Giugiaro to make a comeback

Legendary designer forced to sell the remaining 9.9 per cent is looking to Asia to spark a comeback at the age of 77.

Giugiaro is setting up a new design house after selling 90 per cent of ItalDesign Giugiaro in 2010, then being pushed out of the company after being forced to sell the remaining 9.9 per cent to the German giant’s Audi division.

“I don’t feel old enough to retire,” he told Automotive News Europe. “I will continue to do the only thing I’m good at – designing cars.

Giugiaro’s ouster at ItalDesign came soon after his long-term friend, Ferdinand Piech, was forced out as the Volkswagen Group’s Supervisory Board chairman.

After selling the last family shares in ItalDesign, Giugiaro personally took out a full page advertisement in the Corriere Delle Sera newspaper to personally thank Piech for his efforts.

He is believed to be entertaining offers of work from South Korea and China and is looking for a site near Turin.

“We are just at the beginning of our talks so it is really premature to say something more but we will definitely come back to the car design business,” Giorgetto’s son and former ItalDesign Giugiaro CEO, the 50-year old Fabrizio Giugiaro, said.

An international jury named Giorgetto Giugiaro as Car Designer of the 20th Century and was inducted in the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.

His designs have crossed different eras of styling and different classes of car. He designed the original Volkswagen Golf (plus the Passat, Jetta and the Scirocco), the Maserati Bora and Merak, the BMW M1, the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint and Alfasud, the DeLorean DMC-12 and the Lotus Esprit.