Two beautiful Bertone concept cars go to auction

Pair of symbolic prototypes for sale this month

Lamborghini Countach. Lancia Stratos. Alfa Romeo Montreal. Italian coachbuilder Bertone was responsible for some of history’s greatest car designs.

And although the styling house closed its doors for the final time in 2013, its legacy isn’t dead: for every classic penned by Bertone, many more never saw the light of day, existing only as prototypes in the archive.

And now that archive is going on sale with Italian auction house Aste Bolaffi. Besides a clutch of sketches and concept models, the headline lots are two working prototypes built by Bertone – one of which is the last ever made before it closed down.

They’re not cheap nor practical – but they’re truly stunning and could both be yours on 23 May. Take a look.

100 years of Alfa

First up is this astounding, futuristic and doubtless impractical Alfa Romeo Pandion – a prototype created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Italian marque.

And, given Bertone’s history with Alfa, it’s a fitting machine for Aste Bolaffi to sell off from the archives – complete with its original designs, press materials and even the outfit worn by a model at the launch.

A storied relationship

Many of the most stunning Alfa Romeos of the 20th century came out of Bertone: from the Giulietta Sprint and Sprint Speciale to the 105 Coupé and the magnificent Montreal.

And the Pandion is hardly Bertone’s first concept car: the design house’s bonkers BAT series was a vision of the future in the 1950s, developed as an exercise in drag reduction – with results that remain impressive today.

Continued innovation

It should hardly be a surprise, then, that Bertone would continue that trend of contemporary innovation into the current century.

Using the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione as a platform, Bertone’s styling arm, led by former Lancia man Mike Robinson, set to work crafting a mad and modern vision that pushed the limits of technology and design.

Big wings

Powered by the 8C Competizione’s 4.7-litre V8, the Pandion's doors were doubtless the most eye-catching element.

Channeling previous Bertone designs (most notably the Lamborghini Countach), the doors were in fact not doors at all; rather, each side of the car was designed to hinge as a whole to point vertically – creating a striking portal into the vehicle with two 3.4-metre-tall horns left standing either side of the rear wheels.

Showstopper

Its aerodynamic shell was equally arresting, with an uncluttered, swooping shape that was immediately popular at its reveal at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show – and the daring design continued inside, with a sculpted, skeletal setup that you’d surely never see in a production car.

Bold, then, and every bit a Bertone machine – which makes the fact that it was designed in just four months all the more impressive.

Running model (sort of)

From Geneva it went on to Beijing, before heading to Pebble Beach for an Alfa Romeo anniversary tribute at the renowned Concours d’Elegance.

After this, it went for a run out in the California desert, which was filmed and shared to great approval. Admittedly, it was limited to 80km/h and the dash was aglow with a host of symbols from a panicked system – but it ran all the same.

Straight from the designer

Once it found its way back to Bertone (after a lonely period in a transit crate in Genoa), some minor damage was buffed out by the team that originally built the car, to return it to its full futuristic glory.

Now it’s heading to auction as the rarest of vehicles – a true one-off straight from the designer, not built to run but to be admired and revered.

Piece of history

From the jagged lines of the back end to the use of cameras instead of wing mirrors, everything about the Pandion pushed boundaries – just like the best Bertone designs.

One of the headline lots of auction house Aste Bolaffi’s first ever classic car sale, it’s surely hard to put a price on this slice of design history – though a €220,000 (£195,000) lower estimate seems like a good starting point for the 23 May sale.

Worthy namesake

From one 100th anniversary concept to another: where the Pandion was a celebration of Alfa, this next lot was built as an homage to Bertone’s own colourful history.

The Nuccio took its name from Nuccio Bertone, the man who took the company from established car maker to design powerhouse – penning the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint prototype himself, ahead of the 1954 Turin Motor Show.

Zero to Nuccio

It’s only right, then, that this Bertone swansong – the last show car built by the brand before it closed in 2013 – be brave, striking and just a little bit mad.

Another Mike Robinson design, its design cues are instantly recognisable from some of Bertone's greatest hits: the Lamborghini Countach and, most obviously, the Lancia Stratos Zero.

Straight out of the ‘70s

Angular, wedge-like and riddled with grilles and openings, it’s every bit a modern interpretation of that game-changing Stratos Zero – the concept that gave the world the Lancia Stratos – a fact that comes almost certainly from designer Robinson’s childhood love of that very machine.

While it owes plenty to that 1970 concept, though, it was also conceived as a truly modern prototype.

More than just good looks

Besides that big windscreen, low nose and, of course, the orange roof details that hark back to the Stratos Zero’s paint job, the Nuccio carried a host of innovations – including a brake light repeater on the nose to show pedestrians if it was slowing.

Did it run? Not the clone shown at the Geneva Motor Show in 2012, but the proper Nuccio (the one being auctioned) was very much a performance car, with its first outing in Beijing that same year.

Secret stallion

Its internals came from a 2006 Ferrari 430 F1 – something that the Prancing Horse was keen to keep quiet, given the marque’s long-standing relationship with rival design house Pininfarina.

The solution? Bertone hid every mention of Ferrari on the engine – badges and all – with pieces of aluminium, lest a lens capture the secret of the Nuccio’s power platform.

Two models in one

After touring a host of shows in the US, China and Europe, the Nuccio returned to Turin to take pride of place at the Bertone style department, beside its 1:1 scale maquette – the model from which it took its form.

And, as a nice touch, that very model will be given with the car to the winning bidder.

The full outfit

Not only that, but the successful buyer will also bag a host of associated Nuccio goodies – including the two awards it claimed at the Concorso Italiano in Monterey in 2012 for its contribution to automotive design.

To complete the look, a jacket worn by a model at Geneva will also be bundled in.

Fitting tribute

All told, this prototype is as valuable for what it represents as for its standalone design. While it’s doubtless a distinctive machine worthy of a poster, it’s the history that imbues its every angle that arguably justifies the €300,000 (£265,000) auction estimate.

After all, this was the last true design exercise of a brand that gave the world some of the most beautiful cars ever to have seen the light of day.