its former design head, the Italian Wolfgang Egger, taking over the role of chief designer there.
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