Freewheeling with Ivo Groen: car designs that define countries and cultures

Ivo Groen drives effortlessly through the seminal period of automobile design from 1945 to late 1960s, accompanied by Gautam and Avik. With the focus of design shifting to Italy from France post World War 2, masters like Batista Farina and Franco Scaglione embodying the La Dolce Vita spirit in all they conjured up, right from the 1946 Pininfarina Speziale, the Abarth Biposto to the BAT cars of the 1950s.

The unique cross pollination of styles and influences between Italy and the US (the ‘new world’) literally germinated with the Cisitalia being loved by the Americans as well as the Italians adopting the fins of the large barges from Detroit onto performance enhancing pieces of engineering rather than mere ornamentations. The difference between “design” and “styling” as Ivo observes.

The importance of the “showcar” as a means of generating business by studios like Bertone and Pininfarina is brought forth with some interesting trivia shared. Ivo discusses whether post-war designs saw different routes for the new world powers like the US with over-the-top big cars and the battered countries with frugal, compact and efficient examples like the Mini and Beetle. But good design knows no boundaries, as the Chevy Corvair broke the trend in the US. And across the Atlantic came the Citroen DS, another milestone masterpiece.

The 1960s were the most hectic with most economies well on the path of recovery, manifesting their ethos and culture through their automobiles. Cars both reflected and represented their countries on the world stage, as symbols of both industrial progress as well as design ethos. Ivo shares how design studio Bertone literally shook up the world with the Miura in 1966, the Marzal in 1967 and the Carabo in 1968! In just three years they achieved what people devote a generation to arrive at. The Marzal, as Ivo describes with childish delight, is the 27th letter of the alphabet. These are the vehicles that defined design in the next few decades.

The journey closes with a tribute to the Toyota 2000GT, a vehicle that combined the design sensibility of Europe and the humble obsession with affordable quality of Japan!          

Read all the other articles in the Freewheeling series here.