Beautiful Bertone Coupes Of The Early 1960s: Low Tails And High Bumpers

Since we recently took a look at what Pininfarina was up to in the early 1960s, it’s now time to give Bertone its due. Like its Turin-based competitor, Bertone’s corporate themes could be seen on a range of striking coupes from a variety of manufacturers.

Alfa Romeo started out the 1960s with its Giulietta lineup looking as it had for years, but the car was updated with a larger 1600-cc engine and a new name, Giulia, in 1962 (although the Giulietta would continue on for a few more model years). The pretty Spider was designed by Pininfarina, but the Sprint coupe was penned by Bertone and introduced to the public way back in 1954. Both were so well-done that they entered the 1960s still looking fresh.

After decades of internal conflict, I still can’t decide if the Spider or the Sprint is more beautiful.

A Bertone tail is often easy to spot. Like many Bertone designs, the tail is low, a continuation of the sloping rear window. While the Sprint’s “tailfins” blunted this look from the side, it’s most obvious when viewed tail-on. The Sprint was designed by Bertone chief designer Franco Scaglione, whose body of work can’t really be questioned.

The look was perhaps most dramatically seen (at least when it came to production cars) on Scaglione’s Giulietta and Giulia Sprint Speciale coupes, which were clearly inspired by his B.A.T. concepts for Alfa Romeo. Notice the thin, high-mounted bumpers (especially in the rear), a common theme on Bertone designs.

As I mentioned, the profile blunts the low tail, but a gentle curve at the beltline is another feature often seen on Bertone coupes.

Bertone had nothing to do with the drivetrain, but Alfa’s dual-overhead-cam four was a work of art on its own.

Not all of Bertone’s work found its way to sensuous Italian automakers, as they were approached by French automaker Simca to pen a sporty coupe based on the popular Simca 1000. By 1965, when this car was built, Chrysler held a controlling interest in Simca, so you ended up with perhaps the only car with the Chrysler Pentastar and a Bertone badge sharing space on the passenger side front fender.

The Simca was designed by the inimitable Giorgetto Giugiaro, who continued Bertone’s trademark low tail, sans the flanking fins present on Scaglione’s Sprint.

The profile displays the gentle beltline curve seen on the Alfa Sprint, but it adds a crease to break up the more severe flanks. Like the Alfa, a horizontal trim piece below the doors make the car look even lower than it already is, while the bumpers are mounted up high, which achieves the same effect. The car’s proportions might not stand out immediately: The Sprint has a slightly longer hood and a slightly shorter deck than the Simca, but that’s for a mechanical reason.

The Simca was a rear-engined car, being powered by a water-cooled 944cc inline-four, producing just over 50 horsepower in the Bertone coupe.

Predating the Simca was NSU’s Sport Prinz, which was designed by the very busy Scaglione. Interestingly, you can see bits of the Alfa and the later Simca in the little West German coupe.

The tail has more than a little in common with the Sprint, even if it’s not handled quite as gracefully. The low, sloping tail is bookended by small fins, which were still in fashion when the Sport Prinz was released in 1958. There’s also just a touch of Karmann-Ghia back here.

The sides are gently rounded like the Giulietta/Giulia Sprint’s, but the trademark beltline curve is straightened out. The rear quarter-window and C-pillar treatment are very similar to the later Simca’s, showing how skilled these designers were at making a car their own while still offering design-house continuity. The proportions are still nose-first, but the NSU had the same mechanical reason as the Simca for not having quite the same proportions as the Alfa.

Once again, the NSU had a rear engine, but unlike the Simca’s four, it was powered by an air-cooled two-cylinder of just under 600cc capacity. The Sport Prinz looks like a pleasure to work on; if only all cars had this much underhood space.

Another outstanding Giugiaro design (he and Scaglione really got the job done, didn’t they?) was the Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint coupe, introduced as the 1962 model seen here.

Seriously, how would you choose between the Bertone Sprint and the Touring Spyder (shown above as a 1964 model)? *I’ll break the fourth wall here by admitting that I’d take the Spyder.*

The shorter tail of the 2600 is obvious, although Bertone’s trademark low tail and high bumper are still evident, as are the vertical taillights seen on the Giulia Sprint and the NSU.

There’s not a bad angle to be found on the 2600 Sprint. Notice the bodyline that shoots from the rear wheelwell toward the tail; it can also be seen on the Sport Prinz.

The 2600’s proportions are more dramatic than the others, once again due to the car’s mechanical specifications. Notice the horizontal trim below the door and the high, thin bumpers (of which the rear is certainly bent on this example, the poor thing seems to have taken a slight shunt in the left corner).

The 2600’s engine is a double-overhead-camshaft inline six that is as beautiful as Alfa’s four, yet more imposing. Its length was certainly the determiner in the 2600s proportions, which have a longer hood and shorter deck than the others. The big six has three Dell’Orto carburetors on this car; the factory horsepower rating was 145.

It wasn’t, however, the glamorous Alfas that sent me down the Bertone path but rather the humble little Simca: This project car popped up on Bring a Trailer in December 2022, just a couple months after I had bought another car. Still, I really wanted to buy it, even though I knew that parts availability would be a struggle, the car needed a lot of work, and I was almost completely ignorant of all things Simca. The fact that none of that really mattered except for a short lapse in my irresponsibility speaks well of Bertone’s work in the early-to-mid 1960s.

Related Reading

Forgotten Concept: 1966 Jaguar FT Bertone 420 Coupe – Influential, But Not On Jaguar (by Paul N)

In Motion Classic: 1959–1966 Alfa Romeo Giulietta/Giulia Sprint Speciale – They Drive On The Wrong Side In Japan As Well (by Jim Klein)