1921 - 1980
Giovanni Michelotti was born in Turin in northern Italy in 1921. At the age of 16 he started work at the 'Stabilimenti Farina' design/bodywork factory as an apprentice in the engineering department. In 1937 the sole Farina designer left the Stabilimenti, and the 17 year old apprentice had the chance to prove himself as a designer. He impressed immediately while working on a design for an Alfa based car, ordered by Graf Revelli.
After the second World War in 1949 he set up his own business. Unusually he started a design studio, and left the bodywork factories to fabricate his designs. His clients included Vignale, Alleman, Bertone, Ghia and Ferrari. In 1958 he became connected with Triumph, and worked as the house designer.
Designs penned by Michelotti include the Maserati 5000, the BMW 700 and the Alpine A106. And for Triumph he designed the TR4 and TR5, the Herald, Spitfire and GT6, the Toledo and Dolomite, and the 2000 and Stag.
In 1960 Michelotti produced his first car as a manufacturer, the Osca 1600 coupe. It had a pagoda roof, indicators on the corners of the wings and additional brake lights on the side of the car. In 1963 he produced a coupe at the Geneva motor show, based on a D-type Jaguar racing car chassis. With work increasing Michelotti moved his company to Orbassano. At this time he was designing cars for Daf, Fiat and Matra.
Michelotti continually demonstrated cutting edge design in his cars, producing in 1972 a turbo BMW, and the Pulsar based on a Fiat chassis. The Pulsar was one of the first cars to feature shock absorbing bumpers. In 1974 he penned the Beta Mizar, a car with four gullwing doors, and the Lem, a small electric town car.
In a unique project with the magazine Quattroruote Michelotti designed the Every 4R in 1978. This car could be converted from a town car to a country car to a sea car by simply mixing and matching removable panels. It is said that Michelotti conceived and applied solutions to design problems much earlier than other famous car designers.
Giovanni Michelotti died in 1980, his design studio is now run by his son, Edgardo.