Search results for ""Author Gautam Sen""

This book celebrates the striking wedge cars that first appeared at the 1968 Paris Motor Show. A surreal wedge-shaped sculpture of steel, glass, and layers of scaly metal astounded show-goers with its daring shape and extraordinary form. The Alfa Romeo Carabo was an exercise in lateral thinking at just about every level.

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A design hero for all generations of automotive enthusiasts, American legend Tom Tjaarda was a designer whose name and fame is synonymous with marques such as De Tomaso, Ferrari, Fiat, Ford, Innocenti and Lancia, which include models such as Pantera , Deauville, Longchamp, 124 Spider, 365 California and the Fiesta. Brought up in America when the American Dream was beating out its rock ‘n’ roll rhythm, Tom Tjaarda came to live and work in Europe while the cultural revolution was in full swing. He ha d the privilege of a ringside seat during the most exciting times, finding himself at the heart of the most intense of automotive styling activities in the Mecca of vehicle design, Turin. Even though Tom Tjaarda may not have designed as many cars as other prolific designers, the American’s influence and importance in the history of automotive design, specifically in the second half of the 20th century, is almost unbeaten. Tjaarda, with his charming, accessible personality and good humor, remains one of the most popular design legends of all times. Tom Tjaarda: Master of Proportions is a comprehensive look at the life and times of a design giant, and features all his automotive, as well as his non - automotive, designs.

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The world of automotive design knows the name of Paolo Martin, who is, no doubt, one of Italy’s design greats. Not only has he designed some of the most important milestone cars from the 1960s and the 1970s, such as the Fiat 130 Coupé, the Lancia Beta Montecarlo and the Ferrari Modulo, but he has also been the creative mind behind several landmark motorcycle and scooter designs for Benelli, Gilera, Moto Guzzi and Piaggio, as well as several beautiful boats, industrial products, and even a typewriter. One of Italy’s most prolific designers, Paolo Martin writes about his life, his designs, his thinking, and his design philosophy in Paolo Martin: Visions in Design.

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In the late 1980s, the storied Italian automaker Bugatti positioned itself for a massive relaunch, defying widespread concerns and pinning its hopes on the innovative EB110 sports car. The EB110, which was eventually unveiled in 1991, was the fastest street-legal car of its time and was greeted with acclaim from industry insiders and trade journalists alike. Yet, soon thereafter, things started unraveling: faster cars came onto the market, sales collapsed, and eight years after its relaunch, Bugatti was bankrupt. This book details the car maker's unexpected revival, from the meteoric rise of the EB110 to its dramatic fall, as well as the tales of intrigue and shenanigans from the many prominent automotive personalities who worked behind the scenes. Though the Bugatti name lives on, still signaling the pinnacle in luxury sports car performance, this compelling and confounding automotive fiasco remains an unforgettable chapter in its one-hundred-plus years of existence.

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Many of the iconic vehicles of the second half of the 20th century, from simple but beautiful Fiats, Citroëns and BMWs to astounding Alfa Romeos, Lancias, Maseratis and Lamborghinis, rolled out of the coachbuilding facilities of Carrozzeria Bertone and the design studios of Stile Bertone. A succession of cutting-edge concept machines during the 1960s and the 1970s further cemented the belief that Bertone was not only the most audacious, but also arguably the most progressive and innovative of all the Italian design studios After the studio closed, several of the important concept cars, as well as the emblematic production models were either retained or later collected by the coachbuilder in a private museum housed at the Stile Bertone near Turin, and this book describes these extraordinary cars. In over 350 pages and using innovative photography, the work of 9 Design Directors and 63 of their cars is described. The book is written by well-known automotive journalist, Gautam Sen, and former Design Director of the Collection, Michael Robinson, in both English and Italian. Many of the cars have been freshly photographed specially for the publication

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Since the unveiling of the Lamborghini Miura – the world’s first V12-powered mid-engine road car – at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show, this marque from Sant’Agata Bolognese with the raging bull emblem has been one of the most famous and desirable purveyors of the supercar. Valentino Balboni, legendary former Lamborghini test driver, has been famously quoted as saying “Lamborghini is a carmaker that makes engines, the job of the designers was to design the engine cover.” Yet, in its almost six decades long history, the supercar maker has constructed just four different engines: the extraordinary Giotto Bizzarrini-designed V12 that powered Lamborghini’s flagships for the best part of five decades, a promising V8 that almost brought the company to its knees, a V10 that uses many Audi components and has been the mainstay of the marque in the last two decades, and lastly another newer V12, powering the Aventador. However, what has really distinguished Lamborghini, has been a series of models with remarkable, groundbreaking shapes, each one a veritable design revolution. Cars like the Miura, the Espada, the Urraco, the Countach and the Diablo astounded and startled automotive fans just as much by their daring shape, form and aesthetic purity, as by their second-to-none engineering and trendsetting packaging. This book celebrates the design history of Lamborghini through numerous period reports and previously unpublished images, delving into the extraordinary shapes and the intrepid personalities who made Lamborghini what it is today. .

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