Exclusive: Roberto Giolito on the Fiat ESV 1500
In Part 1 of this series, Fiat’s design maestro takes CDN on a tour of his favourite designs in the Fiat Heritage Hub in Turin
Fiat recently opened a dedicated space called the Heritage Hub at its historic Mirafiori manufacturing site in Turin where it now keeps examples of its most important – and sometimes highly unusual – cars from a 120-year back catalogue. Every marque under the Fiat Group umbrella is represented (except Maserati which has its own place in Modena), equating to some 250 cars from Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Lancia, spread out in some style and with room to breathe, across the 15,000 sq ft facility. Beyond the rows of classics lined up by brand, there are also mixed-marque selections grouped by theme, from record-breaking prototypes to style and rally thoroughbreds.
As the Hub is situated inside the security gates of the wider Fiat Complex – including the Centro Stile design department just down the road – public access has been limited so far, but guided tours to open up the archive to a wider audience are planned. “The way it is curated is not so much as a museum, where there is a path and you’re locked in. You’re free to roam,” enthuses Klaus Busse, head of design for Fiat, Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Lancia. “I’m there at least once a week, because there’s just so much to see, so much inspiration. And when I say ‘inspiration’, it’s not about a certain line I want to take to a new car, it’s about seeing the creativity of those days that pushes me to get to the office and work. It’s a wonderful place to just re-charge.”
Prior to that wider access, Car Design News got the chance of a whistle-stop tour of the new space with former Fiat design boss and now head of the Heritage Hub, Roberto Giolito, pointing out some of his favourites and indeed a few secrets of his own designs also on display. First up in our small series, is the curious Fiat 1500 ESV which, aside from exploring rudimentary rubber safety bumpers in the early 1970s, also has a remarkable resemblance to the 1999 Ford 021C by acclaimed product designer Marc Newson. This is especially evident in the lime green version re-painted for the 2000 Milan furniture fair (the original orange shown at the 1999 Tokyo motorshow gave the car its name, after the Pantone colour reference)…
Anyway, Giolito doesn’t suggest any direct influence on Newson’s part, merely noting that he had read that Newson was inspired by his childhood memories in Australia of simple three-box car shapes and believing “that a three-box should remain a three-box.”
The ESV 1500 is squarely in that category, but it is its collision mitigation features that are more interesting from a design perspective. Named after the acronym ‘Experimental Safety Vehicle’ and its weight in pounds (which equates to about 680kg) the ESV 1500 was the result of new safety research, thus “the massive and rubberised bumpers, calculated by engineers,” Giolito says with a smile. These extensions to the front, back and sides of the car do add a brutal graphic interest though, as Giolito concedes, “it’s moving on from the archetype of the 850 and also the 126, the redesign of the 500”. The ESV 1500 is also fascinating from an interior perspective. Note the Alcantara-like covered instrument panel divided into stylish vertical sections. “It was designed to reduce facial impact, as it doesn’t have any sharp edges,” Giolito explains. “The ESV was also one of the first with unified seats with integrated headrests.” All in all, a highly intriguing prototype and one of dozens at Fiat’s Hub.
