Franco Scaglione

Franco Scaglione (September 16 1916 - June 19 1997) was an Italian automotive designer, famous for his aerodynamic B.A.T. (Berlina Aerodynamica Technica) designs while working for Bertone.

Scaglione was born in Florence. His studies of aeronautical engineering were interrupted by World War II, after which he started working for Pininfarina, but soon was employed by Bertone.

His first design with Nuccio Bertone was the 1952 Abarth 1500 Biposto Coupé displayed at the 1952 Salone dell'automobile di Torino.

The Alfa Romeo 1900 B.A.T. 5, 7 and 9 models were shown at the same show in the subsequent years (1953, 1954, 1955), as well as the Arnolt-Aston Martin DB2/4 spider prototype (New York Auto Show, 1954) and Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva (1954). He also designed the 1953 Arnolt Bristol and the NSU Sport Prinz 1959.

He was central to the design of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint production model - one of the most significant post-war Italian cars for having revived Alfa Romeo with an attractive high-volume coupe' which firmly established Bertone as a coachbuilder with significant volume. In 1959, he was followed at Bertone by Giorgietto Giugiaro.

Scaglione went on to design the Porsche 356-derived Porsche-Abarth Carrera GTL (1959).

He penned the Lamborghini 350GTV (1963) and the ATS 2500 GT (1964).

His design of the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1967) is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful cars in the world.

He consulted for Frank Reisner's Intermeccanica, for which he refined the designs of the Apollo GT (1961), and «Italia GFX» (1966), and designed the Titania Veltro (1966), Murena 429GT, and what was to become his last design, the Indra (1971).