Design masterpieces - Italdesign Giugiaro

GM Designer Elia Russinoff

By John Mellberg


Our designer friend and colleague, Elia ‘Russ’ Russinoff, has provided a portfolio of his work to feature on Dean’s Garage, shown on behalf of the Automotive Designers Guild and The League of Retired Automotive Designers, of which Russ is a fellow member.

Included among the 40+ sketches/photos is an image of a gold-colored 3/8ths scale model, called Illusion with the greenhouse sculpturally integrated into the form of the vehicle body, created in celebration of GM’s having worked with Libby-Owens-Ford (LOF) on vehicle glass development for 50 years. The cartoon in the portfolio, by Stan Parker, depicts several designers, modelers, and tech stylists with Russ seated in the vehicle. 

The illustration showing a dramatic 3/4 rear perspective of a pointy advanced car design demonstrates Russ’s out-of-the-box thinking. The Mead-like rendering of a couple of hovering, wheelless vehicles, was used along with other futuristic renderings by other designers for a presentation by Bill Mitchell on automotive design. Other images shown are from Russ’s work in Advanced Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Chevrolet Studios, the Aero Studio, and Advanced Vehicle Concepts Studio.

It’s been my good fortune to have known Russ for over 40 years, and I enjoyed working with him during my early days at GM Styling, in the Advanced Pontiac Studio, where he was a creative inspiration to all of us who worked with him. We’ve remained good friends for all these years, and I can truthfully say that while the years have passed, his enthusiasm, love, and passion for good car design is as sharp as it was back in the late 1960s when we worked together. 

His concept contributions as one of the founding members of the League of Retired Automotive Designers, at the various venues the League has exhibited its members designs at in recent years are exciting and forward thinking. Russ was also 1st Place Sr. National Winner in the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild Model Car Competition in 1949, and has been active in Guild Events over the years since, including the 2004 Guild Reunion held at GM Design, and the Eyes On Design concours event that year.
  

Elia (Russ) Russinoff

1955-1995 Asst. Chief Designer, GM Design
1960s Contributed to styling of several production Pontiacs and advanced aero projects
1955 Contributed to styling of Cadillac Town & Country show car
1954 Pratt Institute Graduate
1949 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild 1st, Nat’l Sr. Award
deansgarage.com

Forgotten Wonders: Maserati Boomerang by Italdesign

 It made its full debut in working order (sitting on Bora underpinnings) at the 1972 Geneva Motor Show, after appearing at the earlier Turin Show as a full-scale epowood model. According to Giorgetto Giugiaro, the design had been “in mind for at least two years” – but it’s likely that the first ideas would have sprouted in the designer’s head as early as 1968, and more specifically the première of the Bertone-styled Alfa Romeo Carabo. It was that car which presaged all the angular activities of the seventies.
 
 
Giugiaro may have been pipped to the wedge-shaped post, but he wasn’t to be outdone. He brought together his favourite design flourishes from some of his then-recent concepts (which included Alfa Romeos Caimano and Iguana, as well as the VW/Porsche Tapiro) and melded them into an explosion of creativity. The resulting Boomerang was, according to Giugiaro, “drawn almost exclusively with a ruler” – a practice of which the ever-modest automotive sage has spoken unfavourably in recent times.

“When seeking new roads, one runs the risk of taking some wrong turns. Here the move towards ever-more graphic shapes went too far: the Boomerang may be pleasing as a shape, but from an aerodynamic standpoint it is a contradiction in terms.” Though we’re not shaping up for an argument with the man who holds the title of ‘Car Designer of the Century’, we’d suggest he was a little over-critical. It might not have had the aerodynamic virtuosity its arrow-like appearance suggested, but the Boomerang more than made up for it with stylistic flair – and also wrung a higher top speed (around 180mph) from the 4.7-litre V8 it borrowed from the Bora.
 
Giugiaro’s heavy use of geometry throughout the design allowed him to create an extremely taut appearance, but his focus wasn’t solely on the aesthetics. Despite the Boomerang only being a one-off concept, he devised a unique steering column design which prevented the driver being impaled in a front-end collision – such pioneering safety features are often omitted in experimental cars, a practice even more common in times when seatbelts had only recently become mandatory.

The unique steering wheel design also stemmed from a safety concern. The static central disc had originally been conceived to house an airbag – but for an unknown reason, it instead ended up being home to a radical instrument panel, which included the speedometer, tachometer and various other dials and switches. It is questionable, though, whether the steeply raked (13 degrees) windscreen that shared the same plane as the bonnet would have been production-feasible. Indeed, when designing the production Lotus Esprit a few years later, Giugiaro had to settle for a 24.5-degree angle to meet legislation. 
True to its name, the Boomerang has repeatedly swung back into the public eye. After a final motor show appearance in Barcelona in 1974, Italdesign sold the concept to a Spanish cabaret owner – back then, it wasn’t uncommon for one-off prototypes to be sold to private buyers: a preferred fate to that of many contemporary showstars, which are destroyed after a short spell in the limelight.

The Boomerang didn’t reappear until 1980, when a German enthusiast discovered it while holidaying in Spain. At the car’s second inauguration at the 1990 Bagatelle Concours, it was reunited with its creator who was on the event’s judging panel. Giugiaro duly signed its rear panel – a tattoo which the car was still proudly displaying when it was sold by Christie's in 2002 (fetching 721,750 euros) and again in 2005 (781,250 euros). It was also noted during the latter sale that the Boomerang had been approved for road use by the ultra-strict German TÜV, on the condition that it was fitted with yellow indicator bulbs. 
Ultimately, the idea behind the radical Boomerang concept might have been before its time, but it served not only as a precursor to later Giugiaro cars, but also as an advert for his design brilliance. In fact, it was apparently the Boomerang which convinced VW to appoint Giugiaro to design the original Golf – and we all know how that played out.

Text: Joe Breeze of Classicdriver, with thanks to Christian Bolognesi of Italdesign
Photos: Franck Minieri, Maserati & Italdesign

Abarth 1500 Coupe Biposto

Touring Superleggera Disco Volante Concept: Design Sketches

Touring Superleggera Disco Volante – Technical Specifications

Dimensions

Length: 4,613 mm
Width: 2,020 mm
Height: 1,335 mm
Wheelbase: 2,696 mm
Track front/back: 1,591/1,589 mm
Trunk volume: 200 liters
Fuel tank capacity: 88 liters
Wheels: Pirelli PZero Rosso, front 265/35 ZR20, rear 285/35 ZR20

Engine

Type: V8, 90°, 4,691 cc
Output: 336kW/450hp – 470 Nm

Performance

Top speed (est.): 292 km/h
0-100 km/h Acceleration: 4.2 seconds

(Source: Touring Superleggera, Car Body Design)