Sergio Sartorelli


Sergio Sartorelli was a noted Italian automotive designer and engineer.
During his career at Carrozzeria Ghia, OSI, and finally Fiat, Sartorelli became widely known for his work on the Fiat 2300 S Coupé, Karmann Ghia Type 34, and the Fiat 126.
He was the honorary president of the Italian Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Club.

Background

As a young teen, Sartorelli had a passion for cars, trucks, trains, and even military vehicles. To mentally escape the depth of World War II, he spent his time filling school notebooks with sketches and building scale wooden models of cars.
After the war he earned a degree in mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin in 1954, followed by 18 months of Military Service in as a cartographer. During his military service, he continued to sketch for Carrozzeria Boano.
After his military service, he was turned down by Boano and Pininfarina, but in 1956 was hired by Ing. Giovanni Savonuzzi at Ghia.

Career

Sergio Sartorelli's career at Ghia rose quickly when in 1957, engineer Savonuzzi left Ghia for Chrysler, Sartorelli became Head of the Style Prototypes. After the sudden death of Luigi Segre, owner and chief stylist of Carrozzeria Ghia, Sartorelli left Ghia.
Officine Stampaggi Industriali was set up as a parallel and complementary company to Ghia and it was part owned by Luigi Segre. With the death of Segre the partnership disappeared and OSI was left with no styling department. After two years of a freelance relationship with Michelotti, OSI set up its own styling department called Centro Stile e Esperienze OSI, and appointed Sergio Sartorelli as its director. This arrangement lasted from 1965 until December 1967 when OSI reorganized.
In 1968 what was left of Centro Stile e Esperienze OSI, became the Future Studies department at Centro Stile Fiat with Sergio Sartorelli as its head, it was entrusted with the study of design, automotive development, and modeling of prototypes for Fiat.
By 1984 with the car market in crisis, Fiat let Sergio Sartorelli go, and he retired from his design career.

Design work

Sergio Sartorelli's design work included:
YearModelFirmNotes
1957Volkswagen 1200 BeetleGhiaprototype for Beetle replacement
1957Fiat 1100/103 Coupe, Cabriolet, GiardinettaGhia1957 Turin Motor Show
1957Ghia Crown Imperial limousineGhia1957-1963 collaboration with Chrysler Corp. design team
1959Karmann-Ghia Coupe Type 14Ghiastyling update
1959Ghia Selene IGhiadesigned with Tom Tjaarda
1960Fiat 2300 S CoupéGhiaproduction model debut at 1961 Geneva Motor Show
1960Karmann-Ghia Coupe 1500 Type 34Ghia1961 debut, Frankfurt motor show
1961Maserati 5000 GT GhiaGhiaone-off for Ferdinando Innocenti
1963Fiat G230SGhiaprototype introduced at Turin Motor Show
1965OSI-Ford 20 M TS Coupé and SpiderOSIProduced from 1966 to 1968, only one Spider was made.
1972Fiat 126Fiatreplacement for Fiat 500 introduced at Turin Motor Show
1978Fiat RitmoFiatintroduced at 1978 Turin Motor Show to replace Fiat 128