THE GENIUS LOCI - Simone Porta

Those who were manufacturers of carriages became bodywork manufacturers of cars, giving a great contribute to the new vehicle, especially in design and style.

On the eve of World War I, between Turin and Milan, were built fifty auto body shops; as many in the period between the two world wars; twenty-five other since the postwar period to the sixties and nowadays in the same geographical area, Turin land, there are names known all around the world that inspire and define the great automotive design world.

In the thirties, because of the effects of the American crisis, glorious brands failed.
Some "designers" and handcrafted auto body shop work at full capacity, designing and creating bodyworks not only for Fiat, but also for Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Itala, Bugatti, Delahaye and Citroen.
With clients such as King of the Belgians, or Menelik, Emperor of Ethiopia; even a Maharaja, for whom a fabulous Isotta Fraschini was realized with ivory steering wheel and gold-plated engine.

Around the end of the thirties the most car companies (especially Americans) foresaw the great potential business of the motor vehicle and equipped themselves to offer the complete product.

They began to abandon the production of motorized chassis, that represented the basic element of the bodywork manufacturers, and they started the massive production of monocoque chassis.
The reliability, the price, the use costs became essential features; in other words, the series production.

Bodywork manufacturers must adapt to this new context. On the one hand they see their target market that rapidly extinct; on the other hand they sense the birth of new chances: the customized car, the creation of bodies for luxury cars "tailor made" in one-off or limited edition.

In the excellence of Italian bodywork, Turin and Piedmont play a decisive role and supremacy in the world. That's the reason why this region is also called "The carrussèe valley".

Stories of cars and men, brilliant creative, rigorous technicians, excellent skilled workers and craftsmen, innovative entrepreneurs.

Marvelous prototypes are designed and realized, one-off for wealthy clients, modified cars and station wagons, until series production models that have made the history of design, and the fortune of several car companies.

By the time, coachbuilders becoming more and more designers, intervening in functionality as well as in the aesthetic aspects of the project.

This innovation within the continuity of tradition still provides the design and the creation of exclusive and extremely refined off pieces.

Typically Italian elegance.