The Bertone Auction of 2011

By Roberto Motta, Pete Vack and RM Auctions
Photos courtesy Sotheby/RM Auctions

Updated from our archives, April 2011

As a consequence of the financial reorganization of Bertone, the liquidators of the Bertone Museum offered six of the most original, thought provoking and classic Italian concept cars ever made. These wonderful cars were auctioned by RM at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Cernobbio, Italy, 21st May, 2011.

Lamborghini Marzal, 1967 S/N 1001

Strictly speaking, Marzal is a Spanish adjective pertaining to the month of March. It may also be the name of a type of bull. Whichever, Marzal seems a fitting name for this Gandini creation based on the Lamborghini Miura chassis, which was lengthened by some 120mm to gain extra room for a four seater showcar. While the frame was more, the engine was less, using a straight six, half of the Miura’s V12, angled into to the rear of the car, not midships but hanging over the rear drivetrain.

The 1964 cc six produced 175 bhp, with three Weber 40DCOE carburetors and a five-speed gearbox. It is one of the most spectacular Italian concepts ever to be realized in metal. It was driven by Prince Rainier and Princess Grace Kelly around the circuit of the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix. (The auction estimate is €1.000.000 – €1.800.000). Sold for 1.512.00 Euros

Lamborghini Bravo

First seen at the 1974 Turin Auto Show, the Bravo was distinctively Marcello Gandini, with the angled rear wheel cutout and a proliferation of slats and strange openings that provided a total leitmotif for the entire design. The slot motif included the dashboard, which failed to appreciate Gandini’s otherwise brilliant efforts. The Bravo had a mid-engine V8, with a wheelbase of 2250 mm was built on a shortened Uracco P300 chassis. Intended as a two-seat companion to Urraco 2+2, it used the 2,996 cc transverse mid-mounted 90° V-8 DOHC engine, of about 300 bhp with a five-speed gearbox. The Bravo has independent front suspension with McPherson struts, independent rear suspension with Chapman struts.

As with many other Bertone show cars of the era, the Bravo was repainted early on in its life; the original light metallic yellow gave way to a darker shade of green. It was subsequently finished in pearlescent white just a few years ago as part of a light overhaul. RM will offered the Bravo in very presentable condition, directly from the Carrozzeria Bertone Collection.
(The auction estimate is €150.000 – €220.000) Sold for 588,000 Euros

1980 Lamborghini Athon, 1980 s/n S155/01

Pronounced AH-tawn, it is a word taken from Egyptian mythology that roughly means “Hymn to the Sun”, this showcar was introduced at Turin in April of 1980. Not a Gandini design, it was the first Bertone concept car created under the direction of Frenchman Marc Deschamps, Gandini’s successor. The Athon is perhaps the least pleasing of the Lamborghini showcars, somewhat chunky and heavy in appearance. It has no top, but like many of the Bertone showcars, was fully drivable, (except in the rain.) Mechanically, the car was based on the Silhouette, itself closely derived from the Urraco. The three-liter V-8 gave 260 bhp at 7,500 rpm fed by four Weber carburetors and was mated to a five-speed manual gearbox. The Athon remains an evocative styling statement of its era. Having never been subject to restoration, this striking example of Bertone’s design excellence is offered in absolutely original condition.
(The auction estimate is €150.000 – €220.000) Sold for 347.200 Euros

Lancia HF Stratos Zero 1970, S/N C/1160CPL.

Roberto Motta is one of the very few Earthlings to have driving the Zero, and reported in depth on his experiences in VeloceToday.com. New photographs recently taken for the upcoming RM auction once again confirm the stunning and quite literally, amazing lines of this famous car. Designed by Marcelo Gandini, it is the first prototype of the mid-engined Stratos production supercar, the hugely successful rally car. The Stratos HF Zero debuted at Turin Motor Show on 28 October, 1970, and was fully and professionally restored in 2000, at Stile Bertone in Caprie and it is a fully functioning prototype.

The Stratos used a 115 bhp, 1,584 cc narrow angle Lancia V-4 engine, two twin-choke Solex C42 DDHF carburetors, five-speed gearbox, independent front suspension with coil springs and vertical McPherson telescopic dampers, independent rear suspension with double-wishbones and telescopic dampers, four-wheel disc brakes.
(Auction estimate, €1.000.000 – €1.800.000) Sold for 761.600 Euros

1978 Lancia Sibilo, s/n S 12201

Coming as it did off the heels of the magnificent Stratos Zero (1970) and the hugely successful Lancia Stratos Rally car (1971 intro, 1974 production), the Sibilo, introduced at the Turin Auto Show in 1978, initially disappoints, but nevertheless is a concept car that like its predecessors, takes styling to extremes. Designed at Bertone’s Style Center at Caprie (NOT the island of Capri), it builds on the Stratos Rally platform, adding four much needed inches to the wheelbase, improving interior space and ride.

