Michelotti’s best designs
His role in shaping a generation of classics
Michelotti started out as an apprentice with the Farinas of Turin. From here, coachbuilt models for Alfa Romeo, Abarth, Ferrari and Fiat followed from 1949, almost always built by Vignale. He never turned his back on creatively pure – if rather limited – coachbuilding, but the speed of his work soon began to garner attention; Meadows-Frisky commissioned his first massproduced design – the Friskysport – in early 1957.
Frisky later recommended Michelotti to Triumph, which tasked him with creating a TR-based concept car. This he did in a typically efficient fashion for the 1957 Geneva Motor Show. Triumph then asked him to help design the Herald – which he did in just three months.
The Herald is a typical Michelotti design, showcasing his love of strong, straight and repeated horizontal lines down the flanks and at the nose and tail. His designs were stark, angular and crisp at a time when most cars still had sweeping lines and curves.
Michelotti’s time at Triumph was the first time that a British manufacturer had turned to an external Italian designer for a mass-market model, triggering huge change within the industry. British car design soon moved away from the engineers and draughtsmen who had learned ‘on the job’, to formally trained designers.
Michelotti went on to design every Triumph model up to the TR6 and provided the basis of BMW’s entire mid- Sixties range with the 700 and Neue Klasse. His work travelled as far as Japan with the Hino Contessa, his DAF 44 provided the basis of the Dutch company’s output for more than a decade and the Sebring arguably remains one of the prettiest models that Maserati ever made.
Few other designers can hold a torch to Michelotti – who passed away almost 40 years ago to the day on 23 January 1980 – in terms of the sheer number of his designs that went into production, most of which are now our favourite classics.
Here are some of his most famous creations.