The Bertone Nuccio, the Design House’s Oddball Swan Song, Can Be Yours
This strange-looking concept car was inspired by the iconic Lancia Stratos Zero and features a Ferrari F430 powertrain.
The Bertone Nuccio was the coachbuilder’s final creation before it filed for bankruptcy in 2015, and it is now up for auction via RM Sotheby’s.
The Nuccio’s unorthodox, wedge-style bodywork tried to emulate the Lancia Stratos Zero but wasn’t exactly successful in mimicking that car’s dramatic lines.
Under the awkward surface, the Nuccio is fully functional thanks to the V-8 and six-speed gearbox from a Ferrari F430.
All good things must come to an end. Bertone, the Italian coachbuilder responsible for automotive masterpieces such as the Lamborghini Miura, Lancia Stratos, and Alfa Romeo BAT series, filed for bankruptcy in 2015, ending over a century of design excellence. (The company has since been revived, but without involvement from the Bertone family.) But before the brand’s demise, Bertone cranked out one last concept to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The Bertone Nuccio was an odd-looking swan song for the company, but its unusual bodywork is wrapped around Ferrari internals, and the concept is now up for auction via RM Sotheby’s.
Named for Nuccio Bertone, the son of founder Giovanni, the concept was reportedly inspired by the legendary 1970 Lancia Stratos Zero. While the Nuccio certainly attempts to mimic the wedge shape of the Stratos Zero, its lines don’t flow as smoothly, and it doesn’t achieve the same impossibly low, flat silhouette, the rear end sitting taller than the front, and the length of the windshield and A-pillars looking awkwardly long.
There aren’t a ton of great angles for the Nuccio, but it does have some eye-catching details, like the organic cutouts that look like the veins on a leaf and adorn the front bumper, side sills, rear wing, and bodywork behind the side windows. The orange roof wears a geometric pattern and envelopes the cabin like a tent, and the full-width headlight also serves as a forward-facing brake light, illuminating blue under deceleration to alert pedestrians ahead that the Nuccio is slowing down.
The build process took Bertone three and a half months, with all of the work completed in-house. The Nuccio was initially shown at the 2012 Geneva auto show as a static display, before the company completed a separate working Nuccio to present at the 2012 Beijing auto show.
This drivable Nuccio had a couple of differences, most notably a set of headlights above the main, full-width light bar that look suspiciously similar to the headlights on the Ferrari F430. That’s because the Nuccio’s powertrain came from the F430, with a mid-mounted 4.3-liter V-8 paired with a six-speed Graziano automated manual gearbox operated via column-mounted shift paddles. The windshield was also widened and fitted with a single wiper.
Bertone filed for bankruptcy three years later, making the Nuccio the final Bertone-designed car. The company tried to find a buyer for the functional Nuccio when it was shown at auto shows, but failed, perhaps due to the unorthodox styling. It sat in storage until an array of Bertone’s assets were auctioned off in 2018, and was acquired by a private owner who has kept it in his collection since.
The odometer shows roughly 18,099 miles, although the listing notes that most of this mileage was from the donor Ferrari F430. The Nuccio is certainly not the prettiest design, but its status as the final true Bertone creation makes it an interesting piece of history. Plus, this oddity packs a glorious 483-hp Ferrari V-8 engine and is truly unique. RM Sotheby’s estimates that the Nuccio will fetch up to around $585,000 at current exchange rates.