It is no secret that some of the most beautiful cars in the world have come from Italy, and if you truly admire and appreciate automotive design, coach building has been at the heart of it all. The tradition can be traced back to the pre-war days, and the art of rebodying a production chassis by hand into rolling sculpture continues to survive. In the mid-2000s, we experienced a modern-day renaissance of sorts when some of the most celebrated names in coachbuilding, from the likes of Pininfarina, Touring, and Zagato, all returned to creating some truly bespoke cars for the affluent with brand’s like Aston Martin, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo.
Torino-based Bertone, founded in 1912, was once led by design titans Giovanni, Nuccio, and Marcello Gandini, who wrote the rulebook long before carbon fiber and CAD were a thing. They introduced the “wedge,” a timeless design language born in the 1960s-early ’70s, that lowered noses, raised beltlines, and made the supercar look, well, supersonic and gave us icons like the Lamborghini Countach, DMC DeLorean, Lotus Esprit, Vector W8, and BMW M1, to name a few. While the wedge era had long cooled by the 2000s, it was revived once again with the Bertone Nuccio concept in 2012.
A 1-of-1 tribute, it was conceived to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Bertone. Named after Nuccio Bertone, son of founder Giovanni Bertone, the car was first unveiled in static form at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, and later in full running spec in Beijing that year. The inspiration for this wild creation was the equally radical 1970 Lancia Stratos HF-Zero concept (picture above top left), also penned by Gandini. The Nuccio is both homage and evolution. Under the then design director of Bertone, Michael Robinson, the Nuccio began life as a Ferrari F430, and features the same 4.3-liter V8, paired to a Graziano’s paddle-shifted six-speed.
Yet this legendary mid-engine supercar, originally shaped under Frank Stephenson’s direction at Pininfarina, was completely reimagined in just three and a half months. The transformation was radical. Standing only 44 inches tall, the Nuccio retained room for two in unexpected comfort. Robinson fixated on the details sightlines, ventilation, and the sweeping, wraparound windscreen all engineered to let drivers experience the car’s futurism, not suffer through it.
But beyond the extreme form, there were several innovations. A tensile-structure roof that echoed modern architectural minimalism and the seats, ventilated and braced by “Y”-shaped aluminum frames, became sculptures. However, perhaps the feature most noteworthy was its patented forward-facing brake lights embedded in the front headlight cluster that turns blue when decelerating to warn pedestrians ahead.
It is also worth noting that while the company has since been revived under new ownership and produced the GB110 hypercar, the Bertone Nuccio remains the final car to bear the Bertone nameplate, and the company went bankrupt in 2014. After a world tour, the Nuccio, unsold and forgotten, became a ghost until it resurfaced in a 2018 asset auction. Today, it’s back in the spotlight once again. Being offered by RM Sotheby’s at its upcoming auction in July, the car (CHASSIS NO.ZFFEZ58B000139932) has 29,000 kilometers (18,000 miles) on the odometer, almost entirely from the donor Ferrari.
In today’s collector market, rarity alone isn’t enough; it’s the story that commands the premium. Where a Stratos Zero concept could claim up to $2.5 million today, the starting bidding for the Nuccio at a fraction of its spiritual predecessor, and this one-off not only offers a piece of automotive history, but a car that represents the final chapter of what helped define the modern-day supercar.
Images Source: RM Sotheby’s, Gruppo Bertone