The third edition of the Special Versions International Competition organised by Berman, a leading designer and producer of bodywork components and original car accessories based in San Benedetto Po near Mantua, drew entries from around forty aspiring designers of various nationalities.
The selection process led to the designation of seven finalists for the three categories in contention – City Car, SUV e Sports Car – on the part of the jury, which consisted of Wolfgang Egger, head of the Alfa Romeo Style Centre, Vincenzo Matullo of Ferrari Technology, Robin Page, head of interiors design at Bentley, and Fulvio Cinti, editor of Auto & Design. The models the competitors had to work on were all production cars – Citroën C-Airplay Concept, Suzuki SX4, Volpe prototype, Toyota Urban SUV, Land Rover Discovery 3, Alfa Romeo 161 Sportwagon – and the brief was to re-design them as special vehicles.
Three winners were proclaimed by Prof. Roberto Artioli, chief executive of Berman and creator of the competition. City Car: Scott Paterson, British, 28, from Manchester Metropolitan University for the proposal Citroën C-Airplay; SUV: Vlad Kohut, Canadian, 20, from Mohawk College (Canada) for the Toyota UrbanSUV project; Sports Car: Miroslav Dimitrov, Bulgarian, 22, from Automotive Design Coventry University, for the Alfa Romeo 161 Sportwagon project.
The special merit plaques offered by competition sponsor Auto & Design were awarded to Tibor Juhasz Pecoraio, Hungarian, 25, from the Istituto d’Arte Applicata e Design of Turin for his special interpretation of the Volpe prototype, and to the Mexican Odin Pardo Reyes, 24, from Industrial Design EAEM Mexico for his personalisation study of the Land Rover Discovery 3.
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 161
