1970 Porsche Tapiro

[Jonathan]

Anyone ever heard of this one before? I hadn't until a recent ODOC newsletter (thanks PartsPit!). Look familiar? And you wonder how long he had the DMC's styling in mind prior to 1981. This Porsche concept was out 10+ years before the DeLorean. Anyway, thought the pictures were kind of neat. Enjoy!

http://www.carstyling.ru/ru/car/1970_porsche_tapiro/

1196

[fnzen]

Thats freakin wild!

Gotta love those girls too!

[Michael]

Love those designs, got to save that one for my "Deloreanesque" car file.

[SIMid]

So unlike Porsche design wise. Looks cool though, very 70s.

Still think the closest replica to a Delorean would be the Lancia Montecarlo (or Scorpion in the US).

[Jacko]

The sharp nose on the Tapiro is remarkably similar to the '72 Pantera I had that was also designed by Ghia.
I have always admired those sharp nosed flying wedges and The Delorean would be killer with such a front end.
Of course in 1974, I believe, US bumper standards changed thereby making such a front end impossible on the D ... would have looked good though.

Edit: Perhaps some enterprising forum member with Photoshop skills could put the front of a Tapiro on the D ... or I may have one of the designers at MMG do it monday.

[nofear365]

From a Jalopnik archive:

It was 1970 and a young Giorgetto Giugiaro had joined Ital Design and, as his fourth concept car, produced the Porsche Tapiro. The Tapiro was based on the Porsche 914/6 but managed to break all of the Porsche molds.

It featured gull wing doors up front with a radical cut line around the windshield, and matching gull wings over the cargo area. The car had a longitudinally mounted air-cooled 2.4 liter flat 6 good for 220 HP and a 4 speed manual. Though it never really was intended for production, it's got all those great Italian styling elements from the era - wedge shape, enough glass for a dolphin aquarium, scant use of chrome, and plenty of nice geometrically shaped air ducting. If BMW wants to play around with styling elements of the seventies, they should feel free, just as long as they don't forget the stuff that was actually cool.