REPORT: Ferrari poaches new design director from Volkswagen
Few lines are as fluid as those between the Italian and German automobile industries. Executives seem to move back and forth between the two faster than the exotic supercars for which they're responsible, and all the more so when it comes to designers.
Frank Stephenson moved to Ferrari and on to the Fiat group after 11 years at BMW. Italian designer Walter de Silva cut his proverbial teeth at Fiat and Alfa Romeo before moving to Audi, where he also oversaw Lamborghini's design department – and he has since been promoted to head of design for the entire Volkswagen group. German-born, Italian-schooled Wolfgang Egger has similarly bounced back and forth between Alfa Romeo, VW and Lancia before succeeding de Silva as head of Audi and Lamborghini design. The list goes on and on, and if the latest reports from Italy are to be believed, you can now add to them one Flavio Manzoni.
As director of creative design in Wolfsburg, Manzoni was known as de Silva's right-hand man. But now he's said to be moving back to Italy to head up Ferrari's design department. If these reports are accurate, Manzoni will be replacing current Ferrari design director Donato Coco (who in turn replaced the aforementioned Stephenson), report directly to managing director Amedeo Felisa and work to establish a Ferrari style center to bring more of the design work, currently handled by Pininfarina, in-house.
[Source: Quattroroute via eurocarblog]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jake 9:23AM (9/30/2009)
I always wondered what happened to that guy who played Peter on the Brady Bunch.
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Bob 8:14PM (9/30/2009)
Un-uhh, that is David Wallace, Dunder-Mifflin is sure going to miss their CFO....
Jim R 9:45AM (9/30/2009)
Does this mean Ferrari's cars are going to stop looking like ass now? I hope so.
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BoxerFanatic 10:01AM (9/30/2009)
My sentiment, as well.
The 599, the California, and now the 458, all look disjointed, needlessly complicated, and cartoonish. All could have been toned down, and looked better with a bit more design conservatism... conserving the essential ferrari timelessness.
I like a good coke-bottle shaped car design... but the recent Ferraris that Pininfarina have done, have been taking that to the breaking point, with very narrow, far-forward waists... and very large hips at the rear fenders, and lots of slits and slats in odd places, and character lines that make the designs look busy.
Ferraris are supposed to be inherently well designed, and I think Pininfarina has jumped the shark a little bit, and gone too "art school", trying to make things different for the sake of being new, rather than creating more iterations of timeless design qualities.
zamafir 12:23PM (9/30/2009)
i'm with you both. having spent the weekend at the coronado speed fest admiring quite a few deliciously sculpted ferraris - the walk to the ferrari corral was depressing. especially with the utterly abysmal front on the F458 they really need to get back to designing cars which are unmistakably and unquestionably beautiful.
sparrk 9:53AM (9/30/2009)
i guess after they saw how ugly the F458 turned out, Ferrari decided to finally design their own cars. this can be a good thing.
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Aeromax 11:32AM (9/30/2009)
Bring back Scagglietti.
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txdesign 11:45AM (9/30/2009)
Where did Frank Stepehnson go? Maybe he could freelance with BMW on the 3rd gen Mini design. BMW's 07 redesign was such a disappointment after his beautiful original version.
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Aeromax 12:42PM (9/30/2009)
Amen. I have the 02' R53 Mini. BMW didn't really go anywhere with the new facelift. Most people I spoke to about it didn't even know they changed it, so it's not like anyone actually cared. The design could have lived much longer and the car would have continued to sell itself IMO.
I hate the new design juuust enough not to consider a Mini a second time around.
txdesign 3:16PM (9/30/2009)
I wonder if it will be bigger still forcing BMW to change the name from Mini to Just Small.
Giordi 3:26PM (9/30/2009)
Just one thing on Mr Manzoni.
I met him at a major motor show (maybe Geneva) while Lancia was presenting the new Fulvia prototype (probably the prettiest Lancia in decades), which I think Manzoni designed all alone in his spare time.
I approached him to shake his hands a few minutes after the unveiling of the car and said something about how I loved the original Fulvia.
He opened his laptop, seated on the stairs with me and another few enthusiast and spent some 30 minutes showing and explaining his designs, his love for old cars, and all the technicals that went in that gorgeous prototype.
He couldn't care less about journalists and vips: he just loved to talk about his work and cars in general with other like minded "car guys".
A real petrolhead: can't wait to see his work at Ferrari!!
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Etienne79 6:32PM (9/30/2009)
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! How come Ferrari took a design guy from the most boring-looking company in the world!?!?!? The GTI looks like a '93 civic, the Jetta is soporific, the Beetle is the only neo-retro car in the world that isn't cool anymore... Man that company sucks on design! (and reliability...) Only the Passat CC haes an interesting look, but that is not up to it's price.
How comes the most excentric car company in the world ask for design clues from the most boring one?
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