Family Ties: Bertone

It's hard to say quite how many cars styled by Giovanni Bertone’s design house have been described by the automotive press as ‘Fair to middling’, but the ŠKODA Favorit is certainly one. Quite possibly the only one, in truth.

The boxy hatchback was a departure for the Czechoslovakian car maker. Another one. The svelte sports coupés and saloons of the 1950s, ’60s and 1970s had become tired and clearly budget-constrained by the 1980s – they bore some resemblance but barely. For the 1990s, as the world opened up, the Favorit was apparently the car to take ŠKODA – and the country – into it.

Tasked with the styling was Bertone, the design house that had created some of the most iconic and striking cars and concepts the world had seen. Including, most famously of all, the Lamborghini Miura. Almost without doubt it is deemed the world’s first supercar.

Visually it is difficult to link it to what Touring was creating for Ferruccio Lamborghini at the time. The V12 was the same, but mounted transversely and in the middle, instantly cutting any requirement for a long GT-esque nose.

Bertone handed the project to Marcello Gandini, who had taken over from Giorgetto Giugiaro as chief designer, and the rest is history. Albeit once a number of problems had been solved – Gandini’s specialty as a designer. Within just a year the Miura went from paper to every newspaper in the world, when the first prototype appeared at Geneva in 1966.

Seven years later the Miura finally departed, replaced by Gandini and Bertone's brash Countach, having changed the world of cars for ever.

Bertone’s work with ŠKODA a decade later was rather slower, in every respect. As many as 19 designs were requested in 1982, and the government insisted that the car be ready within five years.

The mark was hit, and in 1987 the Bertone designed, Czechoslovakia built Favorit hit the world market. In 1991 it took _WhatCar?_’s ‘Best Budget Car’ award. Despite its now-sister publication _Autocar_’s questions about its looks…

Certainly not a problem its cousin-of-sorts has ever had to contend with.

You'll find the Family Ties display outside Building 123 at the Scramble on Sunday 9 October.