A photo, taken by Stutz mechanic Dan Steckler, showed the assembly line at the Carrozzeria Saturn, but surprisingly behind the Stutz was a minibus.
Dan Steckler Collection
It was quite challenging to find out what kind of car was produced next to the Stutz Blackhawk.
We found out that it is a minivan, designed by Bertone.
Well, it was Marcello Gandini, then head of design at Bertone, more famous for his Lamborghini Miura or Countach.
In 1975, the car was introduced at the Motor Show of Turin, Italy.
No idea if Fiat asked for it or if Bertone just wanted to show a concept for a modern minibus.
Fact is that Fiat ordered a small number of these cars, they needed some visitor buses for their factory (factories?).
The original color scheme, like on this bus, was very fancy, supporting the design elements.
These photos were taken in November 2018, at the Swiss "Verkehrshaus Museum Luzern", when a special exhibition featured the Italian Design of the 1970's. The car comes from the Corrado Lopresto Collection.
The Visitors Bus is based on the quite old fashioned Fiat 850T, which debuted in 1964.
Here is a luxury version of 1975, with double headlights. The earlier models still showed chrome instead of plastic as radiator-grill.
In early 2019, I saw another of these rare Fiat Visitors Buses, not showing the original colors anymore.
One design-element are the large windows, including a glass-roof.
The interieur was quite luxury (to impress the visitors).
Six doors make it easy to enter one of the six seats.
Due to the "glass-house" (some sort of a greenhouse...) the car has two air-conditions.
No real bumpers, instead a metal-stripe surrounds the car, even on this resprayed example in a different color than the rest. Next to the task to protect the body it lowers the beltline.
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Carrozzeria Saturn
Carrozzeria Padane
