“That’s why we brought back pop-up headlights,” designer Andrea Mocellin responded, attaching a very modern engineering concept to a very old school styling technique that nearly vanished in new cars.
The fact that the Bertone Runabout is production-ready is a reminder that “retro” does not necessarily mean kit-car nostalgia. It is a low, small, wedge-shaped two-seater that intentionally bases itself on the 1969 concept of the Autobianchi A112 Runabout, but in modern construction, modern power and a logic of packaging the throwback details seem both justified. Bertone will also make it in two variations: a targa, with an actual windshield and a removable carbon roof panel, and a roofless barchetta.
There is nothing like it is constructed upon a donor car, and this is the largest tell of the Runabout under the carbon-fiber skin. Bertone employs a bonded aluminum base that was provided by a vendor specializing in it and then remodeled into the project, effectively repeating the same approach of the lightweight playbook that made small sports cars feel alive to begin with. The outcome is a curb weight of 2,330 pounds (1,057 kg), combined with a small size, 157 inches in length and only 43.9 inches tall, and as such, the car feels more of a scaled, modernized concept than a retro costume shoehoused onto a modern crash frame. The position also aids, as it is broader in the rear than the noses, and even carries an irregular wheel and tire arrangement, 18-inch wide in front and 19-inch wide in the rear.
The engine selection is of the same pragmatic romance. Similar to Lotus, Bertone uses Toyota-proven 3.5 liter V6, however, this is supercharged to 475 hp and 361 lb-ft (490 Nm) and is located behind the seats and directed to the rear like a six-speed manual. The first detail fanatics will pick up quickly is the gated shifter, a mechanical indicator that the Runabout seems to be carefully analog and not merely “limited-run.” Bertone will record 0-62 mph in 4.1 seconds, and a top speed of 168 mph with support of double-wishbone suspension using adjustable dampers and anti-roll bars.
The eyecatcher is Pop-up headlights, although the rationale behind its significance in this context is proportion. Mocellin referred to the sharp nose as the defining feature of the car, and the pop-ups are the hardware that makes it possible: a clean daytime running light line in the closed configuration, and the main beams just emerging when required. That is also a wink to why pop-ups were effective at all – designers used to have secret lamps to maintain low and flat bodywork without violating headlamp-height regulations.
The problem today is not so much in the legality but the complexity of the compliance. The pop-ups themselves are not illegal, but current requirements of pedestrians colliding with them have driven the front ends to more difficult to reconcile with moving headlamp mechanisms shapes and structures. And add to this the reliability baggage the old systems have built, motors, linkages, misalignment, it is plain why most large manufacturers do not bother.
What is more interesting about the achievement of the Runabout is that it regards those constraints as an element of the design job, rather than as an after-thought. Mocellin emphasized a process built on “principles rather than styling alone,” with functional elements cooling inlets, outlets, aero management pushed into the darker lower section so the upper body can stay clean and sculptural. It is how a boat-inspired concept of the 1960s turns into a mobile object that has contemporary heat control, contemporary demands and a shape that still resembles something that was pulled out of a Turin exhibition stand.
