Wednesday 26th May 2010

Volkswagen Buys Italdesign

VW takes 90 per cent stake in styling house that created the first Golf

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Now if you don't know what this is...

The ever-expanding VW empire yesterday announced plans to swallow up Italian design house Italdesign Giugiaro.

VW will take a 90.1 per cent stake in Italdesign - Italy's largest design and engineering firm, employing some 800 people - via Lamborghini Holding SpA, while the Giugiaro family will retain the remaining 9.9 per cent of shares in the company.

VW hasn't revealed the financial details of the deal, nor whether Italdesign will continue with automotive projects outside the VW Group.

1997's VW W12 Syncro concept

"The Volkswagen Group will be continuing its model initiative over the coming years and will benefit from the capacity and competence of Italdesign," says VW's CEO, Martin Winterkorn. "The company will therefore be making an important contribution to our 2018 global growth strategy."

For his part, car design legend and Italdesign's co-founder, Giorgetto Giugiaro, said: "Becoming part of the Volkswagen Group means revaluating ourselves and our strength. Entering Volkswagen means to open up a promising perspective for the company."

First-gen Scirocco

Italdesign has created many models and concepts for the VW Group since the company was created in 1968, including the first Golf and concepts the first Passat, Scirocco and the Audi 80.

We've also posted a small selection of some of Italdesign's other past creations, which you can peruse at your leisure below.

 

Bugatti EB218 concept

1978 M8 concept

2006 Mustang study	The Audi 80
Corvette Moray concept	The 1997 Alfa Romeo Schighera
Subaru SVX	Alfa Romeo GTV

[TU Tuning]

Design brief; Heres a Golf. Base everything on this

[Andehh]

I only know Italdesign because of Need For Speed 2 SE. Those were the days!

[soad]

That mk1 Golf gti looks so damn good

[sootyrumble]

TU Tuning said:

Design brief; Heres a Golf. Base everything on this

LOL a little harsh but they do own Porsche now, so we know what their design brief will be, take the 911 and stretch, squash, and pull it into a range of 75 different models :-)

[plasticpig]

Not forgetting the Morris Ital:



A Morris Marina in drag.

[Stu R]

Interesting, I had no idea Italdesign were such a big outfit, or even in existence anymore tbh.

Andehh said:

I only know Italdesign because of Need For Speed 2 SE. Those were the days!

Same here

[mat205125]

plasticpig said:

Not forgetting the Morris Ital:



A Morris Marina in drag.

Dammit, I've been beaten to it!

[SVX]

Don't forget that GG was also responsible for the Lancia Delta, a much more rounded design than the Golf IMHO.

[Galsia]

They also designed the Cala, which was a forerunner to the Gallardo.

[S3_Graham]

Stu R said:

Interesting, I had no idea Italdesign were such a big outfit, or even in existence anymore tbh.

Andehh said:

I only know Italdesign because of Need For Speed 2 SE. Those were the days!

Same here

Meh i had need for speed 1 se!! Why are the newer need for speed games so crap now Test drive is only one that gets close to original NFS.

[the Fantom]

Love that Schighera - minus the ridiculous wing of course. Never seen that before.
Didn't Giugiaro also design the restyle of the 156 towards the end of its life, and the 159 too.
Italdesign should be a good fit for Seat I think.

Edited by the Fantom on Wednesday 26th May 11:43

[proper]

Andehh said:

I only know Italdesign because of Need For Speed 2 SE. Those were the days!

Classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OwZNx7bsMo

[newdogg06]

mat205125 said:

plasticpig said:

Not forgetting the Morris Ital:



A Morris Marina in drag.

Dammit, I've been beaten to it!

Me too. Unashamed to admit my 2nd car was a 1.7SLX in BL Nautilus Blue. 18 years old and the only one in 6th form with a rear wheel drive car. And the seats reclined instantly with one movement of the lever. Had its benefits

[thehardman07]

newdogg06 said:

mat205125 said:

plasticpig said:

Not forgetting the Morris Ital:



A Morris Marina in drag.

Dammit, I've been beaten to it!

Me too. Unashamed to admit my 2nd car was a 1.7SLX in BL Nautilus Blue. 18 years old and the only one in 6th form with a rear wheel drive car. And the seats reclined instantly with one movement of the lever. Had its benefits

Well there's pic of the week sorted then. Supersize in high res for me please.

[Essex Exile]

SVX said:

Don't forget that GG was also responsible for the Lancia Delta, a much more rounded design than the Golf IMHO.

I never thought I'd see "Rounded" and "Lancia Delta" in the same sentence.

[Alfanatic]

Galsia said:

They also designed the Cala, which was a forerunner to the Gallardo.

And, of course, the original Lotus Esprit is one of Italdesign's works.

By the way, didn't GG distance himself from the Alfetta GTV because he felt that Alfa made too many changes to his proposal and he didn't want to be connected with the end result?

I've never seen any pictures of what it looked like in Italdesign form and don't know what the changes were.

Edited by Alfanatic on Wednesday 26th May 12:39

[Dr Z]

Stu R said:

Interesting, I had no idea Italdesign were such a big outfit, or even in existence anymore tbh.

Andehh said:

I only know Italdesign because of Need For Speed 2 SE. Those were the days!

Same here

Me too! Italdesign Cala wasn't it?

[MrTappets]

Andehh said:

I only know Italdesign because of Need For Speed 2 SE. Those were the days!

I used to drive the Schighera on NFS III Hot Pursuit. Happy times. Think I've still got it somewhere round here actually...

[ctallchris]

are the days of boring volkswagens over?


no but at least they might not look offensively bland

[shantybeater]

hehe that car in nfs2 was awesome! nfs3 hot pursuit was the best though!