by Wallace Wyss –
When Giorgetto Giugiaro cut himself adrift from Ghia Carrozzeria he put himself under a lot of pressure. He had to come up with something dramatic to put in auto shows to get the work flowing in.
Fortunately, from his time at Ghia he had the Maserati firm as fans of his work. So now it was time for his new firm, ItalDesign, to make a real impact.
Well, not to worry. As we now know, he has achieved many milestones, from production cars made by the millions, to one-off prototypes like this car.
The way I heard it was that he had already designed the Bora and maybe its little sister, the Merak, but still wanted to do something more exotic, so he did the Boomerang. Or it could have been an alternate design proposal.
Proof that the Bora came first is that the Boomerang was built on a Bora chassis, and was a car that was street drivable, unlike many prototypes that, even if they have a motor, are just drivable to get up on a turntable.
The great thing about this car is that, though it was built decades ago, it’s still coming back into view in clothing ads as a prop. Some lucky bloke bought it after chasing it down after seeing it rocket by on a street in Spain (story in one of my Incredible Barn finds books).
The 1972 Maserati Boomerang was inaugurating the wedge as a design shape whereas before that, largely due to Giugiaro, sensuous curves announced a sports car.
The really bizarre part of the car was the grouping of various gauges in the center with the steering wheel around them. It is a wonder it all works!
The Lancia Stratos Zero concept of 1970 deserves to be the first “wedge” car but that was hardly drivable, and the Boomerang is drivable with good visibility.
The Boomerang paved the way for two production cars with similar but less dramatic Giugiaro designs – the early Lotus Esprit (of James Bond submarine car fame) and the DeLorean DMC-12 (of Back to the Future renown).
There was no experimentation under the rear lid—a standard 310 horsepower 4.7 liter V8 engine was the powerplant. That was mated to a 5-speed manual from ZF.
The first time it went up for auction was in February of 2005 and it has probably beat that price at auctions since. I can think this car’s appeal is that you could take it on an event like the Colorado Grand and still have a one-off car that could grace the lawn at Pebble Beach.
If you want to look for it in the fashion ads, you can find it in a series of Louis Vuitton print and video ads, with photographs by Jürgen Teller showing the car and fashion models at the Giardini della Biennale (Venice). There are not too many old prototypes that can still look like a car of the decades after they were built, lemme tell ya.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR Wallace Wyss is a co-host of Autotalk, broadcast on KUCR FM weekly.
Note from Mike Gulett, Editor
The Bizzarrini Manta was the first car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro after he started his own design firm, ItalDesign, in 1968.
My friends, Ron and Diane Spindler, bought the Manta when it was under restoration in 2005 and finished bringing it back to life. Over the next few years they re-introduced this special design concept to the world by taking it to, and receiving accolades and awards from,: Pebble Beach, Villa d’Este, Goodwood, Amelia Island, Palos Verdes, Concorso Italiano plus others. The Manta was also on display for sometime at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Bizzarrini Manta at the Petersen Automotive Museum
It is not widely known that the Manta was at first a roller, no engine. It was a design concept and not originally intended to be driven. Later a Corvette 327 engine was added. Ron told me one time that it was not a great driving car, one reason was because of the driving position – he was tilted back too far to be comfortable.
The Bizzarrini Manta is one of the first of the “wedge” designs that became a trend in the 1970’s. It may also be a leading indicator of what Giugiaro would later do with his designs for the DeLorean, Lotus Esprit, Maserati Boomerang concept, Lamborghini Gallardo and others.
I was recently looking through my files and I found the ItalDesign brochure from 1998 celebrating the 30th anniversary of the company and the Bizzarrini Manta. I scanned the brochure and it is in the slide show below.
Bizzarrini Manta by ItalDesign Brochure – 1998
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