{"id":499307,"date":"2021-07-06T19:09:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T02:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=120636"},"modified":"2024-12-27T00:37:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T00:37:35","slug":"bertones-charismatic-porsche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/bertones-charismatic-porsche\/","title":{"rendered":"1994 Porsche Karisma – Bertone\u2019s Charismatic Porsche"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Although marriages of Italian styling with German machinery are seen as a rarity, the clever way that Bertone clothed a Type 964 911 Carrera, in 1994, showed that creativity and ingenuity from Turin worked well on a chassis from Zuffenhausen.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The binomial of \u201cBertone Porsche\u201d is well remembered for the Italian designer\u2019s racy roadster on the 911 platform shown at Geneva in 1966. This was a wonderful interpretation of an open two-seater in the Italian idiom, commissioned from the Turin coachbuilder by California Porsche distributor John von Neumann. He saw it as having commercial potential that regrettably did not mature.<\/p>\n

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Bertone’s first efforts with the 911 platform went on display at the Geneva Motor Show in 1966.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Twenty-eight years later, Bertone returned to the theme of Porsche with a striking concept car that deserved both admiration and respect. Geneva was again the venue for its disclosure, in the 1994 Salon. The Karisma was noteworthy for its adoption of a full four-passenger package at a time when Porsche\u2019s abandonment of its own four-passenger project\u2014the 989\u2014was still bright in many memories.<\/p>\n

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Posed together in this dystopian landscape, Bertone\u2019s creation of the Lamborghini Marzal from 1966 looks as impractical as the Karisma of 1994 seems realistic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nuccio Bertone described his thinking in his choice of the project as follows: \u201cIn my entire career I have never wanted a concept car to disturb my competitors or the car manufacturers, who are also my clients. I do not want to be considered a man who gives lessons to others. So with Porsche having abandoned its own four-seater car project, and given that such a solution has never been tried with the rear-engined 911, I decided we could create the Karisma without disconcerting anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bertone posed with a drawing, a study model and the full-scale Karisma, built entirely in-house in steel to complete it in time for the Geneva Salon in March of 1994.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With work on the Karisma starting in April of 1993, the Type 964 version of the 911 was the basis for its creation. \u201cPorsche has no direct role,\u201d added Bertone. \u201cWe asked if it had anything like our project on the go and it said no. To be completely independent we bought a second-hand 911. I think that if we asked Porsche we probably would have had one for free. But we were looking for total creative freedom to be in the position to create a brand-new shape, a truly Bertone concept car and not just another face for the 911.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Describing his Karisma as a \u201csporty GT sedan with a well-defined tail,\u201d Nuccio Bertone created an unique and appealing exploitation of Porsche components.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

Bertone strode confidently into new territory. Porsche itself had struggled to create a full four-passenger rear-engined car at the end of the 1950s but finally balked at its implementation. Californian William Dick ordered up a four-door 911 that broke no new ground in the design sense. As Bertone said, combining a longer 911 platform with radical new styling was an opportunity waiting to be exploited.<\/p>\n

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An exposed fuel filler on its front deck was a beauty mark for the short-nosed Karisma, whose windscreen swept dramatically back into its roof.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Turin coachbuilder\u2019s record qualified him eminently for the job. \u201cWe have always given special attention to concept cars with midship or rear engines\u2014and not just two-seat coupes,\u201d the 80-year-old Bertone pointed out. \u201cWe\u2019ve done the celebrated Marzal and there\u2019s also another lesser-known concept car\u2014the Trapeze of 1973, powered with the NSU Ro80 rotary engine. It was time to do something around Porsche\u2019s lovely engine again.\u201d<\/p>\n