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While Touring
Superleggera's Bentley Continental coachbuilding conversion
was taking centre stage on its stand in Geneva, its
Maserati GranSport-based A8GCS Berlinetta project, unveiled as a
mock-up at Ville d'Este in the spring of 2008, has also
reappeared at the Swiss motor show on its display with
the news that it has been given the green light to be
built for a customer as a one-off.The Touring A8 GCS Berlinetta is now
ready for one-off production
Geneva is
the first public appearance of this prototype after the
Concours d’Élegance previews. Touring Superleggera has
completed the development stage and is now ready to produce
a rolling concept for one of the passionate clients who
showed their enthusiasm since the first debut. The
Berlinetta is based on a high-end production platform
revised by Touring. It has been carefully selected to match
the mission profile in power, torque, and handling. Compact,
light and powerful, the shape embodies the perfect high
performance sports car in the Touring tradition. The A8 GCS
Berlinetta is a strict two-seater with perfectly balanced
volumes and frugal decoration.
“We wanted
a strong project” – says the Belgian Head of Design of
Touring Superleggera, Louis de Fabribeckers – “I drew from
the stylistic heritage of Touring the work of surfaces and
also this sinusoidal line across the side of the Berlinetta”.
The car is 4,20 m. long and only 1,22 m. high on a 2,50 m.
wheelbase. Engineers target a 1500 kg weight for the
finished car.
Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera
Founded by
Felice Bianchi Anderloni and Gaetano Ponzoni in 1926, the
company started to produce custom built automotive bodywork
with two distinctive features form the very beginning:
sporting elegance and lightness. Early customers were
reputed car makers as Isotta Fraschini and Alfa Romeo. It
would mark the start of a flamboyant period, also
culminating in the ‘Flying Star’ period with several
spectacular spider coachworks. Touring Superleggera also
gradually researched the streamlining process. The marriage
between this, and their Superleggera construction system
using aluminium body panels over a light but rigid tubular
steel frame, resulted in some extremely elegant masterpieces
such as the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C2900 Touring spider, which
today have become icons of automotive design and body
construction. In 1945, the excellent Carlo Felice Bianchi
Anderloni joined his father at the company, which soon
started to receive its first orders from a motivated
Modenese entrepreneur called Enzo Ferrari. The Tipo 166
Touring ‘Barchetta’ of 1950 formed a new milestone for
light, elegant and effective design on a competition
chassis. Under Carlo Felice, Touring saw its industrial
customer basis grow in the mainstream of the expanding
automotive industry in Italy and Europe. A number of niche
models were designed and built on Alfa Romeo 1900, Lancia
Flaminia and Maserati 3500. Another new inspired car
manufacturer from the Bologna area relied on Touring’s
skills: Lamborghini. At the same time, Aston Martin produced
their DB4, 5 and 6 models with a license for the
Superleggera system. The energy crises of the early
seventies, and the increasing mass production methods in the
car industry would regretfully force many specialist
companies to close their doors. The last production car left
Carrozzeria Touring in 1966, but the true Touring spirit was
firmly consolidated in the company’s products, that found
their ways to an international community of motoring
enthusiasts and car collectors. In 2006, the year of its
80th. Anniversary, Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera of Milan
restarted its activities, now part of Zeta Europe BV, a
private company specializing in automotive highend products
and brands.
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