In the early 1960s, General Motors was keen to see sales of the new Corvair take off. To foster European interest, GM’s Vice President of Styling, Bill Mitchell, contracted two design houses, Pininfarina and Bertone, to come up with show-stopping concepts based on the car.
Of those designs, the Bertone studio’s take, called the Chevrolet Testudo (“turtle”) was the most groundbreaking. It was a beautiful piece of automotive art created by Giorgetto Giugiaro who, at the time, was just becoming known for his tasteful arches and curves. In 1962, Giugiaro was a young, up and coming designer not yet 30 years of age. He would become one of the most legendary and awarded automotive designers in the world.
A 1962 Chevrolet Corvair Monza coupe arrived at Bertone from the Willow Run plant in the U.S. in late 1962. The Italian design house assigned Giugiaro to the job, his first full free-hand assignment at the studio and his first time having a car’s design be all his own. It was to be finished in time for the 1963 Geneva Motor Show in mid-March.
Giugiaro and his team set to work on the Corvair, converting it into the beautiful Testudo he envisioned. In commentary about the car, Giugiaro said that he wanted to create a car shape that merged the plan and side elevation views of a car: the two most common visual viewpoints used in automotive design. He blended the two visuals in sketches and drawings.
Meanwhile, the car underwent surgery in the Bertone studio. Its chassis was shortened from its 108-inch wheelbase to just 94 inches and reinforced for more rigorous driving. The original Corvair 900 suspension and running gear was retained in the redesign. The original rear-mounted Turbo-Air 6 engine and four-speed manual transmission remained as well. Engine output for the engine used in this particular Corvair was about 102 horsepower.
As the chassis was transformed, the bodywork was designed and modeled and then built to fit the new underpinnings. Most of the bodywork was made of 0.031 steel with some aluminum panels for lighter weight. The split design of the bodywork, which divided the lower portion of the car and the upper greenhouse of the cabin, gave it a turtle-like appearance. Hence the name for the Testudo. A turtle emblem was fitted to the rear deck in homage.
The front canopy of the car hinged up. It was designed without A-pillars as a wraparound. A single pillar held both the front canopy and rear hatch in place when opened. Polycarbonate, then a new material, was used for the tail lamps – a first for the product. This allowed them to integrate into the rear bumper’s shape to keep body lines intact. Headlamps rotated forward when in use and back down to keep the front end’s clean shape.
These were all features of design that would appear in later concepts and production models.
For the interior, the Testudo had two seats, a rectangular steering wheel with rounded corners, and an L-shaped 180-rotated instrument panel. Switchgear was ahead of the driver on the horizontal portion of the panel while instruments were down its long leg.
Once complete, the bodywork and interior were fitted and the car was tested before being driven to the Geneva Show.
The entire project took only two months. It was an instant hit at the show, drawing crowds and reporters with its unique curved sloop look and unusually rounded proportions. Its highly singular design was both awestriking and beautifully proportional.
Much of Bertone’s and Giugario’s later work would be heavily influenced by the Testudo. While not a race track winner or street performance machine, the Monza-based Testudo was a beautiful, sloopy berlinetta with good balance and drive quality. Many later designs, such as the Lamborghini Miura, Fiat 850 Spider, Ferrarri Daytona (1968), AMC Pacer, and Porsche 928 were greatly inspired by the Testudo.
The Testudo was kept by Bertone and used in various advertisements and showings until 1965. While shooting a promotional film for Shell Oil, the car collided with another Bertone concept, the Alfa Romeo Canguro–another Giugiaro design. The Testudo took significant damage and was put into storage. In 1974, the still-damaged car was offered for sale but saw no buyers. In the early 1990s, Bertone’s chief designer Luciano d’Ambrosio put the Testudo into complete restoration. It was then shown at Pebble Beach in 1996.
In 2011, the Testudo was offered for sale by Sotheby’s where it was sold to a private collector for €336,000 (about USD$390,000). It was most recently shown at the 2018 Grand Basel, where the accompanying photos were taken by Ank Kumar. More photography can be found at RM Sotheby’s here.
