Pandion

Bertone Alfa Romeo Pandion Concept Car In The Flesh

While everyone else is stuck in the past with new cars that look that old cars, Bertone is looking ahead. The famous car designer now only devises concepts for various client automaker brands who take the designs as a study on future core brand style directions. Alfa Romeo has been a client of also Italy based Bertone for years. At the Geneva Autoshow (2010) Bertone unveiled this Pandion Concept - which I got to see in the flesh recently. While a thematic successor of the C8 Competizione, the Pandion is actually built on top of a Maserati GT. At least it is an all Italian machine.

The highly futuristic design is a source of pride for the design firm. The rhythmic shapes and smooth angles are couples with an interesting, and new type of design source - organics. Well, computer organics - if there is such a thing. Bertone created special software to create random looking shapes and "formations" which are the basis for the crystalline looking exterior parts, and the biologic looking interior parts. The entire rear-end and interior wheel decor is based on quartz crystal formations. The new type of look is utterly novel and highly thought provoking. Sensible for production? Not in an instant, but artistic nonetheless.

Inside the car is all about shapes looking like they stem from the "skeleton" of the case. As though they are ripping through the skin. Follow the paths of the cabin structure to see what I me an. The blue seats provide a color thematically like the pinkness inside a body. Despite the highly unconventional cabin structure, the car is still fitted with all the amenities that one might desire, mostly controlled via a large touch screen panel.

The real mechanical spectacle of the Pandion are the automatic gullwing doors. A press of a button and the rear haunches of the car lift and move aside, making room for the scissor like doors to electronically lift up. They close in the same automatic manner. Will any part of this car reach future Alfa Romeo cars? According to Bertone, "probably." Alfa quite likes the new interpretation of their "V" grill design that you can see on the front of the Pandion. If they are smart, Alfa will think a lot about how to incorporate the spectacular visuals of the Pandion's rear-end as well. Check out the "READ MORE" link below for video coverage of the Pandion in action.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com.

Gallery: Bertone Alfa Romeo Pandion Concept Car

Tags: Alfa Romeo, Bertone, Car, Concept, Pandion

2010 Geneva Motor Show: Italy's Finest celebrate 100 Years of Alfa Romeo

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

Everyone likes a good party. Especially when there's something to celebrate. Like a big anniversary, for example. And this year's Geneva Motor Show had plenty.

Not only is the salon itself marking its 80th anniversary, but along with it Alfa Romeo is celebrating its landmark centenary. The storied Milanese auto marque founded way back in (you guessed it) 1910 came to Geneva to unveil the all-new Giulietta, a vital new product for the company. But that's not the end of it.

To help them celebrate, Alfa Romeo commissioned two of Italy's leading design houses to come up with their own vision for the form which the Alfa of the future should take. Follow the jump to read about the Alfa-fest in Geneva and view our photographs from the show floor.

Tags: 2010 geneva motor show, 2uettottanta, alfa, alfa romeo giulietta, bertone, bertone pandion, geneva, geneva 2010, giulietta, pandion, pininfarina, pininfarina 2uettottanta, pininfarina duettottanta

Continue reading “2010 Geneva Motor Show: Italy's Finest celebrate 100 Years of Alfa Romeo”

Geneva Preview: Bertone's Alfa Romeo Pandion Concept Leaks Out

by Jeremy Korzeniewski (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

Stile Bertone Alfa Romeo Pandion Concept leaked images – Click above for image gallery

The raging torrent of pre-Geneva Motor Show leaks is officially in full effect today as a series of images showing off Bertone's new Alfa Romeo Pandion Concept have hit the Internet (thanks Unica-Strada!). First of all, what's a Pandion? That would be a type genus of the Pandionidae, better known as an osprey or as a fish hawk. Moving on, then.

To our eyes, the Pandion isn't really what we've come to expect from Alfa Romeo, at least not styling-wise. The Italian marque's classically flowing curves are present and accounted for, but they are bisected by swaths of what appears to be clear plastic. The rear-view is especially busy – kinda like it's fashioned from hundreds of containers worth of Tinker Toys. Oh, and fans of Battlestar Galactica are sure to appreciate the Pandion's head-on view.

Stile Bertone – which until recently was led by Jason Castriota, the man responsible for such far-out designs as the Alfa 8C-based B.A.T. 11 and the Corvette ZR1-based Mantide – penned the Pandion, and we do see some influence from the styling house's past designs. We don't yet know what's underhood of the uniquely styled concept, or really anything else about it not revealed by these images. See for yourself below.

Gallery: Stile Bertone Alfa Romeo Pandion Concept