Speaking at the opening of the exhibition on 2 December, Mario Marangoni, president, Marangoni Group, said: "For over 50 years, our Group has believed in tyres and has educated its people and developed new technologies to be able to handle every aspect and every phase of a tyre’s life cycle."
Today, the Marangoni Group is one of few companies worldwide to fully embrace the tyre product. Strongly integrated activities cover the entire life cycle of this product in different sectors of the market: from the production of machinery and technology for the tyre industry, to the development of advanced systems for tyre retreading, to the production of new tyres – for industrial vehicles as well as passenger cars – to their retreading. The commercialisation of these products occurs thanks to branch offices and distributors all over the world, not to mention a direct distribution network in Italy. The final phase of this cycle is represented by the production of clean energy through the combustion of worn tyres.
The history of car design exhibition will focus on major innovations in aesthetics and technology. It starts with the earliest models – on display will be the first car ever made with an internal combustion engine, the Benz Dreirad of 1886 – and stretches forward to the present day and beyond.
The cars on view are those of the great European and American manufacturers, including Alfa Romeo, BMW, Bugatti, Chevrolet, Chrysler, CitroËn, Ferrari, Fiat, Ford, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Lancia, Lotus, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Mini, Nissan, Pagani, Peugeot, Porsche, Renault, Rolls-Royce, Saab, Smart, Tatra, Volkswagen. These will be accompanied by cars made by long-gone manufacturers, such as Cisitalia, Jamais Contente, Hanomag, Iso Rivolta, Isotta Fraschini, Messerschmitt, NSU, Studebaker, Trabant, Voisin. Loaned from museums and private collections around the world, some of these models are on display to the public for the very first time. A considerable part of the material on display is normally stored in the manufacturers’ archives and in private collections.
Above all, however, all 70 cars chosen are aesthetic archetypes of the 20th century, cars that have achieved the status of cult objects. The Volkswagen Beetle of 1938, Giugiaro’s Golf of 1974 and the Fiat Cinquecento of 1957, for example, have all made their mark on the history of design, as regards mass-produced cars.
The classical ideal of absolute beauty is another feature of the exhibition: cars such as the Alfa Romeo Flying Star Touring of 1931, the Isotta Fraschini 8A SS Torpedo sport Sala of 1927, the Bugatti T46 Coach Profile of 1933 and the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B lungo of 1938 are represented.
The list is too long to reproduce in full, but among the iconic exhibits are saloon cars like the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud of 1959, convertibles such as the Maserati 3500 GT of 1959 or the Chevrolet Corvette of 1959, as well as coupÉs like the 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing and the Porsche 356 of 1948.
