Miguel Sánchez
If you are reading about a virtually unknown prototype created by SIRP for Alfa Romeo in 1968, you surely do not need any clarification regarding the figure of Giorgetto Giugiaro.
However, the truth is that even so the history of 1750 GTV Proto deposited in the collection Lopresto It is one of the least known not only in the career of the Italian designer but also in the history of the former state house in relation to prototypes and design exercises.
That said, the best way to get into this topic is to place ourselves in the mid-fifties, a time when a young Giorgetto Giugiaro - who was just over 25 after having studied industrial design Despite his penchant for painting, he ended up in the special designs department at FIAT.
From here his career took off as he became part of Bertone from 1960, participating in its first relevant designs thanks to models such as the Iso Grifo of 1963 or the Giulia GT of that same year.
Some excellent letters of introduction with which he achieved his own signature within the Italian automobile industry, which gave him new wings to mount in 1968 the Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi (SIRP) after having spent two years in a Ghia condemned to its last throes before ending up diluted in Ford.
ALFA ROMEO AND THE NEED TO REPLACE THE GIULIA GT (OR CREATE A COUPÉ IN THE 1750 SERIES)
Derived in 1963 from the Giulia sedan, the Giulia GT is one of the most iconic models in the entire history of Alfa Romeo; not only for its design or dynamic behavior, but also for being a source and flow for the successful competition saga GTA dominant in the European championships of the time.
However, the upward competition from Germany - even more visible since the six European countries in 1968 - founding partners of the EEC opening their borders to free trade - caused concern to grow at the headquarters of the Italian state-owned company regarding the escalation of performance undertaken by BMW.
In this context - and although the GTAs were evolving in a wonderful way thanks to the management of Autodelta - Alfa Romeo believed it appropriate to take a step forward by studying the possibility of an upward replacement for the Giulia GT in the form of a futuristic coupe equipped with the mechanics of The new 1750 scheduled for 1968.
Just the line where Giorgetto Giugiario came on the scene, who was opening his SIRP at that very moment after also having been the stylistic manager of the Giulia GT just five years earlier.
ALFA ROMEO 1750 GTV PROTO GIUGIARO, TOO ADVANCED FOR ITS TIME
Quickly renamed Italdesign, the new design studio headed by Giorgetto Giugiaro had its first order in the 1750 GTV Proto; a milestone in the history of Italian coachbuilders, who were also in the process of being laid off. at the gallop of futurism synthesized in the adoption of flat surfaces, sharp vertices and the lateral wedge.
What's more, despite not being an extravagant design study - in the style of Bertone's Carabo or Italdesign's own Tapiro - the 1750 GTV Proto was too futuristic and risky for Alfa Romeo management; in fact, they hid it until discard it to appear as a simple creative display at the fairs and shows of the moment.
With all this, the coupé version of the new 1750 - launched after the success of the Giulia in all its versions, thus encouraging the creation of a superior option in displacement and size - ended up being aesthetically a continuation of the Giulia GT.
More -much more even- than the saloon version in relation to the three-volume version of the Giulia range, with the latter having subtle but evident elements of differentiation. However, despite all this first work on the future Italdesign It would not fall on deaf ears, as its resemblance to the 1974 Alfetta GT is no coincidence.
Not in vain, from its side line -with details such as the elongated rear windows- to the adoption of the fall with a tendency "kammback” On the back it is undeniable how this 1968 prototype was the path and foundation for the Alfetta GT and GTV. In short, a milestone in Italian industrial design.
Images: Lopresto
