In April of 1975, Fiat hired the design offices in Moncalieri to define a prototype car that might breathe new life into the Lancia name. Italdesign responded to the challenge with the Delta, which would be flanked by a high performance 4x4, and Prisma in the hatchback model.

Even more challenging was the plan for the Fiat Panda. Giugiaro and Mantovani had to respond to the requests for “maximum passenger space paired with the lowest possible costs.” The artist and the engineer put their complementary skills together to construct an innovative package, transforming the very concept of utility vehicles. A big small car that was popular even with the more well-heeled car enthusiasts (1980).

In the first half of the eighties, Italdesign armed itself with the most sophisticated equipment offered by the new information technologies: CAS (Computer Aided Styling), CAD (Computer Aided Design), CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing).
By leveraging these advanced systems, the company introduced an operating methodology that allowed it to manage the entire process of creating and designing a vehicle, interacting in real time with the customers’ and suppliers’ structures (co-engineering and simultaneous engineering).
In those years, Italdesign created and designed three very successful models for the Fiat Group, the Uno, the Thema and the Croma (the Thema and Croma, along with the Saab 9000 are all part of a joint project of manufacturing rationalization), while it continued to increase its customer portfolio with programmes for Seat, Renault, Chrysler, Ford and Toyota.

This was the period when Italdesign entered the second generation, namely when Fabrizio Giugiaro and Marco Mantovani respectively, joined the Design and Models Division and the Design and Development Division and which they would take over responsibility in July 1996.

The Nineties >