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American Dream

They're archaic, uncomfortable, impractical, and the hottest trend of the decade. Winston Goodfellow examines the revival of the barchetta body.

The Crash followed the Boom. The 1980s credo of "Look at me and the size of my paycheck!" wouldn't- couldn't-last forever. And if the blatant flaunting of opulence had to come to an end, it was inevitable that the decade's costliest automotive bauble, the mid-engined supercar, would suffer.
The burst of the supercar bubble threw tons of sleek superexotic wreckage across the automotive battlefield. Six years ago these halo cars had been revered as the ultimate expression of a manufacturer's skills. Suddenly they were anathema.
What caused their reversal of fortune? And, more importantly, what would arise to replace them?
Fifteen years ago only Ferrari, Lotus, Lamborghini, de Tomaso, Renault, and Lancia seemed seriously interested in mid-engined supercars. Eight years later almost everybody had a striking, ultra-fast middie to display: Jaguar's XJ220, Isuzu's 4200R, Subaru's Giotto Caspita, Dodge's M4S PPG pace car, even MG's EX-E. Fueling such fervency was a passion for the product. "There was a time when people saw expensive exotics such as the Italians'," says Tom Gale, Chrysler's Executive VP of Product Design and International Operations, "and they were just in awe. But today, instead of being revered...and getting a thumbs up, a (supercar) driver is just as likely to get something else-like a middle finger!"
Gale feels the downfall came when a "psychological boundary" was crossed. Because they possessed exciting shapes and the ability to perform at a much higher level than other cars, mid-engined exotics were originally perceived by the public as engineering showcases-cars that existed because they could do things that other cars couldn't. But when people began seeing them as mere statements of wealth-as ego-driven, rather than purpose-driven-the backlash was inevitable.
Noting this change in perception, Italdesign's Fabrizio Giugiaro says, "Today in Europe people don't want to show off like that. If you go to Monte Carlo, you don't see expensive cars that make such a statement."
"They also fell into a trap," Gale continues. "They got to the point of 'Who needs it?' They used to be unique, but pretty soon they were everywhere. I started wishing someone would do a 4-door instead."
"The mid-engine supercar did indeed become too common," adds ex-pat designer Tom Tjaarda, who has penned more than a few exotics himself. "They also got too expensive, and in the end they weren't that hard to conceive and produce. The industry had to invent something new. What evolved was the 'Super-Morgan' type of car, modern in styling but simple and fun in intent."
Observation bears this out. From auto shows to showrooms, today there are more minimalist, fun, performance-oriented roadsters out there than at any other time in the past 50 years. All feature eye-catching styling, and many have no provision for a roof or windows whatsoever-if it rains, you simply get wet.
Enter the Barchetta
In the late 1940s, Italians began calling any small, envelope-bodied car with no top or window fittings a barchetta-literally "little boat." The term was probably coined in October 1948 by Giovanni Canestrini, one of Italy's most noted auto journalists, to describe a seminal new Touring design on Ferrari's 166MM. "The year we debuted that car," recalls Carlo Anderloni, then head of Carrozzeria Touring, "its styling broke so radically from tradition that the vocabulary wasn't there to describe it. Canestrini called it 'disconcerting,' for he couldn't compare it with previous models. Finally he blurted out, 'That's not a spyder...it looks more like a barchetta,' and the name simply stuck."
That groundbreaking Ferrari was conceived and built for competition, but the combination of a postwar body with prewar levels of weather protection had appeal on the street, too. "Look back at the prototype Corvette, the Lotus Seven, and the Myers Manx," insists Chuck Jordan, GM's former VP of design and now SCI's Styling Editor. "And (the industry) has always played with (roofless) showcars. Remember, we did showcars because while economy cars tended to be dull and boring, showcars could be developed to add excitement and appeal-to draw the bees to the honey. Open cars have always done that."
"When you look at what started sports cars in the beginning," Gale adds, "and for that matter what started the American hotrod, it was that they were minimalist. You didn't take all the comforts and conveniences of home; some stuff was left behind to make the car more powerful."
