Bertone Carabo By John Lamm
There have been thousands of concept cars built over the decades, but how many are still remembered? If they even exist, they likely gather dust in some anonymous warehouse.
Then there is the Bertone Carabo. Penned by Marcello Gandini, the Carabo was a landmark showcar, as they called advanced designs when it debuted at the 1968 Paris Auto Show. While the Collier Collection at the Revs Institute is filled with race cars and classic automobiles, we wanted to show the Carabo as a prime example--like the Bertone Bats and General Motors’ Buick Y-Job--of how a great concept car can be the inspiration for the cars we drive.
To Bangle, true supercars are those that shock us, that make us take extra notice. "Cars that are so politically incorrect, no possible physical reason for being...they are the supercars."
Gandini, who headed design at Bertone for 14 years, broke with the rounded shape of the era’s exotic cars for the Carabo. Now there were hard edges and square corners on a show car only 38.9 inches high, 8.9 inches lower than the 2017 Acura NSX supercar. Built on an Alfa Romeo Type 33 prototype chassis with a 2.0-liter V-8, the car weighs 1500 pounds. And has those signature, flip-up doors.
Arguably the most prominent production car example of the Carabo’s influence is the Lamborghini Countach, which is also a Gandini design. Consider too the shape of others to his credit, such as the Fiat X1/9, Ferrari Dino 308GT4, the rare Cizeta-Motoder V16T and a true classic, Lancia’s Stratos.
We offer the thoughts of just one major automotive designer influenced by the Carabo:
Chris Bangle, former chief of BMW design, is no stranger to controversial car shapes. He calls the Carabo, "My all-time favorite car. I found it in a book in a library in Wausau, Wisconsin when I was a kid and it blew me away. First was the fact there were cars that color. Second, there were cars that shape. And third, there were cars with those rear window louvers. They were so cool.
"Without a doubt I do what I do today because of the Carabo," he admits. "It got me hooked on cars. I drew the Carabo again and again."
Bangle refers to cars like the Carabo as having a look of "post-atomic technology. How did Gandini do cars like the Lamborghini Countach or Bertone Stratos show car I thought were so cool? He took the things you could exaggerate--like the wheel-to-car relationship, the lowness and wideness of the car--and exaggerated the hell out of them. Getting in and out of the Stratos, a car that could drive underneath my chair, would be difficult, but you were expected to go through some agony to get in and out of them and that agony was pleasurable."
To Bangle, true supercars are those that shock us, that make us take extra notice. "Cars that are so politically incorrect, no possible physical reason for being...they are the supercars."
Which is why the Bertone Carabo is bright and shiny and on display at the Alfa Romeo Museum in Arese, Italy.
