Giorgetto Giugiaro rides into the sunset and signs off

It must be noted with some sadness that Giorgetto Giugiaro has resigned from Italdesign Giugiaro SpA, the styling and engineering company he founded in 1968. He will be best remembered as one of the driving forces behind the design of the original Volkswagen Golf and the Lotus Esprit S1.

Giugiaro announced last week in an emailed statement that he and Fabrizio have resigned from the Italdesign Giugiaro board. He also relinquished his position of honorary chairman, the statement added.

It was five years ago that Giugiaro sold a 90.1% stake in the company to Volkswagen Group subsidiary Audi, retaining a 9.9% stake for himself and his son, Fabrizio. That remaining stake was sold to Audi last week.

Officially, Italdesign Giugiaro issued a statement stating that Giorgetto Giugiaro is “dedicating more time to his personal interests,” and that the change “won’t influence” the development of the company, which is on a “growth path.” The statement goes on to say that the company has hired 250 additional employees since the 2010 takeover.

Giorgetto Giugiaro is truly a one-off. He started his career at Fiat when he was 17 years old, and worked at Turin-based coachbuilders Bertone and Ghia before starting his own company. Italdesign Giugiaro was unique from its inception as it provided design, engineering, prototyping and testing services to carmakers, but left the manufacturing to the customer.

In a glittering career that has spanned nearly 60 years, Giugiaro left an indelible mark on at least 100 production cars, including the first-generation of iconic vehicles such as the Golf, Fiat Panda, Punto and the Audi 80. He also played a big role in setting the stage for influential sport cars such as the Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT and Brera, De Tomaso Mangusta, Lotus Esprit, Maserati Ghibli and Bora.

In 2000, he was named Car Designer of the Century by the jury of the Car of the Century awards, and he was also one of the 13 charter inductees in the European Automotive Hall of Fame in Geneva, a year later.

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