Sergio Sartorelli

Sergio Sartorelli (Alessandria, 7 May 1928 – Torino, 28 November 2009) was an influential Italian automotive designer and engineer. During his career he worked at Carrozzeria Ghia, OSI, and finally Fiat. He is known for his work on Fiat 2300 S Coupé, Karmann Ghia Type 34., and the Fiat 126

As a young teen Sartorelli had a passion for cars, trucks, trains, and even military vehicles. To mentally escape the depth of World War II he spent his time filling school notebooks with sketches and building scale wooden models of cars.

After the war he earned a degree in mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin in 1954 which was followed by 18 months of Military Service in as a cartographer. Even during his military service he able to do some sketch work for Carrozzeria Boano.

After his military service ended he was turned down by Boano and Pininfarina, but in 1956 was hired by Ing. Giovanni Savonuzzi at Ghia.

Sergio Sartorelli's rise at Ghia was swift by 1957, when the Ing. Savonuzzi left the Ghia for Chrysler, Sartorelli became Head of the Style Prototypes. Sartorelli's rise came to a halt with the sudden and unexpected death of Luigi Segre, owner and chief stylist of Carrozzeria Ghia.

Officine Stampaggi Industriali (OSI) was set up as a parallel and complimentary company to Ghia and it was part owned by Luigi Segre. With the death of Segre the partnership disappeared and OSI was left with no styling department. After two years of a freelance relationship with Michelotti, OSI set up its own styling department called Centro Stile e Esperienze OSI, and appointed Sergio Sartorelli as its director. This arrangement lasted from 1965 until December 1967 when OSI reorganized.

In 1968 what was left of Centro Stile e Esperienze OSI, became the Future Studies department at Centro Stile Fiat with Sergio Sartorelli as its head, it was entrusted with the study of design, automotive development, and modeling of prototypes for Fiat. By 1984 with the car market in crisis Fiat let Sergio Sartorelli go.

A sortable list of vehicles that Sergio Sartorelli either designed, contributed to, or oversaw:

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Wikipedia