I think you are under-selling the FIAT engineering involved. FIAT did the detail engineering. Bertone was a coachbuilder [just bodywork] as evidenced by their entire portfolio. It was not the case of engineers at Bertone doing all the design using the FIAT parts bin. It was FIAT engineering doing the detail design using the FIAT parts bin in cooperation with Bertone body shop. And that is no bad thing. FIAT were at the top of their game during this period.
Really a some what combo of Bertone & Fiat, some of the oily bits were Fiat (power train), many parts on the exxe are specific to the exxe but were also Bertone stock bits like the engine cover/trunk release was also used on other Bertone cars (Lambo, Lancia and ..). exxe clutch master cylinder was used on the Lancia Stratos and more. Items like this were easy and properly applied to other designs as needed. Much was learned by the folks at Bertone during the Lambo Miura journey, from cooling, aero, chassis dynamics, packaging and more.. It was the Miura experience that allowed the folks at Bertone to do the exxe with help from Fiat engineering to make up for other parts of the design.. Cooling was one of the prime challenges with the Miura, the crew worked hard to figure out how to cool a mid-engine car.. it was not easy, plenty of road and aero wind tunnel testing was done to figure this out. What was learned got applied to cooling the exxe.. This is just one aspect of design that was shared.
As for aero, Bertone was deep into aero early on, notable were the Alfa Romeo BAT series of cars that were essentially aero studies..
Simply some of the most stunning cars to ever see roads... We look at the superb Four Chapters in The Alfa Romeo B.A.T. Collection.
monochrome-watches.com
Then there was Marcello Gandini, designer at Bertone that penned the Miura, exxe and many others...
Often never considered about European cars from that era.. Most of Europe was still recovering from the devastation of WW-II, Post WW-II personal transportation needs were a given even with the European goal of mass transit that worked excellent. Due to the post WW-II economy, low cost motos were a must. This resulted in motos like the-
BMW isetta:
Messerschmitt KR200:
Specifications Engine: 191 cc One-Cylinder Horsepower: 9.5 @ 5250 RPM Top Speed: 62 MPH Transmission: Four-Speed Manual Weight: 390 lbs. Following Germany’s defeat in World War II, German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt was temporarily banned from producing aircraft – so designer a
www.audrainautomuseum.org
Renualt 4cv:
Specifications Engine: 747 cc Inline-Four Cylinder Horsepower: 21 @ 4100 RPM Torque: 33 lbs/ft @ 2000 RPM Top Speed: 59 MPH Transmission: Three-Speed Manual Weight: 1200 lbs. During the World War II German occupation of France, Renault was under strict instruction to design and produce o
www.audrainautomuseum.org
Citroen 2cv (really excellent design, product of French farmers & eggs to market):
Tatra 97 ( where the VW beetle came from, plagiarized by Prof Porsche, then sued and lost the legal dispute)
Design of the T-97 was finalized by Erich Ledwinka, one of Hans Ledwinka’s sons, and was developed alongside the T-87. It was in effect a slightly scaled down version of the T-87 and was almost identical in style. The most obvious styling difference between the two models is the lack of the...
www.lanemotormuseum.org
Fiat 500/Topolino:
Fiat 500 Topolino
www.autozine.org
UK mini (now BMW):
www.bmwgroup-classic.com
And a host of "eastern European cars"
~Keep in mind most of Europe had no vintage Dino juice to burn.. mandating small displacement motors, small motos with packaging efficiency as a must, cost of running and ownership low as a post WW-II requirement. This is one of the reasons why Italy had a harsh displacement tax for over 1600cc motos, while the Brits taxed on bore diameter..
While all this was happening as the European reality.. USA with vintage Dino juice to burn, full speed industry from WW-II production and plenty of natural resources coupled with a fondness of BIG motos and related wretched excess shifted industry to producing BIG cars with bright chrome, big motors total isolation "floating" suspension with way under sized brakes and rolling luxury living room design goals were the thing..
National culture, resources, industry, economics, politics and more all figure into and drives moto designs..
So, before condemning a given moto design.. take all this into account on top of the actual design/engineering/production of the target moto..
Bernice
