Machimoto

Retaining the car's mechanical layout, floor-pan/platform concept, stability and safety, it uses the motorcycle's system of sitting a-stride a long saddle and offers the sensation of riding in the open air. Giugiaro tried to combine the strong points of a motorcycle with the advantages of cars. Critics claimed the opposite: he summed up the shortcomings of both in a single vehicle. With youths as his target, Giugiaro sought to devise a vehicle that might help young people get together: not the customary two seats (or the euphemistic 2+2) of the dune-buggies, but comfortable accomodations for six or, squeezing tight, even up to nine passengers. Machimoto is the outcome of extensive and painstaking research. At its official presentation at the 1986 Turin Motor Show, the Machimoto met with praise as well as lots of criticism. Some said that this time Giugiaro had really gone too far and missed the target. On the contrary, Machimoto achieved two important effects. Shaking off some of the "mental laziness" that afflicts the automotive world by demonstrating that there is still some room for unconventional, highly innovative, even exaggerated vehicles. And showing that Giugiaro, now nearly fifty, still possesses a refreshingly creative mind that puts him at the forefront of avant-garde car design.