But while this narrow market niche does have a long history-if you want to be persnickety, Mssr. Cugnot's steam wagon was a minimalist vehicle with no roof or windows-the rebirth of the barchetta in this decade is a separate phenomenon. After perhaps 30 years in the doldrums, there are now as many high-profile barchettas on the show scene as there were high-powered middies in 1987. The question is, why?
Suggestions abound. Chrysler boss Bob Lutz chalks it up to "...the Novocaine factor. What I think happened is that the Japanese sports cars, the 300ZX and Supra, came so close to being more or less perfect that the visceral enjoyment of the sports car was gone. The Viper was a reaction to that." Giving little concession to comfort or convenience, the machine to which Lutz refers was designed to tap the same undiluted car lust that fueled the original Cobra. "Now, with a 4-year lag, other people are saying 'Hey-we need to do that too!'"
Danny Panoz, head of the company that's built the equally uncompromising Panoz Roadster since the early 1990s, agrees that purity has become a modern selling point. "There was too much of a tendency toward refining everything.... When things become too refined it can eliminate a car's personality, its soul. They become numbing, and that's not good for those of us who like to drive for the sake of driving."
American Dream Roots of Rebirth
Tom Tjaarda and Filippo Sapino, the erudite head of Carrozzeria Ghia, feel the barchetta rebirth actually started before Japan's final sports-car onslaught of the late 1980s. Both point to Ghia's aptly-named Barchetta showcar of 1983 as the movement's first modern expression.
Before this very important concept car, production barchettas were mainly English, mainly retrocar, and mainly small potatoes. Caterham continued license-producing the ex-Lotus 7; Panther made some specials (including its ill-fated 6-wheeler); Felber of Switzerland knocked out a few Ferrari-based roadsters to little notice.
Significant concept barchettas were hardly more plentiful, though Pininfarina's Peugette of 1976 certainly qualifies. With a design brief of "providing a cheap sports car that will appeal to young people," Pininfarina used existing Peugeot running gear and cast the front and rear decks from the same mold. "We wanted to...bring back the original joy and pleasure of the car," Pininfarina stated on its release-a bold idea at a time when safety and fuel economy were paramount in the public's mind.
The barchetta baton passed to Bertone in 1980, albeit in a completely different market segment. Based on a Lamborghini Urraco chassis, the firm's Athon showcar debuted at Turin that year utterly devoid of weather protection. Accurately, Road & Track called it "controversial."
Company founder Nuccio Bertone went a step further: "We deliberately (went) to extremes," he insisted. "We project(ed) a formula (of) full contact with nature."
Opel's largely forgotten Corsa showcar put a toe in the same waters come 1982, and then the Ghia Barchetta burst onto the scene at Frankfurt '83. Almost production-ready, the Ghia "...kicked it all off," Tjaarda believes. "It brought back the 'fun car' that had been missing for some time. It was nicely styled, too, and very fresh. Too bad the production version that came out later (the 1990s Mercury Capri) wasn't done with the same conviction. If the original had gone through, it would have been a winner."
Italian journalist Giancarlo Perini agreed. "Anyone who calls himself a car lover," he wrote after driving the Ghia runner, "is almost certain to fall in love with (the) Barchetta." Even before the car appeared at Frankfurt, Ford received hundreds of purchase inquiries from people who'd only seen spy photos in the buff mags. At the Show, several even pressed Ford to accept checks as a deposit.
Sapino, who oversaw the project at Ghia and even penned its lines, says the Barchetta was, "...our first (modern) offering in what we call the 'affordable supercar' segment."
Sapino's design was no less brave than Pininfarina's of seven years earlier. Fun was the furthest thing from many people's minds as ongoing oil shocks and international inflation sapped the levity out of most automotive endeavors. The public had long since fallen out of love with cars, and a number of pundits were openly questioning the future of private automobiles. In short, the design and sale of cars that blatantly admitted they were frivolous was a risky proposition-and, to those willing to chance it, an unbeatable opportunity.
