Chevrolet Testudo

The Chevrolet Testudo is a concept car that Bertone built on a shortened Chevrolet Corvair Monza platform, named for the Latin word for turtle. General Motors styling chief Bill Mitchell wanted locally styled Corvairs to promote sales in Europe, and in late 1962 a 1962 Corvair 900 coupe reached Bertone, where its wheelbase was cut from 108 to 94 inches. Giorgetto Giugiaro, then at Bertone, designed it in two months as a smooth blend of plan and side views, with a single front-hinged canopy and a shell-like body line. It debuted at the 1963 Geneva Motor Show, kept the rear-mounted air-cooled flat-six of the Corvair, and later influenced the Lamborghini Miura and AMC Pacer. A 1965 crash left it damaged, it was restored in the early 1990s and sold in 2011 for 336,000 euros.