It’s not just you guys who go on vacation, the bosses go further and further away. Kazunori Yamauchi enjoys himself every year at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the culmination of the motorsport event in the small Californian town. One more year he awards the Gran Turismo prize that anticipates its arrival in the latest title of the saga. The game is available on PS4 and PlayStation 5 from March 4, 2022.
At the 71st Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Gran Turismo series producer Kazunori Yamauchi awarded the Gran Turismo trophy to the 1969 Autobianchi 112 Bertone Concept Car.
In 1967 designer Pio Manzù showed his mid-engined Prototipo 111 based on the transverse powertrain from the Autobianchi A111 sedan, and one year later displayed his Autobianchi Coupé at the Turin Auto Show. A similar design that used the powertrain from the Autobianchi Primula was done by Dante Giacosa at Società industriale ricerche automobilistiche (SIRA – Automotive Industry Research Company), with initial fabrication done by OSI, and a full prototype called the G31 built later by Centro Stylo Fiat in 1969.
The Autobianchi A112 Runabout was designed by Marcello Gandini at Bertone. This small barchetta used the same transverse mid-engine layout as the much larger and more exotic Lamborghini Miura of 1966, which had also been designed by Gandini. The Runabout also exhibited the pronounced wedge shaped profile that would distinguish many of Gandini’s designs from this time, including the 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo.
With Fiat planning the end of the Fiat 850 product line, Bertone needed a car to replace the 850 Spider that it was building for Fiat at their Grugliasco factory. Around this time there was also growing concern that the United States would shortly implement rollover safety requirements that would effectively ban traditional convertibles.
The Runabout, with chassis number 41258, debuted at the 1969 Turin Auto Show, which ran from 29 October 1969 to 9 November 1969.
Gianni Agnelli saw the Runabout in 1971, and approved developing it into the X1/9.
In September 2015 ownership of the Runabout passed to Automotoclub Storico Italiano (ASI – “Italian Historical Automobile Club”), when the club acquired the Bertone Carrozzeria collection.
More information at its wikipedia page.