Like the Zero, The Sibilo blends the glass seamlessly; Bertone always felt that window surfaces were important to the aesthetics of an automobile. The coachbuilder had come up with many daring solutions regarding windows (the Marzal, Carabo, Stratos, and Navajo), and with the Sibilo Bertone attempted to blend them in completely with the bodywork, giving a more uniform look as if a single sculpture, however brick-like. Sibilo’s steering and instrumentation was given a completely new, original touch: information is displayed digitally on a device located close to where the windscreen meets the bodywork. (Auction Estimate: €60.000 – €100.000.) Sold for 95,200 Euros

Chevrolet Corvair Testudo 1963, S/N20927w207657

The Testudo was developed in parallel with GM’s own Corvair Monza GT and SS dream cars, and was an early career highlight of a young Giorgetto Giugiaro. It debuted at Geneva Motor Show on 3 March, 1963. Although one of Giugiaro’s favorites, we think the Corvair Testudo fails the test of time. Its design influenced the Porsche 928 and the AMC Pacer, neither one of which were styling champions.

It was, however, a sleek and futuristic method of clothing the rear engine Corvair chassis in a new suit. The design is characterized by sporting a totally transparent one-piece windscreen and roof cover that opened forward as did the Miura-like headlights. and the sleek long wheelbase belied the Corvair engine placed behind the rear wheels. The Chevrolet Testudo was fully restored before being shown at Pebble Beach. The Testudo used an 81 bhp, 2,372 cc flat-six air-cooled engine with two valves per cylinder, two single-choke Rochester downdraught carburetors, anda four-speed manual gearbox. (The auction estimate is €500.000 – €800.000) Sold for 336.000 Euros

Less than six months after the auction, the Bertone Museum Became a National Historic Site. Roberto Motta filed this story for VeloceToday.com on December 7, 2011.

On November 2, 2011, the Italian Ministry of Heritage and Culture announced that the “Bertone Collection” kept at the company headquarters in Caprie, is now part of the national artistic heritage of Italy. Unfortunately, the Collection is missing some jewelry, but the majority of the collection now is safe.

Thanks to the sale of the former Bertone plant in Grugliasco to Fiat, Mrs. Lilli Bertone, widow of Nuccio, has regained almost all of the collection. Bertone has become a new company at the behest of Lilli Bertone. (On September 23 Fiat confirmed the investment of 550 million Euros into the plant, which will be set up to produced future Maserati models.)

In November, through a legislative decree of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, the collection has become part of the national artistic heritage of Italy and as such cannot be dismembered, or leave its historic home. Currently, the collection consists of 78 items; production cars, concept cars and pieces, and is kept in the building that was designed and personally designed by Nuccio Bertone in the late sixties and opened in 1971.

”The decree of the Ministry,” said Lilli Bertone, “comes at a time full of meaning for us. We are now the only independent Italian car designer and next year we will celebrate the centenary of the company. We welcome with joy and deep satisfaction this award, whose message is very clear: all the efforts we have done and are doing, day after day, to maintain our independence and especially to grow the company without relocating, or leaving Italy are officially recognized at the institutional level.

“The Museum Bertone has led us to a financial commitment of 2.2 million Euros; a big investment, which is part of a broader strategic plan, aimed at strengthening the company in international markets while underling our world-renown ‘Italian-ness’. We are taking sixty new engineers for our office in Capri and we opened two new offices in Beijing and Monaco of Bavaria, to better follow our main customers.”

The Bertone Museum in Caprie will be open to the public in 2012, to coincide with the centenary celebrations of the founding of Carrozzeria Bertone.

Unfortunately the collection does not include the six jewels (See “The Lady Sells Her Jewels) sold during an auction organized by RM as part of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on Lake Como last May. After the death of Nuccio, in 1997, the company went through a difficult period that led the company to the brink of bankruptcy. In 2009, with the promised sale of the Fiat factory in Turin Grugliasco, Bertone has become a new company at the behest of Lilli Bertone.

Mrs. Bertone, along with the CEO and the Director General Mark Philippa Sandro Colella, wanted to give continuity to the body, by purchasing the brand, the historical archive, and finally the museum. The “new” Bertone, does not produce cars, but deals with design and engineering for automobile manufacturers.

Footnote: Nevertheless, the collection was put up for sale by the Bankruptcy Commission in 2015 and subsequentely purchased by the ASI, Automotoclub Storico Italiano. The collection then became the subject of a new book by Gautan Sen and Michael Robinson, (read review)