Giovanni Michelotti was born in Turin in 1921 and worked for coachbuilders including Stabilimenti Farina, Vignale, Allemano, Bertone and Ghia before opening his own design studio in 1959. From 1962 he ended his cooperation with Vignale and began coachbuilding on his own account. His designs included Ferraris, Maseratis, Lancias and Alfa Romeos.
From the late 1950s he was responsible for all the new models produced by Standard-Triumph, beginning with a facelift of the Standard Vanguard. Triumph’s Herald, Spitfire, GT6, TR4, 2000, 1300, Vitesse, Stag and Dolomite all came from his studio, along with the Italia 2000 coupé and prototypes such as the Fury. The only Triumphs after 1960 that were not his work were the TR6, the TR7 and the Honda-based Acclaim.
He also worked for British Leyland after the merger, restyling the BMC 1100 and designing the Leyland National bus and the Australian Leyland P76. For BMW he designed the 700 and the New Class cars, including the 2002, and for the Dutch firm DAF the 33, 44 and their successors, which became the Volvo 66. Asked late in life whether he had ever designed anything other than cars, he could only recall a coffee-making machine.