"Back in the 1960s," points out Danny Panoz, "there was a bunch of wonderful stuff available. Then for much of the 1970s and '80s it disappeared and was replaced by things like the 320i and Rabbit GTi. For at least a decade, really the only sports cars left were old things running around."
The barchetta revival received its next big boost at the 1986 Turin Auto Show with the debut of Italdesign's radical Machimoto. "I tried to combine the strong points of a motorcycle with the advantages of a car," reflects company leader Giorgetto Giugiaro. Purposely unconventional, the Machimoto "hoped to create a more social version of the Myers Manx," California's prototypical dune buggy-a design which Giugiaro, Chuck Jordan, and Peter Brock all cite as a uniquely American form of barchetta. Italdesign felt the market might be ready again for unapologetically entertaining cars. "The drastic reduction in the cost of oil and the economic recovery (in) the major industrialized countries...opened new avenues to free time and recreational vehicles," Giugiaro insists.
Powered by a 16-valve, 139-bhp VW Golf engine, the Machimoto's open cockpit sat six to nine people on motorcycle-like pillions over its tubular, load-bearing frame. Gutsy as it was, to call the Machimoto "controversial" understates the case. As Tom Gale diplomatically summarizes, "Well...as we say in the hotrod world, 'There isn't anything right or wrong.'"
Ten years of armchair-quarterbacking later, the Machimoto seems more important for shocking the industry out of its comfort-bound conventions than for its design or details per se. "Even today," says Fabrizio Giugiaro, Giorgetto's son and corporate heir-apparent, "everybody knows that car. Contrast that with the (similar-vintage) Lexus Landau (hatchback); though that was one of our most serious and important projects, nobody recalls it now."
Sergio Pininfarina has a theory about why the Machimoto seems so important to us today. "Concept cars respond to three main targets: There's promotion, where not much importance is given to feasibility and functionality but instead to attracting attention. The second is to explore the public's reaction to innovative products. And the third is to research new solutions that may contribute to real progress." The Machimoto (indeed, any barchetta) was a perfect platform for all three points.
Putting on a Show
As mid-engined exotica reached its technological zenith in the late 1980s, the groundwork for the backlash was already being laid. Stylish, performance-oriented trends usually start at the high end of the market, and the barchetta movement would prove no exception.
The truly pioneering production example was Isdera's 033i Spyder of 1982, but this VW-powered roadster simply came too soon. Callaway's Corvette-based Speedster found much more fertile soil in 1990, and its arresting shape, cutdown windshield, and utter lack of rain gear drew unprecedented press attention. Now seen against the right backdrop, the barchetta was suddenly news.
On the show circuit, others had already learned that lesson: In 1989 Mazda displayed the modular MX04 showcar, MGA Developments brought out the Fiesta-based Hot Dog, and BMW showed the E1 Spider mockup, which it described as "an appeal to the senses: minimum technical interruption and the open experience of wind and sun." Then, as the superexotics' wave crested in 1990, the nascent barchetta movement broke free: Ghia's Zig, Renault's Laguna, and Bertone's muscular Nivola led the way.
But it still took a keen eye to see the movement's true potential. Even though the upper end of the supercar market was clearly in the hands of speculators rather than end-users, only a few observers predicted the coming revolution. One was Automobile Year journalist Philippe de Barsy: His essay, "Supercars: Ultimate Cars or Ultimate Follies?", accurately described the mid-engined supercar's increasing improbability. "In the completely unrealistic period of the last few years," he wrote, "manufacturers have listed vehicles which may fall outside a real market demand, basing projects (instead) on the needs of a speculative market.... What will happen to all these cars which were ordered (not to be driven but) to be re-sold and stored? Current sports cars have the level of comfort and equipment of the best touring cars, and not the least paradox of the whole affair is to see their owners dream of the seductive simplicity of an MGT or a Ferrari 166MM Barchetta. They forgot that those cars were absolutely spartan...and were, in a sense, like four-wheeled motorcycles."
