[ DNA ]
The Spadaconcept has its origins in one of the most important car designers ever: Ercole Spada. He was born in 1937 in Busto Arsizio (Varese): passionate about cars and design since childhood, he graduated as an industrial expert in 1956 and four years later he joined Zagato. At only 20 years old Ercole Spada begins to be known in the car design environment thanks to two projects that symbolize his stylistic philosophy, based on lightness and aerodynamics: the Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ and the Aston Martin DB4 GTZ, of the latter have built only 25 pieces and the value exceeds 10 million euros.
In the 60s he took care of the iconic cars of Alfa Romeo and Lancia signed Zagato, starting with the Alfa Romeo 2600 SZ and the Lancia Flavia Sport in '62, in 1963 it’s up to the Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ and TZ 2 and the Lancia Flaminia Super Sport, in 1965 the Lancia Fulvia Sport is introduced while four years later the Alfa Romeo Junior Z arrives in the list. After a short period in Audi Spada is called by BMW and in the early 80s contributes to the creation of two very important cars of the Bavarian brand: the 3rd generation of the 5 series and the 2nd generation of the 7 series.
Ercole returned to Italy in 1983 to work at the I.de.A Institute and in the Turin atelier he worked on the design of five Fiat Group models built on the same platform to lower production costs. The request of the leaders of the Piedmontese colossus is to create five completely different cars and Spada succeeds perfectly by creating the Fiat Tipo (1988), the Lancia Dedra (1989), the Fiat Tempra (1990), the Alfa Romeo 155 (1992) and the second generation of the Lancia Delta (1993). In 1992 he returns to Zagato and makes the Ferrari FZ93, a dream car with the mechanics of the Ferrari Testarossa.
The passion for the automotive is handed down from father (Ercole) to son (Paolo). In fact, since his birth in 1970 Paolo Spada grew up in an extremely creative environment, so much so that he attended the course of Transportation Design at IED - Istituto Europeo di Design - and above all he founded the Spadaconcept studio in 2007. Together they designed the Codatronca which in 2008 was officially presented at the Montecarlo Motor Show. The car is characterized by a clean cut of the tail (hence the name) and comes from an intuition on the aerodynamics applied to the vehicle.
MATITA D'ORO 2O17
The man who designed the first Aston Martin
Living talent with many years of experience have been the protagonists of the second edition of the award «Matita d'Oro» that in 2017 sent on the podium Ercole Spada - the designer who conceived the first Bmw that managed to surpass Mercedes sales - and dedicated the same award, this time in memory of Tom Tjarda, the father of the De Tomaso Pantera or the Chevrolet Corvette Swallow.
These were the first awards, punctuated by short films that told the story of four-wheel icons that made dream the many fans of engines in the room, then the awards to the «Timeless Design» awarded to a perky Giorgetto Giugiaro, Leonardo Fioravanti from whose magic trait came out none other than the Dino Ferrari and the F40 and Marcello Gandini who gave birth to the Lamborghini Miura and the Lancia Stratos.
The award ceremony was conducted by Piero Chiambretti who interviewed in his own way all the winners making the audience smile. And when he asked Giugiaro how it felt to have drawn the story, the man who invented the Panda - something more than a car - answered like a true Piedmontese: «Let’s not exaggerate, we have only designed boxes». The same elegant modesty also comes from Ercole Spada, who first had the courage to cut the tail of the cars and gave life to the Aston Martin that preceded the model driven by 007: «My career started with a stroke of luck at the bottom, I was only 23 years old when I was given the task of designing this wonderful car: I was asked how I was doing in drawing and I replied that sure, I was an ace», said the winner.
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