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

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Forgotten Wonders: 1970 Stratos Zero by Bertone

In 1969, when Nuccio Bertone bought a Lancia Fulvia from a friend and stripped it down to use as the basis for a wild, Gandini-styled concept car, the last thing he wanted was for Lancia to realise what he was up to.

Bertone’s plan was to design a futuristic, mid-engined replacement for the Fulvia – a car that was being rapidly left behind on the world rally stage by such mid-engined rivals as the Renault Alpine and Ford GT70. The problem was that Lancia favoured Pininfarina, so Bertone had to move stealthily. “If I had as much as mentioned my idea to Lancia,” he said later, “it would have been vetoed out of hand.” So it was only shortly before ‘Project Zero’ appeared at the 1970 Turin Motor Show that Bertone revealed it to Lancia… and received the Italian manufacturer’s approval.

Bertone recalled years later: “One morning late in February 1971, Ugo Gobbato, the then chairman of Lancia, telephoned me.” Gobbato wanted to see the car – and that very afternoon Bertone drove it personally to Via San Paolo, headquarters of the Lancia works racing team. “I drove up to the main gate, where an astonished Lancia gatekeeper stared motionlessly at that strange object which was so low it could pass beneath his barrier. Meanwhile the rumble of the engine [at that time a Fulvia V4] had brought all the Lancia racing team people who were waiting for us out into the yard. Then the gatekeeper raised the bar. It was an unforgettable entrance. In the middle of the crowd I switched off the engine and climbed out of my ‘spaceship’.” Bertone was rapidly signed up to build a practical rally prototype.

The prototype was very different from Project Zero. Instead of access via a hinged windscreen there were conventional doors, and the flat screen was dropped in favour of a geometrical cylinder off-cut, but the car retained an unearthly, dart-like appearance. Space travel was all the rage and it was christened Stratos.

Lancia hoped to power the Stratos with the 2.4-litre Dino V6 but there was resistance within Ferrari’s ranks – until Lancia approached Maserati with the idea of using the Bora unit. Suddenly Ferrari agreed to the deal. Suspension developments were still on-going when internal politics forced the Stratos to make its rallying debut and its 1972 outings were not a success. But by 1973 the car was starting to show form.

Meanwhile the road cars, a homologation requirement for the WRC, were hurriedly put together. Things were not helped by the Italian strikes of 1974 and the exact number of Stratoses produced is open to all the usual intrigue. Slightly fewer than 500 is likely. Meanwhile, the rally cars went on to bring Lancia victory in the WRC from 1974 to 1976, until Lancia’s untimely withdrawal from world rallying to make way for the Fiat 131 Abarth.

Text and Photos: www.classicdriver.de

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