Paolo Martin (born 1943) is an Italian

car designer Automotive design is the process of developing the appearance (and to some extent the ergonomics) of motor vehicles - including automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, coaches, and vans. The functional design and development of a modern motor ...

widely known for his career with Studio Tecnico Michelotti, Carrozzeria Bertone,

Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (short for Carrozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 December 2015, the Indian ...

and

De Tomaso De Tomaso Automobili ltd. (previously known as De Tomaso Modena SpA) is an Italian car-manufacturing company. It was founded by the Argentine-born Alejandro de Tomaso (1928–2003) in Modena in 1959. It originally produced various prototypes and ...

/ Ghia where he styled the ''Ferrari Dino Berlinetta Competizione'', Ferrari Modulo concept, Fiat 130 Coupé and the Rolls-Royce Camargue.

Background and career

Born in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in 1943, Martin began working in 1960 for Giovanni Michelotti's ''Studio Tecnico Michelotti''. In 1967, he started to work for Carrozzeria Bertone, and one year later, in 1968 he became Chief of the Styling Department at Carrozzeria Pininfarina. He subsequently worked for

(1972–76), where he was Style Center Director for Ghia. Martin's work has included motorcycle and boat design, as well as automotive projects for

Stutz The Stutz Motor Car Company, was an American producer of high-end sports and luxury cars based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Production began in 1911 and ended in 1935. Stutz was known as a producer of fast cars including America's first spo ...

Bugatti Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a German then French manufacturer of high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then- German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the Italian-born industrial designer Ettore Bugatti. The ca ...

, Ferrari,

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." ...

as well as Triumph. Since 1976 he has headed a

-based independent design consultancy, with clients including Fiat, Nissan, BMW, Subaru,

Piaggio Piaggio & C. SpA (Piaggio ) is an Italian motor vehicle manufacturer, which produces a range of two-wheeled motor vehicles and compact commercial vehicles under seven brands: Piaggio, Vespa, Gilera, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Derbi, and Scarabeo. ...

, Moto Guzzi, Gilera, Ferretti Kraft, Cigarette, Magnum Marine and

Dassault Aviation Dassault Aviation SA () is a French manufacturer of military aircraft and business jets. It was founded in 1929 by Marcel Bloch as Société des Avions Marcel Bloch or "MB". After World War II, Marcel Bloch changed his name to Marcel D ...

. He participated in the Auto 2011 Design Conference, in

Zagreb, Croatia Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slove ...

Design work

Martin's work has received varied reception. In 2005, the Daily Telegraph called the Fiat 130 Coupé a "majestic blend of severity and grace, boldness and subtlety, sharp angles joined by soft curves, a true catwalk beauty, a masterclass that was widely copied in the Seventies but never equaled." After its debut at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show, the Ferrari Modulo went on to be shown (repainted white, from its original black) at the 1970 Turin Motor Show and at Osaka's

Expo '70 The or Expo 70 was a world's fair held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, Japan between March 15 and September 13, 1970. Its theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese, Expo '70 is often referred to as . It was the first world's fa ...

, before winning 22 international design awards. A 2007 retrospective said the ''Modulo'' was "a milestone in the automobile design history with a deep influence on the 1970′s car styling." In 2008, Car Design News called the Modulo "''iconic''". The Modulo placed third in Jalopnik's 2008 competition for the top ten best "Wedge Car Designs Of The 60s, 70s and 80s." By contrast, the

Rolls Royce Camargue The Rolls-Royce Camargue is a 2-door luxury saloon manufactured and marketed by Rolls-Royce Motors from 1975–1986. Designed by Paolo Martin at Pininfarina, the Camargue was the first post-war production Rolls-Royce not designed in-house (n ...

ranked in 2010 as one of the "''10 Worst Cars"'' as chosen by readers of '' The Globe and Mail''; ranked 38 in the 2005 book ''Crap Cars'' by Richard Porter (the author saying the car "looked utterly terrible)" and ranked 92 in a 2008 poll of the 100 ugliest cars of all time by readers of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''.

Autoblog A spam blog, also known as an auto blog or the neologism splog, is a blog which the author uses to promote affiliated websites, to increase the search engine rankings of associated sites or to simply sell links/ads. The purpose of a splog can be ...

said the Camargue had been ranked "conspicuously low on the list," adding the Camargue "really was horrid, no matter how well it sold." Responding to the ''Telegraph'' list, noted automotive journalist

James May James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter of the motoring programme ''Top Gear'' alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond from 2003 until 2015. He also s ...

said the Camargue "is not ugly, either. It has presence, like that pug-faced but well-dressed bloke down the pub."

Series production designs

Martin's design work that has seen series production includes: * Triumph Spitfire (with Giovanni Michelotti) * Fiat 130 Coupé Fiat 130 Coupè
. Paolo Martin Designer, retrieved April 1, 2008 * Rolls-Royce Camargue * Peugeot 104 * Lancia Beta Montecarlo * Stutz Motor Company IV-Porte and Stutz Royale

Concept designs

His concept design work has included: * Dino Berlinetta Competizione (1967) * BMC 1800 Aerodinamica (1967) * Fiat Dino Parigi (1967) * Bentley T1 Pininfarina Coupé Speciale (1968) * Alfa Romeo P33 Roadster (1968, later rebodied), *Fiat Dino Ginevra (1968) *BLMC 1100 (1968) *

Fiat 128 The Fiat 128 is a transverse front-engine, front wheel drive small family car manufactured and marketed by Fiat from 1969 to 1985 as a two- or four-door sedan, three- or five-door station wagon as well as two- or three-door coupé. The 128 runn ...

Teenager (1969) * Ferrari Sigma (1969) * Ferrari Modulo (1970) * Alfa Romeo P33 Cuneo (1971) *NSU Ro 80 (1971) *Ford Fiesta Blue Car (1972, Ghia) *Fiat Gobi (1984, Maggiora) *Fiat Halley (1985, Maggiora) *Nissan Hurricane Li-Ion (1986) *Fiat Freely Savio (1987, Carrozzeria Savio) *Fiat Topolino Concept (2008, for ''Ruoteclassiche Italian'' magazine) *Citroen 2CV Concept (2008).

References

External links

*
Video: Paolo Martin, sketches from the 1980s

Video: Paolo Martin completing a car rendering with Künstler chalks and markers on Canson cardboard

Design: Sketches by Paul Martin for Giovanni Michelotti (1961-1966)
(translated from Italian) *

* ttp://www.carstyling.ru/en/cars.1970_Ferrari_Modulo.html 1970 Ferrari Modulo {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Paolo 1943 births Living people Italian automobile designers Automotive engineers from Turin Ferrari people