The Golden Age of Italian Fuoriserie: Coachbuilt Dreams of the 1950s
Italy in the 1950s was a place where wrecked roads and rationed fuel couldn’t stop a design revolution. Post-war Italians approached car design with the same gusto they applied to opera and espresso – loud, passionate, and utterly original. The result was the birth of the fuoriserie movement, a golden age of custom-built cars crafted by master carrozzieri (coachbuilders) that turned everyday chassis into rolling art. This was the era when a humble Fiat could don a bespoke suit of aluminum and when driving your one-of-a-kind coupe to the local café made you a minor celebrity. In this long-form road trip through history, we’ll explore how Italy’s coachbuilders redefined automotive artistry in the ’50s, blending technical innovation with cultural flair in a way that was as humorous and engaging as it was groundbreaking.