De Barsy went on to predict the future based on one existing showcar: Pininfarina's topless, windowless, Ferrari Testarossa-based Mythos. In that shape, he noted, "Pininfarina recreated the 'barchetta' concept of the 1950s...an elegant expression of the idea that such a car is created for pleasure and not pure performance....."
Then, incredibly, de Barsy took his argument a critical step further. After recalling the pleasures of Porsche's fast and feathery 550RS, the essayist quixotically asked, "Will we ever see mini supercars created, and above all put into production, with engines of up to two liters and all the marvels of modern technology, but with weight pared as far as possible? The 16-valve VTEC engined Honda CRX already suggests the potential of such a car on these lines, which would bring back the pleasure of...really driving." With another quad-turbo, all-wheel-drive, carbon-fiber superexotic appearing every day, de Barsy's question must have seemed irrational on its surface.
In retrospect, he had just identified the last component of the coming barchetta boom: The need, both emotional and financial, to move halo cars downmarket.
Mythos Proportions
At the Detroit Auto Show in January of 1989, something very interesting happened: Dodge unveiled the open, rustic, retrostyled Viper showcar. "I don't want to imply that we're more visionary than we are," Tom Gale jokes, recalling this car's simple beginnings, "but I think we did see (the Viper) with production in mind, albeit limited."
Though no one could have known it at the time, not only would the Viper's later production spinoff legitimize sidecurtains and canvas roofs for a company's top model, it would demonstrate that a minimalist approach could make a relatively inexpensive automobile seem like the hottest thing on the road. In other words, an intentionally basic car let the buyer feel he'd bought the car he always wanted-not just the closest thing he could afford.
As the 1990s went on, another worldwide recession, the crisis in the Gulf, and Europe's ongoing Green movement once again made people suspicious of super-costly cars. Then the ensuing market failure of Jaguar's XJ220 and Bugatti's EB110 finally woke the rest of the world up to de Barsy's fears about speculators. And even simple physics seemed to conspire against the superexotics: "An expensive mid-engined car makes you feel happy because of its performance," Fabrizio Giugiaro reflects, "(but) if you want to have fun in this type of car you have to drive it very fast. This possibility disappeared because of traffic, the laws, and public perception-(suddenly) the barchetta became a sensible alternative. Without a windshield, at 40 kph you still feel like you're going very fast."
Momentum was gained in 1992 as the barchetta concept began flowing in seemingly disparate directions. Marcello Gandini showed off a topless Diablo-though four years later this would mutate into a comfy production targa-and the year's most arresting design came from Ghia, as Sapino and his staff unleashed the radically organic and asymmetric Focus.
Called by Car Styling "...extraordinary, innovative, outrageous, and spectacular," the Focus was another example of Ghia's affordable-supercar theme. Its carbon fiber body panels rode on a shortened Ford Escort RS Cosworth platform, and after the show there were rumors that Karmann might produce a car inspired by the concept.
But while the Focus captured the headlines, Tom Tjaarda feels the year's landmark barchetta was actually Pininfarina's Ethos. The first in a series of Ethos projects, this smartly styled roadster "...was one of the cars for pioneering aluminum extrusions in construction. I also felt their use of plastic panels was most effective. It was a very good example of how to build a prototype with a feasible market-niche philosophy."
Designed to "put the driver in touch with nature"-and described by Pininfarina research director Lorenzo Ramaciotti as "an ecological, high-tech niche sports car"-the Ethos was much more than an exhibition of low-volume possibilities. Painted a vibrant green to portray a "concern for the environment," it made an ecological statement. Environmentally friendly features abounded, from its recyclable extruded-aluminum structure and thermoplastic-resin body panels to its gas-sipping 2-stroke Orbital engine and water-soluble paint.
Pininfarina had stumbled on another advantage of the barchetta's simplicity: Because the body type lends itself to smaller, lighter cars, it allows a company to imply a commitment to Mother Nature while offering serious gearhead thrills simultaneously. This claim simply wasn't plausible with the costly, high-powered superexotics that corporations had trumpeted earlier.
