East-West: marketing and passion

The relationship between the East and the West has changed many times over the centuries: the differences in culture has influenced tastes and reference models. With the automobile, European design has been and represents a constant reference for Japanese manufacturers, just remember Giugiaro, who designed the Pony, the first mass-produced Hyundai, or Pininfarina, whose HP-X project developed for Honda gave birth to the NSX. Soon western charm was joined by marketing which led brands such as Kia, Hyundai, Mazda, Honda and Nissan to open design centres in Europe and the United States.

In 1984 Ferrari produced this Berlinetta for Group B racing. The changes in the sporting regulations transformed the 288 GTO into the symbol of precious limited edition cars.

In addition to pure design, marketing has always been drawn towards the brand image opportunities, aside from the business opportunities, of producing limited series models with high profit margins and potential value growth over time. Among the very first of these is arguably the 1984 Ferrari 288 GTO, designed to race in Group B and modified for road use after the racing regulations changed. Just 272 were produced and prices are now sky high. Or the 1993 McLaren F1 produced in just over 100 examples, far fewer than expected, which now breaks records at auctions, clearly demonstrating how right Gordon Murray’s design vision was.