founded: 1912

Gruppo Bertone, commonly known as Bertone, was an Italian industrial design company which specialized in car styling, coachbuilding and manufacturing. It was also a car manufacturing company.

The company was based in Grugliasco, northern Italy. Gruppo Bertone was founded as Carrozzeria Bertone in 1912 by Giovanni Bertone. Designer Nuccio Bertone took charge of the company after World War II and the company was divided into two units: Carrozzeria for manufacturing and Stile Bertone for styling. Until its bankruptcy in 2014, the company was headed by the widow of Nuccio Bertone, Lilli Bertone. At the time of bankruptcy, it had around 100 direct employees. In 2014, most employees lost their jobs and were not absorbed by following acquisitions. Cars from the company museum went to other museums, like Automotoclub Storico Italiano and Volandia.

After its bankruptcy, the Bertone name was acquired by an architect and retained by some of its former employees, who continued as a Milan-based small external design office, Bertone Design, more focused on industrial design and architecture. Bertone Design was sold to the group AKKA Technologies in the second quarter of 2016, which already had automotive design activities through Mercedes-Benz Technologies. The AKKA Technologies group subsequently sold the Bertone brand in 2020 to Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci, the new owners. In 2022, Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci revived the Bertone brand. The first in a series of limited edition vehicles, the GB110, was presented in December 2022, then unveiled in June 2024.

1920"s

During the 1920s, Giovanni Bertone began doing bodywork on the Fast, Chiribiri, Aurea, SCAT, and Diatto chassis. Vincenzo Lancia nicknamed him "Bertunot"; he commissioned Bertone to create cars for the "limited series". Giovanni Bertone produced torpedo and saloon bodies for FIAT and Lancia and for Itala, Diatto, and SPA. Alongside sports models like the 1928 Ansaldo 6BS, Giovanni Bertone also designed cars like the Fiat 505 limousine and the Itala 51S, both in 1924.

He later designed the Lancia Lambda VIII Series in 1928. In 1932, Giovanni designed the Lancia Artena, which was produced until 1936. In 1933, Nuccio Bertone officially began working in his father's company. The company moved to Corso Peschiera 225. Gruppo Bertone now had fifty members of staff. In 1934, Bertone created the Fiat 527S Ardita 2500.

1956

In 1956, they produced the Abarth 750 Record; it was built on a Fiat 600 chassis and tested on the high-speed track at Monza. Abarth 750 Record sets ten world records, including doing 4000 kilometres at an average of 156.36 km/h and covering 10.125.26 km in 72 hours. In 1957, the company expanded to start the production of the NSU Sport Prinz. Construction work began in Grugliasco for a new plant that became operative in 1959 with a workforce of 550. At the end of the 1950s, Bertone created the Giulietta Sprint Speciale, the Aston Martin DB2/4, and the Maserati 3500 GT.

1965

In 1965, Bertone launched the Fiat 850 Spider. The commercial success of this model led Nuccio Bertone to increase the company's production capacity to 120 units per day. Between 1965 and 1972, nearly 140,000 were produced, the great majority of which were sold in the United States. With the Fiat 850, the company increased its production volumes, from 13,000 units produced in 1966 to nearly 30.000 in 1968.

 At the same time as the Coupé, Fiat also introduced the convertible sporty two-seater Spider, with the original 843 cc engine tuned to produce 49 hp  which allowed it to reach a top speed of 145 km/h (90 mph). The body was designed and built by Bertone in its Grugliasco, Turin plant. The folding fabric roof stowed under a rear metal body panel. The Bertone design featured smooth, simple lines and details, including recessed headlamps equipped with plexiglass covers angled to match the adjacent fenders/wings — and dihedral side panels similar to Bertone's 1963 Chevrolet Testudo. The Spider's engine code was 100GS.000.

The Fiat X1/9 is an Italian two-seater mid-engined sports car designed by Bertone and manufactured by Fiat from 1972–1982 and subsequently by Gruppo Bertone from 1982–1989.

The X1/9 was developed from the 1969 Autobianchi A112 Runabout concept, with styling by Bertone under chief designer Marcello Gandini.

Once developed for production, the two-seater featured sharp-edged styling with a wedge shape, retractable headlights, an integrated front spoiler and a removable hard top roof panel (targa top).

The Alfa Romeo BAT (or Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica) are a series of Italian concept cars. The cars originated from a joint collaboration project between Alfa Romeo and the Italian design house Bertone that began in 1953. Three cars were built: the BAT 5 in 1953, the BAT 7 in 1954, and finally the BAT 9 in 1955. All three cars were designed by Franco Scaglione.

Alfa Romeo contacted Nuccio Bertone of the Bertone design house and commissioned three concept vehicles to research the effects of drag on a vehicle. The idea was to create vehicles with the lowest possible drag coefficient. All the cars featured large rear bumpers and curved fins. They were built upon the Alfa Romeo 1900 chassis. Each of the three cars was presented at the Turin Auto Show, in 1953, 1954 and 1955 respectively.

The lowest of the three cars' drag coefficient was 0.19, an achievement even by today's standards. For each of the cars, Alfa Romeo provided a five-speed gearbox and a powerful four-cylinder engine that produced more than 90 horsepower, good enough to propel the car to a top speed of 201 km/h.

