Bertone Ramarro: Forgotten Concept

Forgotten Concepts, Forgotten Concepts This is an installment in a series of posts looking back on show cars that we feel deserved a little more attention than they got. If you have a suggestion for a Forgotten Concept topic, please shoot us a line or leave a comment below.

Bertone Ramarro

First Shown: 1984 Los Angeles Auto Show

Description: Corvette-based sports car

Sales Pitch: “(Gives) the Chevrolet Corvette an entirely new personality.”

More Forgotten Concepts

Details:

First seen at the 1984 Los Angeles Auto Show, the Bertone Rammaro Concept earned praise for its clean, aerodynamic design and rethinking of what of what a modern sports car should look like. Commissioned by Nuccio Bertone, then head of Turin, Italy-base design house Gruppo Bertone, the Rammaro was created primarily to remind the public that the company was a premier player in vehicle style.

Based on the fourth-generation Chevrolet Corvette (C4) which debuted for 1984, the Ramarro borrowed the sports car’s chassis and drivetrain, including the port-injected 5.7-liter V8 first seen in the 1985 car, but featured significantly reduced front and rear overhangs, and was more than 14 inches shorter overall. Among the Ramarro’s most compelling features are its sliding side doors, which operated in more-or-less the opposite fashion of minivan side doors.

The Ramarro was awarded Auto & Design‘s Car Design Award for its “bold ideas,” which judges said gave the Corvette, “An entirely new personality.” Ramarro is Italian for “green lizard,” which seems to describe the concept car’s color better than its shape.

Exclusively a Bertone project, the Ramarro Concept was designed and built without assistance or input from Chevrolet.

Forgotten Concept: Chrysler Phaeton

CG Says:

When I think about vehicles that define classic Eighties automotive design, I think about the Ramarro. The strong straight lines and stubby overhangs are absolutely of the era, and those wheels are fabulous.

Sadly, nothing came of the Ramarro, nor was anything supposed to. The folks at Bertone simply wanted to remind buyers—and carmakers—that the company was still ready to help draw the next great sports car. And, we were grateful for the reminder.

Forgotten Concept: Dodge Super8 Hemi