At last there is a compendium about the Carrozzeria Bertone from Turin. Roger Gloor, editor of the Automobil-Revue for many years, has meticulously compiled everything, really everything, there is to say and show about Bertone on 324 pages. The book features famous names, all of whom once worked for Bertone: Giovanni Michelotti, Franco Scaglione, Giorgietto Giugiaro, or even Marcello Gandini.
Gloor also explains how Roberto Piatti and Giuliano Biasio managed to emerge from the ruins of Bertone under their own label "Torino Design" from 2006 onwards. The glorious Bertone story ended in 2014 with the definitive foreclosure. The ASI was able to take over at least part of the collection - these models are now on display in halls at Malpensa Airport and can be viewed there.
Not everything was always obvious
Exciting details are woven into the fabric: A design study for a Fiat 125 with the name "Executive" comes from Bertone, which becomes a Bertone design study for an Alfa Romeo 1300 "Executive" (to the annoyance of the parent company) and finally ends up as a design study for a notchback saloon at Mazda...!
Gloor has compiled countless stories like this: it is probably little known, if at all, even to experts in automotive history that the initial designs for an Audi led to Volkswagen via detours and resulted in the design of the first Passat.
Gloor's meticulousness
As you would expect from Roger Gloor - remember his other works on the cars of the fifties, sixties and seventies - he has collected everything he could get his hands on and squeezed it between the two book covers. His large archive of his own photos and documents was certainly helpful; after all, Gloor was a regular visitor to Bertone for years.
The result is impressive! 320 Bertone car models are presented in words and pictures, 1290 people, companies, organizations, brands, models and products are mentioned.
The book is organized along the timeline, so it begins in 1912 and ends in modern times.
In addition to the description of the developments and their results, Gloor also includes a large number of practical indexes, such as one on all models (as a table of contents at the front) or one on the literature on Bertone. There is also a truly comprehensive index of names that leaves nothing to be desired.
Down to the last centimeter
The 324 pages are almost not enough to present all the collected knowledge. Typically for Gloor, the pages are therefore used to the maximum, the margins are minimized and the photos are mostly small.
The work is definitely not a so-called "coffee table book"; with Gloor, the pictures are an (albeit important) backdrop to the text and not the other way around.
Richly illustrated
Nevertheless, it is the pictures that make the book so valuable. Anyone who recently witnessed the premiere of the newly rebuilt BMW Garmisch in Cernobbio at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, for example, can enjoy historical photos and the background story to this unusual model on page 124.
Gloor does not stop with Bertone, but refers to and shows many a car that could have been designed by Bertone, but was ultimately created by other designers and coachbuilders.
Mention is also made of contemporaries and co-participants, as well as people who could have been confused with Bertone, e.g. Bertoni (Citroën).
It has to be said about the pictures, however, that unfortunately some of the photos show processing weaknesses in the process from raw material to print, so that a clear "moiré effect" occurs, resulting in unwanted patterns. But the author must have thought that it was better to have a photo of a rare concept car with a moiré pattern than no picture at all.
Pretty modest
Roger Gloor, whose name does not even adorn the cover, has only had 150 copies printed by his own publishing house. Seen in this light, the CHF/EUR 100 asking price seems very reasonable, especially as shipping costs are included and 100 of the books are both numbered and signed. The small stock is unlikely to last long and there is certainly no better book on Bertone.
Bibliographic information
- Title: Bertone - Pioneers of car design
- Author: Roger Gloor
- Language: German
- Publisher: Self-published
- Edition: 1st edition in limited number (150) 2019, a second enlarged edition is announced
- Format: Hardcover, 210 × 297 mm
- Scope: 324 pages, 1205 illustrations (720 in color)
- ISBN: still open
- Price: CHF/EUR 100.00 (incl. shipping)
- Buy/order: Online on the author's website
