One step ahead of the competition
05/27/2021
At the 50th Turin Motor Show, held in November 1968, there was no shortage of prototypes and studies. The major coachbuilders and designers outdid themselves with pioneering designs. One or two new creations could well be overlooked or barely noticed.
This was probably the case with Autobianchi 's mid-engined sports car study, with which the Italian car manufacturer wanted to test the public's interest in such a coupé.
The prototype was developed by the Fiat Centro Stile, with Pio Manzù as the designer. He was able to count on preliminary work (G31) by Werner Höbl, who worked as a designer at OSI.
The 2+2 sports car was given a plastic body and the four-cylinder engines from the Fiat 124 Sport or the 125 S were planned.
The pretty coupé did not go into series production, but some of the ideas were used in the Autobianchi Runabout and the Fiat X1/9. Affordable mid-engined coupés were only available in small numbers at the end of the sixties, so the proposed version could well have had a chance.
I wonder if the prototype survived?
