Polyphony Digital has received another high-profile guest to its offices as legendary car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro dropped into the Tokyo HQ, leading to some speculation as to the nature of his visit.
Studio head Kazunori Yamauchi revealed the visitor on his social media channels, as Giugiaro — from whose pen a significant number of well-known cars, both in Gran Turismo and otherwise — was treated to a tour of the offices, along with his son and fellow car designer Fabrizio.
The duo, who together head up their own design consultancy GFG Style, were in Japan for the 10th annual Automobile Council event, at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba — at which the elder Giugiaro’s legacy was celebrated with an exhibition of ten famous vehicles.
Yamauchi shared a number of images from the visit, some of which lit the fires of speculation on our forums as the Giugiaros toured the Gran Turismo studios.
One shot in particular shows Giorgetto Giugiaro surrounded by models and sketches of some of his famous designs, as well as some books on the subject of his work, and even some of the cameras that he’s designed.
Giugiaro senior appears to be signing the hood of a 1:18 scale model of a Lotus Esprit Turbo — which looks to be a KK Model diecast from the 1981 James Bond caper For Your Eyes Only — setting thoughts back towards the manufacturer’s long absence from the Gran Turismo series. Sadly there’s been no further information on the impasse that saw Lotus disappear from the final version of Gran Turismo Sport, having been available in the game’s public beta.
Elsewhere on the table we see books such as “Giugiaro Design II: From Express Train to Earring” by Akira Fujimoto, highlighting the broad spread of vehicles and objects created by Giugiaro over the last 70 years, a design sketch of the original FIAT Panda concept from 1974, what appears to be a model kit for a 1969 Mazda Luce R130 Coupe, and some very rarely seen Gran Turismo Hint Trading Cards.
As part of the tour, PD also showed Giorgetto Giugiaro a 3D model of one of his designs that features in Gran Turismo 7, the De Tomaso Mangusta, with the designer quoted as saying he’d “wish this kind of technology had existed” back in his busiest era. In later images the pair can be seen behind the virtual wheel too.
Aside from the relative proximity of the Makuhari Messe to Polyphony Digital’s offices — a straightforward, 30-minute trip according to Google Maps — the purpose of the Giugiaros’ visit to the home of Gran Turismo is a little unclear.
It could be that there’s some business behind the trip, with GFG Style being very much an active company right now and likely able to licence its own designs. It recently produced a one-off supercar called the Peralta S for Mexican car collector Carlos Peralta, designed by Fabrizio and inspired by Giorgetto’s Maserati Boomerang concept from 1971, based on the current MC20.
On the other hand it may be that it was simply a chance for two figure highly regarded in the automotive sphere to meet up in person. We’ll hopefully learn more, if it’s the former, in due course.
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