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Italdesign stands as the greatest design house in history because its designers have created more successful production cars than any competitive design studio. The design studio created its first Volkswagen Golf model, which began a successful line of automobiles.
10 Italdesign Masterpieces That Changed the Road
1. Manta (1968)
This location marks the beginning of Italdesign operations, which involved Giugiaro developing his initial concept vehicle through his established carrozzeria. The Manta was introduced to the public 40 days after Italdesign became a company at the 1968 Turin salon, which featured a 400bhp Chevrolet V8 engine that enabled the vehicle to exceed 200 mph. The car had its original green paint with orange details repainted grey for Italdesign's 30th anniversary before it was restored to its initial green color.
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2. Iguana (1969)
The Iguana made its first appearance at the 1969 Turin motor show, which displayed the vehicle equipped with a 1995cc V8 engine from the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, but later replaced it with a 2.6 V8 engine obtained from an Alfa Montreal. The cabin of the vehicle provided better illumination than common vehicles because it had a glazed roof together with a big rear window, and its oversized windshield gave drivers perfect forward sight.
3. Tapiro (1970)
The Porsche 914 served as the basis for the Tapiro design, which you need to nominate as the original vehicle. The Italdesign team completed their work, which resulted in a design that differed completely from the original design through its use of sharp lines, clear wedge profile, and pronounced corners. A collector purchased the car during the 1980s, but he crashed it, which led to its destruction.
4. Alfa Romeo Alfasud (1971)
Italdesign established its initial production vehicle commitments through this agreement. The 1971 Alfasud introduced new dynamic performance standards for small vehicles but failed to meet testing requirements for durability. The production run, which extended until 1983, generated almost 900000 sales of units that operated with four-cylinder boxer engines that had engine capacities between 1.2 and 1.5 liters.
5. Italdesign and Karmann (1969)
In 1969, Italdesign and Karmann teamed up to build something small and affordable — a convertible powered by a 1.6-liter Beetle engine. That project eventually turned into the Scirocco. The original design they worked on? No longer exists. Just a memory now.
6. Maserati Bora (1971)
When the bora came out, most people wrote it off. Compared to Ferraris and Lamborghinis of the time, it didn't seem special. But look closer—the Bora was gorgeous and had real power: 4.7 and 4.9-liter V8 engines. Giugiaro borrowed some lines from the Ghibli and later used the same ideas for the Merak in 1972, which ran a smaller 2.0-liter V6.
7. Caimano (1971)
Looks like it should have a roaring V8, right? Actually, no. They stuffed a tiny 1.3-liter flat-four from the Alfasud in there. The Caimano showed up at the 1971 Turin Motor Show with a canopy that lifted up to let you climb in. Today? It's just sitting in Alfa Romeo's museum in Arese.
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8. Boomerang (1972)
First came a wooden mock-up at Turin in 1971. Then a real, running boomerang showed up in Geneva in 1973. It borrowed parts from the Iguana, Tapiro, and Caimano. The steering wheel had all the dials in the middle — weird but cool. Also had a collapsible steering column and an airbag-ready wheel.
9. Volkswagen Golf (1974)
Volkswagen realized that it needed to replace its aging Beetle, so it asked its Italian importer Gerhard Guempert to nominate the best designer for the job when it reached this conclusion during the 1970s. Guempert noted down what he considered to be the six most interesting cars at the 1969 Turin salon; Giugiaro designed four of them.
He needed to create a new car to replace the Beetle, and he succeeded with his design of the Golf Mk1, which sold almost seven million units until South African production stopped in 2009. Through the years, we have produced nearly 40 million Golfs.
10. Maserati Quattroporte III (1976)
The third-generation Quattroporte model received the lowest popularity among all its models because people found its design unattractive and its manufacturing standards substandard. The Quattroporte made its first appearance at the end of 1976, which used Italdesign's 1976 Medici II show car design as its basis. The production cars would use either a 4136cc or 4930cc V8 engine.
Conclusion
From pioneering wedge-shaped concepts to defining the modern mass-market hatchback, Italdesign’s portfolio is a masterclass in automotive history. Under the vision of Giorgetto Giugiaro, the studio didn't just build beautiful show cars like the Manta and Boomerang; they engineered commercial revolutions. By transforming a declining Volkswagen with the creation of the Golf, Italdesign proved that great design isn't just luxury—it is the blueprint for how the world moves. Decades later, their influence remains permanently stamped onto the tarmac of global car culture.
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