Collectors & Aficionados
Scaglietti and Barris
The article explores the contrasting careers and legacies of two automotive icons, George Barris and Sergio Scaglietti, who made significant contributions to the car design industry in America and Italy, respectively.
Is George Barris or Sergio Scaglietti the better known? Before answering, it is worth asking why we asked this question: Sergio Scaglietti is the author of some of the world’s most coveted cars. He worked out of his workshop in Modena during the 1950s before Enzo Ferrari bought him and the small, precious atelier that still bears his name to this day.
During the same period in America, George Barris transformed cars salvaged at West Coast scrapyards in his workshop at 11811 Riverside Drive, North Hollywood, making radical changes to their lines, colours and mechanics, starting that very interesting phenomenon known the world across as the Hot Rod. Ferraris had hot camshafts or ‘rods’ by nature. Hot Rods, on the other hand came about by modifying large American V8 engines for faster speed, again, sourced at the scrapyard.
Barris’s talent came from his ability to reinterpret outdated forms of production cars, such as this Mercury, lowering the roof, accentuating the shapes and choosing surprising colours.
