The Alfa Romeo Gloria concept will be showcased at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show on 5 March 2013. The Gloria concept was developed by the European Design Institute (IED) of Turin with the assistance of the Alfa Romeo Style Centre where young car designers were tasked with ‘conceiving an Alfa Romeo saloon to communicate to the American and Asian markets’.

Alfa Romeo Gloria concept comes to life

The Alfa Romeo Gloria concept is 4.7 metres long, 1.92 metres wide and 1.32 metres tall with a wheelbase of 2.9 metres. The sports saloon features lines running the length of the vehicle towards the rear and would be powered by either a V6 or V8 turbo engine, according to Alfa Romeo. While the bonnet evokes the Alfa Romeo shield through the lines of the car, highlighting its 3-D form, the leather strips at the front are reminders of the leather straps used for the luggage compartments of the brand’s historic cars.

The Alfa Romeo Gloria concept is a result of the work of 20 students on the Master programme from Italy and other countries. The Alfa Romeo Centre provided the brief for the concept and twenty design proposals were presented as 1:4-scale clay models. The model that corresponded most closely to the brief was chosen. The class, divided into groups, then set out to work on the final project, in full scale.

“The possibility of developing a concept car in collaboration with the Alfa Romeo Style that we were offered was a great opportunity to demonstrate that the IED is, first of all, an Italian school that aims to generate beauty,” states César Mendoza, Director of IED, Turin. “What better brand than Alfa Romeo to teach our students how form and volume can convey strong emotions, fuelling the desire to design a car. The passion that the brand evokes had a powerful impact on the students and teaching staff, allowing them to push themselves within tight deadlines to achieve the final delivery of a project which was unquestionably complex. Today, the European Design Institute is proud to represent Italian teaching excellence internationally.”

Interactive display for Alfa Romeo Gloria Concept

The model will be reproduced on an iPad in a virtual environment where interaction with the concept will be possible by choosing between five models of rims and five body colours. The five rims are a result of a teaching project developed in collaboration with OZ Racing, who sponsored Gloria’s 20-inch rims, and asked Master students to design a series of proposals, where the best five rims were chosen for interactivity. The five rims will also feature in a talent contest that will be launched by IED and OZ Racing at the Geneva Motor Show via an app to decide on the winning project.