Auto Car Magazine: Bertone SuagnÃƒÂ Concept

Friday, January 4, 2008

Bertone SuagnÃƒÂ Concept

In Brief

The Bertone Suagnà is a concept car that interprets the theme of the coupé-cabriolet with aggressive elegance, achieving levels of roominess and comfort that are absolutely unknown on this type of car. The name comes from the adjective “suagnà” which, in Piedmontese dialect, means a job done painstakingly, paying scrupulous attention to every detail.

Developed around the Fiat Grande Punto, the Bertone Suagnà has extremely dynamic graphics which elaborate on a theme dear to Bertone: an open sports car, dedicated to young drivers, accessible to the general public, agile and easily handled, with a strong, sparkling personality.

The Bertone Suagnà ideally takes its place among the compact cars (segment B), but it is also an absolute novelty, because there are no coupé-cabriolets in that segment with a retractable hard top and four “proper” seats. With this model, Bertone establishes a new target in terms of interior space and the quality of life on board: the layout of the interior, which was the fruit of precise volumetric and ergonomic studies, was designed to achieve levels of comfort and roominess that are comparable with those of a higher segment model.

The roof system was developed jointly with CTS, a leader in this field.

The Bertone Suagnà opens another chapter in the long-running collaboration between Bertone and the Fiat brand which, in over ninety years, has produced more than 45 models, one-off proposals, concept cars and mass-produced cars.

The styling

The Bertone Suagnà has a strong, aggressive graphic identity, the result of uncompromising stylistic research, over and above the latest fashions, in the best Bertone tradition. The extremely dynamic volumetric proposal that resulted is based on a coupé body. The high, muscular tail holds the roof, which folds in two and disappears into the boot. The rear end links up to the high, arching waist-line, which gives tension to the whole side. The way the masses seem to urge forward is partly the effect of a slash that emphasises the arched waist-line.

The low, sleek roof forms a single whole with the sloping windscreen which defines the front volume.

The front and rear views are both marked by a hollow effect: the graphic treatment of both these volumes is enhanced by “boomerang” light clusters, inscribed like scratches inside a metal band.

18” alloy wheels also contribute to this sensation of sporty aggressiveness.

The interior

The layout of the passenger compartment of the Bertone Suagnà is the outcome of highly advanced ergonomic and volumetric studies, which aimed at achieving levels of roominess and onboard quality never seen before in a segment B coupé.

In just over 4 metres of length, the Bertone Suagnà provides four “proper” seats, which are comfortable and accessible, and it is currently the only segment B coupé-cabriolet to offer this amount of space, typical of a higher segment. The two front seats were defined to accommodate even large occupants (95 percentile), while the two rear seats provide plenty of room even at knee height, a fact that is unique on a segment B coupé-cabriolet.

From the viewpoint of styling, the interior furnishings of the Bertone Suagnà are fresh and elegant, creating a youthful, sporty ambience. The stylists focused on innovative materials, upholding a long-established Bertone tradition. The anatomical seats, designed specifically for this model, have differentiated upholstery: leather side strips with a specal “crumpled” effect, and a central strip in a luxurious “high-tech” fabric, which seems to be woven with intertwined aluminium. The graphics of the extremely sporty instrumentation reflect the car’s dynamic, sparkling image.

The roof system

The roof system of the Bertone Suagnà was designed and built in a short time by CTS, Car Top System, the German convertible specialist.

The roof system consists of a two piece retractable hard top. The main advantage of this roof concept with the steep backlite is that it makes the parcel shelf unnecessary.

Its distinguishing feature is the steep backlite that can be lowered independently of whether the roof is open or closed. It is thus possible to travel with the roof closed and the backlite lowered, so as to have a fresh air supply inside the cab. With the roof open, on the other hand, the backlite can be raised to serve as an antibuffet screen.