ANE has revealed a sketch of Bertone's planned Geneva Motor Show concept car, called the BAT 11, which Stile Brtone Vice Chairwoman Marie-Jeanne Bertone says will be unveiled on 4th March at the Swiss show. In the mid-fifties the reputation of the Turin bodywork builder Bertone owed much to the revolutionary Alfa Romeo BAT 5 line, and following on from that, the BAT 7 and the BAT 9.

Just as Bertone was issuing an official statement on Thursday that it wouldn't be attenting the Geneva Motor Show for the first time in more than 50 yeats came contradictory word that it would be present, and a leaked sketch surfaced of its planned showcar for the Swiss show that would revive the famous Alfa Romeo BAT lineage.

"Company management is being thoroughly restructured," said Lilli Bertone yesterday morning in a statement, "and as a result of this we are not in a position to meet the obligations of an event that is so much in the public eye." Lilli is the Chairwoman of the Stile Bertone division, which is responsible for the design and manufacturing of the concept showcars.

The statement added that: "the decision not to go to the Geneva Show falls in with the Chairman’s request to keep a low profile in matters of corporate communication, a request that also takes account of the changed atmosphere in the media in recent weeks."

However within hours Automotive News Europe was reporting that it has recieved an SMS message from Stile Bertone Vice-Chairwoman Marie-Jeanne Bertone saying "we will be at the show". ANE also revealed a sketch of the Turin firm's planned Geneva Motor Show concept car, called the BAT 11, which Marie-Jeanne says will be unveiled on 4th March at the Swiss show.

Marie-Jeanne and her mother, Lilli, have been at loggerheads with each other ever since 72-year-old Lilli made a surprise announcement that she proposed to sell the company to the turnaround specialist Domenico Reviglio on 2nd January. Marie-Jeanne (40) and her younger sister Barbara (39), a former Bertone Managing Director, are now both embroiled in legal proceedings with their mother. At the same time a Turin bankruptcy tribunal has become involved in the carrozzeria's future and on Monday it appointed three commissoners to run the company.

Little detail is known about the new concept car except that it seeks to revive Bertone's famous BAT (Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica), a series of three stunning Alfa Romeo based and badged concept cars that wowed the automotive world more than fifty years ago. Sequentially odd numbered, the BAT 5, BAT 7 and B.A.T. 9 were stars of the biggest motor shows from 1953 to 1955. Taking up the next logical number in the series, BAT 11, this new concept is reportedly once more based on an Alfa Romeo, this time the 4.7-litre V8 engined Alfa 8C Competizione. It will be a pure showcar and as such it won't have an interior.

Bertone BAT series (1953-55)

In the mid-fifties the reputation of the Turin bodywork builder Bertone owed much to the revolutionary B.A.T. 5 line, and following on from that, the B.A.T. 7 and the B.A.T. 9. The Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica 5, or B.A.T. 5 takes its general inspiration from the 1952 Abarth 1400 coupé, and its mechanics from the Alfa 1900 Sprint. The acronym was a great hit in the English-speaking world because the car was actually reminiscent of a bat, with its tail shape hinting at two tucked-in wings.

The design of the model was based on a study of aerodynamics. The shape of the front in fact aims to eliminate the problem of airflow disruption at high speeds. The design also aims to do away with any extra resistance generated by the wheels turning, as well as achieving a structure which would create the fewest possible air vortexes. In practice these rigorous criteria would allow the car to reach 200 km/h with the 100 Hp engine mounted as standard. The design that Bertone came up with was for an extremely light car (1100 kg), the ultimate in streamlining, with side windows at a 45° angle respect to the body of the car and a large windscreen which blends in perfectly with the almost flat roof. The most surprising part of the car has to be the tail, with the length-ways rear windscreen divided by a slim pillar, and the two fins tapering upwards and slightly inwards, for a highly aesthetic finish. There was no shortage of positive feedback: the car was an immediate hit for its aerodynamics and noteworthy stability at high speeds. Bertone had solved the problem of aerodynamic stability, creating a car with an excellent index of penetration.

The Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica 7, or B.A.T. 7, took up the styling dictates of the previous model, the B.A.T. 5, and worked them to the limit. Once again the car was based on the general idea of the 1952 Abarth 1400 coupé, with Alfa 1900 Sprint mechanics. For this 1954 design, as for the other B.A.T. models, though less evidently, Bertone added some elements from his experience working on wing profiles in the aeronautical industry. The result was the exaggerated shape of the large, curved tail fins.

In 1955 Bertone turned in the final design for the B.A.T. project, a series of prototypes which represented the peak of styling creativity at the time. The B.A.T. 9 did away with the marked wing lines of the previous models in favour of a cleaner, more sober line. The tail fins, which in the other two models, 5 and 7, had a real wing-like look, were sized down into two small metal plates. Bertone transformed the highly creative styling of the two previous B.A.T. models into design credibility, abandoning the extremes of the other designs. The more rational, less artistic design of this prototype, however, does nothing to diminish Bertone's creative contribution to the Italian school of bodywork design.