A concept suspended between the land and the sea. This is the Bertone Runaboutor Autobianchi Runabout as it should be called due to the brand with the stylized A present on the pointed front. Slightly smaller, however, is Bertone’s B which appears on the side divided in two by a hypothetical waterline.
The 1969 Runabout was indeed a dream of Marcello Gandini which combined car and motorboat (the English word “runabout” indicates both a compact pleasure or racing boat popular in the 1960s and a completely open car typical of the early twentieth century).
Today, although almost forgotten by many, it still exists and is in perfect shape, carefully preserved in the ASI Bertone Collection. To celebrate the anniversary of its debut at the 1969 Turin Motor Show, a dedicated team of engineers and designers is working on a new Bertone Runabout which will be revealed at the end of October.
The unmistakable touch of Marcello Gandini
The style of the Runabout is typical of Marcello Gandini of the period, made of cuneiform linesrounded wheel arches and vertical tail “mirrors”. Just to remember two similar works of his from the period we can mention the Lancia Stratos HF and the Lamborghini Countach of 1971, the NSU Trapeze of 1973.
The 1972 Fiat
The Runabout has the Fiat 128 engine
The engine is that of the Fiat 128
The two-seater designed by Bertone has no windscreen or roof, just a small front deflector and the headlights have also been moved, to clean up the line, to the outermost area of the massive roll cage. Additional headlights are however present in the lower part of the front.
As mentioned, the starting point of the Runabout is the Autobianchi A112, the Italian answer to the English Mini, but the mechanics are completely changed. Engine and front-wheel drive transform into mid-engine and rear-wheel drive, but it is the 1.1-litre 4-cylinder of the Fiat 128.
Bertone Autobianchi Runabout
