Gandini’s Bertone Runabout to become a 493bhp supercar

By Lizzie Pope

| 29 Oct 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Gandini’s Bertone Runabout to become a 493bhp supercar

Bertone is turning its classic Runabout show car into a production reality.

Fifty-five years to the day since the Bertone Runabout was revealed at the Turin motor show, on 29 October 1969, the design house has announced that the concept will be rebooted for 2024 and put into limited series production, as the first in Bertone’s all-new Classic model line.

The 21st-century reimagining will be offered in two configurations: a barchetta, without a windscreen or roof, and a targa with a removable roof section.

The original car was designed by Marcello Gandini when he worked at Bertone; Gandini died on 13 March this year.

The new Bertone Runabout adheres closely to the original, but now with barchetta (above, left) and targa (above, right) variations

That 1969 Turin show star shared its transverse mid-engine layout with the Lamborghini Miura, a car that Gandini also designed and that broke cover just three years earlier.

However, there was no V12 for the Bertone Runabout.

This car was constructed on Autobianchi A112 mechanicals – a shorter Fiat 128 platform – and had a four-cylinder, 1.1-litre engine.

The 21st-century Bertone Runabout benefits from V6 power

The original Bertone Runabout never made production, but it still had an impact.

This concept was developed into what became the Fiat X1/9, plus several design elements of this wedge-shaped car can be seen in the Lancia Stratos.

And then, decades later, in 2022, the 1969 Runabout’s influence was still significant enough that it received the Gran Turismo Award at that summer’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

The new Bertone Runabout will have side-opening doors, unlike the ’60s concept car

The Italian design house’s 2024 reworking remains pretty faithful, aesthetically at least, to the classic show car.

But rather than the 54bhp ‘four’ of 1969, power for the production car will come from a V6 with 493bhp.

Other changes introduced to make the new Bertone Runabout suitable for life on the road include the addition of pop-up headlights, rather than the items mounted behind the driver in the ’60s version.

These are, in a way, mimicked by the wing mirrors which are another addition for the roadgoing sports car.

The 1969 Bertone Runabout, by Marcello Gandini, broke cover in Turin

As well as the two configurations which mark a change from the 1969 original, there’s a further nod to practicality this time because the 2024 version has side-opening doors, which the concept lacked.

Bertone is yet to clarify exactly what ‘limited’ production means, but we know that prices will start at €350,000 (c£291,000), excluding VAT.

Production will start in mid-2026 and, as the first of the new Bertone Classic series, expect more models in the future that pay tribute to the carrozzeria’s designs of the past.

Images: Bertone

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