Bertone. Does the name ring a bell? If you don't consider yourself a car nut, it probably doesn't. But to those that know, Bertone is considered one of the most famed automotive design houses in history. Since it's founding by Giovanni Bertone, the Italian based firm has worked with Ferrari, Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo. Crafting them cars unlike anything on the road at the time.
At the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, the Bertone name returned under the helm of a new design director Mike Robinson, determined to shake up the industry and little and remind people what they could do. To do that they unveiled their latest concept, the Bertone Pandion. Based on and powered by Alfa Romeo, the Pandion was a design exercise very much unlike anything we've seen in a minute (well, maybe except for the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics). It was also their statement that they're back in business. Take a look below and find out what had what makes the Pandion so sick...
EXTERIOR: To say the Pandion looks like nothing on the road is a wasted phrase. That's the point. From a few feet away, it looks like a futuristic GT car with its long sloping hood, the curt rear with the muscular wheel arcs and wide rear wheelbase. Go a little closer and you'll see things aren't as simple as their appear to be. The front angular nose has a grill made up of what appears to be sharp angled shards of metal. Go 'round and you'll see the same, just magnified by 100. The Then you get to the doors. Press a button and they raise up like pterodactyl wings. It's all very extreme. And all very much on purpose. Just ask current Bertone Design and Brand Director Mike Robinson. According to him, the Pandion to "bring the 'wow' factor to today's lackluster automotive industry." Mission accomplished.
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INTERIOR: Open those huge doors and you'll be treated to your usual concept car flair. There's the blue lights that illuminate the dash and the center console; the carbon fiber backed-seats that seem to float and flow into the rest of the car. Then you notice that you're sitting in a weave of carbon fiber. Bertone calls this design approach and the one used to create the jagged grill, "algorithmic design".
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DRIVETRAIN: Bertone is a design house. They can't exist without a proper car company backing them. For their Pandion concept, they went with one of their favorite collaborators, Alfa Romeo. Not only is the Pandion built on an Alfa chassis, they sourced their 4.7-liter V8 engine that can be found in the Maserati GranTurismo. Anyone who's had any time with that engine knows it goes as good as it sounds.
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