Huh? Italian city car and Swedish truck
An Italian city car that came on the market in 1980 and a Swedish truck that appeared in the same year… so? Well, if you know, you see it! They are both designed by the Italian grandmaster Giugiaro.
The 70s and 80s were perhaps the glory years of Giorgetto Giugiaro. The Italian who founded Italdesign is known to everyone for the Alfasud, the derived Sprint and the larger Alfa Romeo’s Alfetta GT and the GTV. Of course, Giorgetto Giugiaro always comes up again when it comes to the first Volkswagen Golf, and other early front-wheel drive cars of that brand such as the Passat and the Scirocco, the same goes for Audis from that time. We can go on for a while, because he is also the man who designed the Lotus Esprit, the Hyundai Pony and the first Lancia Delta. The latter was named Car of the Year 1980, which was really a top year for Giugiaro. The Fiat Panda is simply one of his greatest masterpieces.
Now we at AutoWeek are not so much into trucks, but the Scania 2-series, of which the 142 with its more than 14-liter V8 was the top model, also comes from his hand and is also seen as an icon in trucker circles. In the AI-flanged picture above this article you can see the similarities even without any design knowledge: the straight lines so often used by Giugiaro. The 142 succeeded the Scania 141, and the 2-series also consisted of the lighter Scania’s 82, 92 and 112, all with the same design but the size of the cabin and engine differed.
Giugiaro also designed more trucks
The Scania 2-series is not the only truck that sprang from the Italian’s pencil. In 1981, he was allowed to work for DAF Trucks to design a successor to the Daf 2800 (F241 in code language).
The beginning of that project, in which DAF cooperated with the Spanish Pegaso, originated on the drawing board of Italdesign. The sketches can currently be seen in the Daf museum and are also in a container about Daf design, which is currently on display in the museum in Eindhoven. Ultimately, John de Vries (who recently passed away), who also designed the Volvo 480, took over the design for what would eventually become the Daf 95. Because DAF saw the need to open its own design center in the early 1980s, which in 1987 led to the 95 further designed by De Vries. Giugiaro’s Italdesign did come up with its own Pegaso design for the Troner, the Spanish version of the Daf 95 cabin, which was above its own technology of that truck brand.
Daf 95 design sketch.
There are more great car designers who designed trucks
The original Fiat Panda and the Scania 142 are from the same designer, the Volvo 480 and the Daf 95 (with a touch of Giugiaro) as well, but did you know that the first Renault Clio and the distinctive Renault Magnum are also from the same drawing hand? Those were well-designed, very modern for 1990, designs by Robert Opron. Also such an iconic designer!