Famous Italian design house Bertone are at the Paris Motor Show as they look to bounce back into the limelight, now with 70-year-old Lilli Bertone, the widow of company founder 'Nuccio', firmly at the helm. Lilli Bertone still holds a controlling interest in the historic firm as well as retaining the role of Chairwoman and CEO of the Stile Bertone and Carrozzeria Bertone subsidiaries. In Paris at the 77th Mondial de l'Automobile she has been firmly in charge of proceedings.

Bertone are presenting two cars on their stand, the Fiat Grande Punto-based Suagnà concept "coupé-convertible", which was first shown at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year, and then at the Ville d'Este Concorso d'Eleganza; and the limited-edition version of the outgoing Mini Cooper S Works model which they tweak. The latter is the firm's most recent serious automotive project, having built in Turin recently 2,000 examples of the Mini Cooper S Works (now dubbed as the "Works Grand Prix") which has its power boosted to 218 bhp and it overall weight lowered by around 100 lb, mainly due to savings achieved by removing non-essential items such as the air-conditioning system, rear seats and glove box compartment. Visually recognisable by its aerodynamically-developed carbon-fibre rear wing, each example comes in just one colour scheme and is individually-numbered, the identification being prominent of the roof.

However with this project all but completed attention focuses on the Suagnà concept car. This is based on the Fiat Grande Punto platform and it aims to provide Fiat Auto with a model in which to target the very popular new segment for convertible cars which incorporate the use of folding metal roof sections. Already major manufacturers such as Renault, Peugeot, Volvo and Ford are all involved in this hotly-contested segment. Originally destined as a Grande Punto C/C, Bertone's attention was focused on turning it into a Lancia niche model after senior Fiat Auto management felt it just wasn't economically justifiable as a Fiat-branded project. In fact Automotive News Europe reported this spring that the entire engineering project could be underwritten by Bertone themselves. "We are talking with Fiat on this project," said Dott. Daniele Cornil, Bertone's Director of Communications in Paris, "we are examining the project of making a cabriolet based on the Fiat Grande Punto, but it's only a project right now," he added.

While not giving much away he did confirm that the famous design concern has several projects in the pipeline: "We have two projects, one for 2007, the other for 2008, but I cannot talk about them yet," commented Cornil. With a trend for one-off bespoke coachbuilt cars coming very much back into fashion this year, notably with the arrival of the Enzo-based Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina, their Ferrari 612 K built especially for Peter Kalikow, and Zagato's recent Ferrari 575 project, Bertone - who have a truly fantastic history of creating innovative, expertly-crafted unique cars - see a lot of potential here. "We shall come back to our roots by building one-off cars, it's one of our projects for the future," says Cornil, who adds that an announcement about this is expected in the next year.

Bertone Suagnà

The Bertone Suagnà is a concept car that interprets the theme of the coupé-cabriolet with aggressive elegance, achieving levels of roominess and comfort that are absolutely unknown on this type of car. The name comes from the adjective “suagnà” which, in Piedmontese dialect, means a job done painstakingly, paying scrupulous attention to every detail.

Developed around the Fiat Grande Punto, the Suagnà has extremely dynamic graphics which elaborate on a theme dear to Bertone: an open sports car, dedicated to young drivers, accessible to the general public, agile and easily handled, with a strong, sparkling personality. The Bertone Suagnà ideally takes its place among the compact cars (segment B), but it is also an absolute novelty, because there are no coupé-cabriolets in that segment with a retractable hard top and four “proper” seats. With this model, Bertone establishes a new target in terms of interior space and the quality of life on board: the layout of the interior, which was the fruit of precise volumetric and ergonomic studies, was designed to achieve levels of comfort and roominess that are comparable with those of a higher segment model. The roof system was developed jointly with CTS, a leader in this field.
 

The Bertone Suagnà opens another chapter in the long-running collaboration between Bertone and the Fiat brand which, in over ninety years, has produced more than 45 models, one-off proposals, concept cars and mass-produced cars. The Suagnà has a strong, aggressive graphic identity, the result of uncompromising stylistic research, over and above the latest fashions, in the best Bertone tradition. The extremely dynamic volumetric proposal that resulted is based on a coupé body. The high, muscular tail holds the roof, which folds in two and disappears into the boot. The rear end links up to the high, arching waist-line, which gives tension to the whole side. The way the masses seem to urge forward is partly the effect of a slash that emphasises the arched waist-line. The low, sleek roof forms a single whole with the sloping windscreen which defines the front volume. The front and rear views are both marked by a hollow effect: the graphic treatment of both these volumes is enhanced by “boomerang” light clusters, inscribed like scratches inside a metal band. 18” alloy wheels also contribute to this sensation of sporty aggressiveness.

The layout of the passenger compartment of the Suagnà is the outcome of highly advanced ergonomic and volumetric studies, which aimed at achieving levels of roominess and onboard quality never seen before in a segment B coupé. In just over 4 metres of length, the Suagnà provides four “proper” seats, which are comfortable and accessible, and it is currently the only segment B coupé-cabriolet to offer this amount of space, typical of a higher segment. The two front seats were defined to accommodate even large occupants (95 percentile), while the two rear seats provide plenty of room even at knee height, a fact that is unique on a segment B coupé-cabriolet. From the viewpoint of styling, the interior furnishings of the Suagnà are fresh and elegant, creating a youthful, sporty ambience. The stylists focused on innovative materials, upholding a long-established Bertone tradition. The anatomical seats, designed specifically for this model, have differentiated upholstery: leather side strips with a specal “crumpled” effect, and a central strip in a luxurious “high-tech” fabric, which seems to be woven with intertwined aluminium. The graphics of the extremely sporty instrumentation reflect the car’s dynamic, sparkling image.

The roof system of the Suagnà was designed and built in a short time by CTS, Car Top System, the German convertible specialist. The roof system consists of a two piece retractable hard top. The main advantage of this new roof concept with the steep backlite is that it makes the parcel shelf unnecessary. Its distinguishing feature is the steep backlite that can be lowered independently of whether the roof is open or closed. It is thus possible to travel with the roof closed and the backlite lowered, so as to have a fresh air supply inside the cab. With the roof open, on the other hand, the backlite can be raised to serve as an antibuffet screen.