The Alfa Romeo Montreal is a sports car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo from 1970 to 1977.

The Alfa Romeo Montreal was introduced as a concept car in 1967 at the Expo 67, held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Originally, the concept cars were displayed without any model name, but the public took to calling it The Montreal. It was a 2-door 2+2 coupe designed by Marcello Gandini at Bertone using the 1.6-litre engine of the Giulia TI and the short wheelbase chassis of the Giulia Sprint GT. Paolo Martin is credited for the prototype's instrument cluster. One of the two concept cars built for Expo 67 is displayed in the Alfa Romeo Historical Museum in Arese, Italy, while the other is in the museum storage.

1972

In 1972, Giovanni Bertone died. In that year, as a tribute to the company's founder, the Maserati Khamsin and the Fiat X1/9 were released. Based on the Fiat 128 chassis but with a mid-rear-engine layout, the X1/9 was in production from 1972 to 1988, with 160.000 units manufactured. The company also began working for Volvo on the 264 TE. The Volvo 262C was presented at the 1977 Geneva Motor Show. From the start of the 1980s, the Fiat Ritmo Cabrio and the Fiat X1/9 were produced and sold directly under the Bertone brand. In 1982, Marcello Gandini turned out the Citroën BX. A new commercial agreement drawn up with General Motors Europe in 1986 saw the production of the Kadett Cabrio handed over to Bertone. In 1993, the Opel Astra Cabrio and the Fiat Punto Cabrio began production. Next year, Bertone presented the Zero Emission Record (ZER); Gruppo Bertone was also awarded the ISO 9001 quality certification.

Bertone was placed in charge of styling the prototype, which was finished just days before its debut at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show. None of the engineers had found time to check if the engine fitted inside its compartment. Committed to showing the car, they decided to fill the engine bay with ballast and keep the hood locked throughout the show, as they had three years earlier for the début of the 350GTV. Sales head Ubaldo Sgarzi was forced to turn away members of the motoring press who wanted to see the P400's power plant. Despite this setback, the car was the highlight of the show, immediately boosting stylist Marcello Gandini's reputation.

The Lamborghini Marzal is a concept car, first presented by Lamborghini at the 1967 Geneva Motor Show.

Designed by Marcello Gandini of Bertone, it was created to supply Ferruccio Lamborghini with a true four-seater car for his lineup which already included the 400GT 2+2 and the Miura. Mr. Lamborghini initially viewed the creation of the Marzal as advertising rather than a production model.

The Marzal remained a one-off, though the general shape and many of the ideas would later be used in the Lamborghini Espada.

The Lancia Stratos Zero (or 0) preceded the Lancia Stratos HF prototype by 12 months and was first shown to the public at the Turin Motor Show in 1970. The futuristic bodywork was designed by Marcello Gandini, head designer at Bertone, and featured a 1.6 L Lancia Fulvia V4 engine. The Lancia Stratos HF Zero was exhibited in Bertone's museum for many years. In 2011, it was sold during an auction in Italy for €761.600. It has been displayed in the exhibit "Sculpture in Motion: Masterpieces of Italian Design" at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. It was at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta at the "Dream Cars" exhibit in 2014, on loan from the XJ Wang Collection of New York City.

2009

By 2009, a worsening financial situation caused Bertone to sell its Grugliasco plant, along with its manufacturing activities, to FIAT. Bertone underwent a major restructuring process. By then, the Bertone workforce had dropped to roughly 300 people, mainly engineers and designers. The financial situation continued, prompting Bertone to sell off some of its concept cars in 2011. After having ceased trading because of financial difficulties, Bertone, on 18 March 2014, confirmed that it would be declared bankrupt if a suitable buyer was not found by the end of April.

In June 2016, the Bertone brand was acquired for more than €2.6 million by AKKA Technologies, an engineering company. 

The AKKA Technologies group subsequently sold the Bertone brand to Ideactive, a company owned by Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci. In 2022, the two Ricci brothers revived the Bertone brand. The first in a series of limited edition vehicles, the GB110, was launched in December 2022. In June 2024, the Bertone GB110 was publicly unveiled at Top Marques Monaco.

gb110

Eight years after the bankruptcy of 2014, under the leadership of Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci, entrepreneurs with almost 40 years of experience in the automotive engineering and design sector, Bertone is ready to write a new chapter in its long adventure in the automotive world. And it does so in style, with an ultra-limited series hypercar,only 33 units.

Low, wide and athletic, the Bertone GB110 respects the classic proportions of modern mid-engined hypercars (it is not stated but the base used could be that of the Lamborghini Huracán), with a short nose that points downwards (the "stepped" structure of the front is very original) and a more "muscular" body at the rear of the car, profiled to convey air into the engine compartment. 

The technical sheet of the new Bertone GB110, for now, does not go into too much detail. The company says that the mechanical architecture (all-wheel drive) comes from a German manufacturer and that the 1100 hp endothermic engine, whose fractionation is not yet known, for the first time on a hypercar will be powered by an eco-fuel derived from recycled plastics. The data communicated relating to the maximum torque (1100 Nm) is also "frightening", as well as the times declared for the sprints starting from a standstill: 2.8 seconds for the 0-100, 6.8 for the 0-200 and 14 for the 0-300, with an estimated top speed of over 380 km/h.