Giovanni Michelotti Remembered at Coppet

A personal tribute by Edgardo Michelotti recounting the 2023 Concours d'Élégance Suisse in Coppet, where collectors and enthusiasts gathered beside Lake Geneva to celebrate the centenary of Giovanni Michelotti through rare cars, original design artefacts and an intimate retrospective dedicated to one of Italy’s greatest automotive stylists. Words by Edgardo Michelotti

Photos and Drawings: Archivio Storico Michelotti www.archiviostoricomichelotti.it

There are places where the automobile transcends its mechanical nature and becomes culture, memory and human expression. In June 2023, the gardens of the magnificent Château de Coppet, overlooking Lake Geneva, offered precisely this atmosphere during the 2023 edition of the Concours d'Élégance Suisse.

From 16 to 18 June, collectors, historians and enthusiasts gathered among the historic lawns of Coppet to celebrate some of the rarest and most elegant automobiles ever created. Yet beyond the concours itself, the 2023 edition carried a particularly emotional meaning: the celebration of the centenary of the birth of Giovanni Michelotti.

Following the important tributes organised between 2021 and 2022 at the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile in Turin, at the DAF Museum and in Aigle, Switzerland, Coppet became another meaningful chapter in the remembrance of one of the most prolific and visionary automotive designers of the twentieth century.

The unique atmosphere of the château and its vast green park created an ideal setting for encounters and conversations. Unlike many modern concours events, the cars could be admired closely and naturally, without barriers, allowing visitors to rediscover the human dimension behind automotive design and craftsmanship.

A major exhibition area was dedicated entirely to Giovanni Michelotti’s work. At its centre stood one of the most extraordinary surviving testimonies of his creative process: the full-scale wooden buck of the final Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Spider designed by Michelotti between 1978 and 1979 for his friend Luigi Chinetti and the North American Racing Team.

This wooden form was used to shape three unique prototype cars, each distinguished only by its colour combination: one finished in Ferrari red, another in two-tone silver, and a third in light and dark blue. The presence of this rare artefact offered visitors an exceptional glimpse into the artisanal methods of Italian carrozzeria culture — a world where design still emerged from sculpted surfaces, craftsmanship and intuition.

More than ten cars designed by Giovanni Michelotti participated in the concours itself, spread across various competition categories. Together, they demonstrated the extraordinary breadth of his stylistic language, from refined grand tourers to compact city cars and imaginative prototypes.

Thanks to the generosity of the event’s patron and my personal friend, Mathias Doutreleau, a large exhibition space was also dedicated to an extensive series of illustrated panels retracing my father’s professional journey. Rather than presenting a conventional historical biography, I chose to let Giovanni Michelotti “speak” directly to the audience through his own words, captions and reflections on his approach to automotive design.

Visitors discovered the story of a man who began his career at Stabilimenti Farina before the Second World War, endured the difficult wartime years and then had the courage to become an independent freelance designer — the first in Italy, and perhaps in Europe, to offer automotive styling as an autonomous professional activity.

The exhibition explored his pioneering research into aerodynamics, safety concepts, urban mobility and vehicles designed for younger generations. Another section focused on prototypes and experimental studies, including the Chinetti project and the creation of the three Ferrari spiders illustrated through original photographs and technical materials.

The narrative then moved through the many production cars that carried Michelotti’s signature, before concluding with a more intimate portrait dedicated to the human side of his life: his family, his passion for sport, the warm relationship with his collaborators and the atmosphere inside the workshop he loved so deeply.

During the event, I also had the opportunity to hold a conference , sharing lesser-known aspects of his career together with personal memories and anecdotes from both his professional and private life. The response from enthusiasts and collectors was deeply moving. Many spent long periods studying the panels, discussing the projects and rediscovering the remarkable versatility of a designer whose contribution to automotive culture remains immense yet, perhaps, still underestimated today.

Among the Giovanni Michelotti-designed cars present at Coppet were:

Lancia B52 Vignale

Ferrari 330 Coupé NART Chinetti

Triumph TR5 Cabriolet (1968)

Morris Spiaggetta (1969)

Moretti 1500 Spider (1961)

Moretti Spider Tour de Monde (1958)

Fiat 600 Berlinetta Monterosa (1957)

Fiat 1100 (1953)

Fiat 1500 Allemano (1964)

Triumph Italia (1962)

Fiat 600 Coupé Viotti

Alfa Romeo 2000 Coupé Ghia Aigle

In a fitting conclusion to the weekend, the concours’ highest honour was awarded to the charming Morris Spiaggetta, a delightful example of Michelotti’s ability to combine elegance, creativity and playfulness in a single design.

More than a celebration of automobiles, Coppet became a celebration of ideas, friendships and artistic vision. For those few days beside Lake Geneva, Giovanni Michelotti’s spirit once again walked among the cars he imagined — not only as machines, but as living expressions of beauty and freedom.

About the Author Edgardo Michelotti was born in 1952. After obtaining a diploma as a surveyor, he pursued architectural studies in Turin before joining his father, the celebrated designer Giovanni Michelotti, in 1973. He worked alongside him until Michelotti’s illness and passing in early 1980, later continuing the activities of the studio until 1991, when he gradually moved away from the automotive sector. Over the following fifteen years, Edgardo Michelotti focused primarily on industrial design, while simultaneously cultivating a deep commitment to photography, historical preservation and archival research. Since 2003, he has dedicated himself extensively to the preservation, cataloguing and digitisation of the Giovanni Michelotti archive — an extraordinary body of material documenting more than three decades of automotive design history across the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The archive includes approximately 6,000 original design drawings, over 20,000 photographs, nearly 7,000 kilograms of full-scale body design plans, together with scale models, working tools, correspondence, technical documentation and period publications. Through this long-term preservation effort, Edgardo Michelotti continues to safeguard and promote one of the most significant creative legacies in post-war Italian automotive design.