Rival Carrozzeria Bertone jumped on the Earth-friendly barchetta bandwagon with the electric-powered Blitz: "Public opinion is attentive and aware of the present and future problems," their press release stated. "The world is sick: We have pollution, waste, ozone depletion, etc.... People see the electric vehicle as a 'medicine.' But, as we all know, medicines, though necessary, are not always nice. We should like to avoid them, but this is not always possible. So, we (have) tried to take the bitterness out."
In Full Swing
By 1993, a lot of things were clear. First, the costly superexotic had become a dry well; Yamaha, Subaru, and others cancelled theirs while they could, while of those which reached production-Jaguar, Bugatti, Cizeta, and more-only Ferrari's F50 and McLaren's F1 remain viable today.
The barchetta, conversely, has come into its own. Broadly defined as a simple, wide-open, relatively inexpensive sports car, everything from the Panoz Roadster, Dodge Viper, the Light Car Company/Rounds Rocket, de Tomaso's Guarį, and Maserati's Barchetta Stradale have arrived to fit the bill in production. France's De La Chapelle Roadster and Renault's Sport Spider, among others, have joined the move on the Continent, while Sbarro, MVS, Michalak, Sportech, and countless others have all offered utterly pure barchettas as potential-if unlikely-production candidates.
Of the real runners, the most significant is almost surely the Lotus Elise. Weighing less than 1500 pounds and going from sketches to production in just 28 months, the Elise uses Ethos-like aluminum extrusions in its chassis and only the most desultory of rain gear-in all but the strictest sense it's a barchetta made good.
In the last years we've also seen Ford's startling Indigo and Fabrizio Giugiaro's Formula 4 on the show scene, along with Audi's TT Spyder, Peugeot's Toscana, and Ford's Lynx and Ghia Saetta. And as with Callaway's groundbreaking Speedster, Mazda's Miata M-Speedster and the Fiat Barchetta Stola Dedica have once again shown us that the full-barchetta theme can spice up an already successful convertible.
Undoubtedly, the apogee of the barchetta's lengthy 45+ year career is upon us. So why the explosion now? "Barchettas are more in vogue today because they reflect current economic reality," says Fabrizio Giugiaro. "Right now, people don't want to show a lot of money, a car that obviously costs a lot. The barchetta-type car is fun, but it is also economical."
American Dream Ghia's Sapino also points out that with today's computer-aided design capability and flexible production lines, barchettas are newly affordable to produce. "I'm old enough to remember the years when to set up this kind of project would have automatically meant developing something very exclusive, expensive, and exotic. Now, the fact is that we can include the most esoteric variations at an affordability (we never had) before. (Today) our Saetta takes the (Ford Fiesta platform) and makes it into an affordable performance speedster for everybody."
Still, affordability will only sell sports cars if the emotions are satisfied simultaneously. "It keeps coming back to power and simplicity," Tom Gale says. "It is almost like motorcycles.... People want to relate to nature, feel the elements, feel like they're driving. There's a time when you want comfort, and there is a time when you want all the experience-a time when you want something more.
"No one country has a monopoly on that," Gale goes on to point out. "Everyone is doing it, though the expressions tend to be different. If you look at the BMW Just 4/2, that has bike heritage and you have to applaud that. The Caterham is something else again. In fact, they're all done with a devotion to production and a conviction of feeling-good car people make that happen wherever (they) are."
National Review
In America, this return to simplicity manifests itself in response to a special heritage. Of the Plymouth Prowler that Chrysler is currently gearing up for production, Bob Lutz says it wasn't meant to be a sports car, let alone a true barchetta. "It is clear that the potential Miata buyer is going to look at the BMW, Mercedes, or Boxster," he points out. "The Prowler is deliberately different from all these other cars."
But "...just as the Viper was Cobra-inspired," Gale says, "(with the Prowler) we were looking for an American image. This was something that was very legitimate for us to do. If someone from Asia tried this it wouldn't be quite so legitimate. A lot of people may argue with what we did, but we solved all the problems and no one else has done it. Until they do, they need to put a sock in it."
