Do you know Arioso & Vivace?
08/10/2023
This is not the name of a new fashion label, but of two design studies from the 1990s. Based on the new Ford Mondeo with a 2.5-liter V6, Carrozzeria Ghia created the Arioso in 1994, which was built on an aluminum spaceframe and clad with easily replaceable carbon fiber body parts. The ventilation was equally unusual. The rear window and glass roof could be retracted electrically and lowered behind the rear seats, turning the Arioso into a kind of convertible limousine.
A year later, Ghia presented the further development called Vivace, which was a little more moderate: no two-piece glass roof, no rear-view mirrors raised up the A-pillar and no windshield frame reaching down to the suspension strut domes. Instead, the Vivace with its oval headlights and slightly open cooling air vent now stared out into the world a little foolishly. Fortunately, Ford's roundish, bulbous design language, which made the elegant Scorpio a laughing stock in 1994, was short-lived. But the idea of Arioso and Vivace actually went into series production in 1998. The Ford Cougar was also based on the Mondeo, but presented itself in a much more age-resistant New Edge design.
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