- It’s available as a barchetta and with a removable targa top.
- The modern Runabout uses a Lotus chassis.
- Power comes from a supercharged Toyota V6 engine.
- The manual gearbox features a gated shifter.
It’s been a little over a year since Bertone gave us a first taste of the modernized Runabout. The sports car is now ready for production and comes in two distinct body styles. While the initial preview focused on the roofless barchetta version, we can now admire the targa model, which adds a proper windshield and a removable roof.
A design tribute to the late Marcello Gandini’s 1969 Autobianchi A112 Runabout concept, the revival ditches its Fiat roots for a Lotus chassis. It’s not built on an existing car but rather on a brand-new extruded and bonded aluminum platform purchased from a supplier and customized by Bertone. Combined with carbon-fiber body panels, the sports car weighs just 2,330 pounds (1,057 kilograms), or about as much as a Miata.
Coincidentally, the new Runabout is also about as big as Mazda’s popular sports car, measuring 157 inches (3990 millimeters). However, Bertone’s retro-flavored machine sits much lower to the ground, at just 43.9 inches (1116 millimeters). It’s 3.5 inches (91 millimeters) wider at the back than at the front and rides on forged aluminum wheels in a staggered setup: 18 inches up front with 225/40 ZR18 tires and 19 inches at the rear with 295/30 ZR19 rubber.
Photo by: Bertone
Much like Lotus uses Toyota engines, the new Bertone Runabout borrows its heart from the Japanese automaker in the form of the familiar 3.5-liter V6. Rather than being naturally aspirated, the six-cylinder mounted behind the seats is supercharged, boosting output to 475 hp and 361 pound-feet (490 Nm) of torque.
Power is sent to the rear wheels through a six-speed, close-ratio manual gearbox featuring a lovely gated shifter. This hardware setup enables a sprint to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 4.1 seconds and a top speed of 168 mph (270 km/h). Other technical highlights include a double-wishbone suspension with adjustable dampers and anti-roll bars.
The styling is a nod to the Fiat X1/9, a production sports car inspired by the A112 Runabout concept. Marcello Gandini’s iconic wedge shapes, which defined his work in the 1960s and 1970s, are very much alive in this new open-air barchetta and targa duo. The former is clearly the most faithful interpretation of the original, but the latter’s carbon roof was designed to preserve the wedge theme as much as possible.
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Source: Bertone
Motor1’s Take: It’s always refreshing to see a new two-seater sports car in a sea of increasingly dull vehicles. Even if, for most of us, it’s nothing more than wallpaper for a phone or computer, it’s great to see a formidable tribute to the wedge era. Any new car with pop-up headlights is an instant favorite, though it makes us wonder how it manages to pass modern pedestrian safety regulations.
The new Runabout stays faithful to the original without overplaying the retro card. While the underpinnings don’t necessarily justify the lofty asking price, Bertone likely won’t have any trouble finding 25 customers.
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