Though not sports cars, as Gale pointed out, earlier hotrods also began as minimalist, performance-oriented machines. And, like true barchettas, the Prowler stimulates the senses while screaming "I am built for fun!" There is in fact an enormous (and largely unexplored) crossover area between hotrods and barchettas, so hybrids such as Boyd Coddington's 1996 Sportstar may well point to the future.
Question two: Does a globally-based barchetta movement have enough gas to carry it into the future? "I believe so," Sapino says. "Customers want, and always will want, fun, emotions, and distinction, as long as these exist within reasonable and affordable limits."
Tom Gale hedges his bets: "There are changing fashions in this industry, just like hemlines in the clothing business. Even so, I think (barchettas) will always be there."
Fabrizio Giugiaro isn't so sure. "For publicity, yes, barchettas will remain. But where the overall trend will go is harder to say. I feel there's a future for this type of car only if they are economical, but then it becomes an issue of production. You have to build a large number to have the (costs) drop, but it's not an easy (type of car to) sell in large numbers. Barchettas must be made in a different way-built by a coachbuilder."
Lutz, Tjaarda, and Jordan are even more pragmatic. "Barchettas probably won't have much of a future for two reasons," Tjaarda offers. "First, there are already too many; literally hundreds of prototypes, beginning with the Ghia Barchetta and Machimoto. Second, with at best a makeshift top, the risk is too great that the fun will turn to pain."
But Danny Panoz, who's staked his fortune on wide-open sports cars, is undaunted by these limitations. "Yes, memories can be kinder than facts," he agrees. "But that's why when we designed our Roadster, we looked at the one thing that was missing: Today we can make cars that do these same (emotional) things, but do it reliably."
Finally Andrea Zagato, a 3rd-generation power at Carrozzeria Zagato, counters with this simple insight: "Today we realize that our greatest developments are in the area of communications. New abilities here will modify our lives and consequently alter our demands of transportation, and spending less time in cars (every day) means we'll have more desire to use cars for entertainment. But while demand will therefore go in the direction of segmentation, the industry must pursue standardization to obtain a cost reduction. Thus the future hinges on (the technology to) create affordable fun cars and (the understanding of) new market niches."
This touches on the final ingredient affecting the barchetta's rise: The technology now exists to allows cheap, light, and reliable specialty cars to actually make it to production. Ten years ago, cost-effective aluminum extrusions were unknown to production cars; today Lotus, Renault, and Audi use them every day. As Sapino points out, "Technology helps in making these kinds of vehicles easier and cheaper to produce, thus increasing the level of confidence to consider the most adventurous concepts for production-feasible affordability."
He also sees technology as a possible solution to the barchetta's most basic marketing problem: the lack of weather protection. "Today," Sapino says, "some of the most recent concepts and the subsequent production cars, such as Mercedes' SLK and Porsche's Boxster, have shown that with the latest technology, the look and feel of a speedster can be combined with a (quite effective) coupe. In a broader interpretation of the question, we can say that even better aerodynamics, an improved heating system, more effective and practical waterproof dress, all of these could eventually make roofless cars more popular. Everything starts with a desire for the pleasure of driving or riding in an open car. Remember, (a buyer is) willing to accept a level of discomfort proportional to that desire."
The technology issue begs the question of today's crop of hybrids. The Boxster, SLK, and Audi TTS are certainly barchettas in design if not execution. Some would say this is the wave of the future, while others adamantly disagree. But that discussion is ultimately unimportant-the fact remains that barchettas now have a larger slice of the pie than at any other time since WWII.
Technology, applause from the public and press, production feasibility through lower costs, and manufacturers' desire to crack into niche markets have all played a role in this bodystyle's rise, as has the critical factor of the superexotics' collapse. But coming or going, we may as well enjoy the boom while it's here-as Tom Gale points out, hemlines will always rise and fall.

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