Giorgetto Giugiaro retires from automotive design

3 July, 2015

Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro has retired from automotive design at the age of 76. Known as one of history’s most influential car designers, Giugiaro penned cars for brands including Volkswagen, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini, BMW, and Bugatti. In 1999, Giugiaro was named Car Designer of the Century by the Global Automotive Elections Foundation, before going on to be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.

In 1968, alongside Aldo Mantovani, Giugiaro founded the design and engineering company Italdesign Giugiaro. Little did the pairing know that their work would become revered worldwide. Giugiaro left Italdesign on the June 28, after the company’s final shares were sold to Audi.

Most well known for his work designing cars, Giugiaro designed many other things, including cameras for Nikon, guns, and even a form of pasta (well, he is Italian).

But, it will always be his cars that he will be best remembered for. Here’s five of his best.

5. 1981 DeLorean DMC-12

Most famous for its spot in the hit movie franchise Back to the Future, the DeLorean DMC-12 actually fell flat as a road car, with journalists labelling it slow and unreliable. But, its design, particularly its gull-wing doors have ensured that decades later, it still looks like something from the future.

4. 1977 BMW M1

The M1 remains BMW’s only mid-engined car to date, which is a shame, as its timeless looks are still relevant. Design cues from the M1 can still be seen in many of BMW’s current cars, including the recently launched i8.

3. 1995 Lamborghini Calà concept

Next to the majority of Lamborghinis, with their harsh lines and jagged angles, the Calà looks comparatively svelte and reserved. It was originally slated to replace the Lamborghini Jalpa, but was sadly shelved after the company was sold to Volkswagen Group in 1998.

2. 1984 Saab 9000

You know a design is good when it still looks fresh over a decade after its debut. This must have been Saab’s plan when they introduced the Saab 9000 in 1984, as the design hung around, largely without change, until 1998 — some 14 years later. Not just pretty, the 9000 also set the tone for Saab’s brand identity, with certain features remaining on their cars for years, until Saab Group’s ultimate demise in 2011.

1. 1974 Volkswagen Golf Mk1

Giugiaro’s Golf Mk1 helped lay the foundations for what would eventually become Volkswagen’s best-selling car. While the Golf was initially built as a replacement for the immortal Beetle, it would become a heroic car in its own right. It was, and remains, one of the most influential hatchback platforms ever made.

The actual Formula One

18 September, 2026

Seeing, in a shed in Hamilton, New Zealand, the Darracq 120 racer that Louis Wagner, also a pioneer aviator, drove to victory in the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup race felt a little like finding a Rembrandt at a garage sale.
For historical significance, I’d say this car ranks with Ray Harroun’s Marmon Wasp, the first Indianapolis 500 winner. Unlike Harroun’s Wasp, which has been lovingly cared for at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum over the years, this historically pivotal machine wound up half a world away from its home in France and, to most of the motoring world, largely forgotten. Sadly, so is the story of how the car got to Aotearoa in the first place.
More often than not, a racing car that is a few years old is regarded as obsolete and relegated to a shed somewhere. As far as racing drivers and team owners at the cutting edge of the sport are concerned, the cars are virtually worthless at that point. They can’t be driven on the street; at best they can be reconfigured for lower levels of the sport, so few people care about them until their historical significance becomes more apparent.